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V 


MEMOIRS  OF  THE  LIVES 


EOBERT  HALDANB  OF  AIRTHREY, 


AND  OF  HIS  BROTHER, 


JAMES  ALEXANDER  HALDANE. 


BY  ALEXANDER  HALDANE,  ESQ., 


"  Then  li  ne  nun  llut  hub  lift  bouie,  « Imnili,  tbt  my  ukt,  lod  tht  Oapel'a,  bul  ht 

1^1  irrci'c  in  hundndrbld  no*  in  tbli  tbos,  vlth  pcnairutlaii uil  in  the  world 

1  came  Menu)  lire."  Ma>i  i.  M.  M.—Src  JMrm  laUuPuNIi  in  ItWI,  ^^  R.  Baliane. 


mntj  hin  (Mlovwl  ma  ill  the  difi  of  my  life ;  ud  wllhout  tb(  ihtdciv  of  bnutlng,  I 
an  idd,  I  ihill  dwril  In  llw  houn  oC  ibe  Lord  fn  mt."—Siinici  from  ■  LHUt  o) 
J.  A.  BaUant,  Dtambtr  91, 1810. 


LOiroOH; 

HAMILTON,  ADAMS,  AND  C0„  PATERNOSTER-ROW  j 

AND  W.  WHYTB  AND  CO.,  BDINBUROH. 

1852. 


ALRXANDBR  MACINTOSH, 

PRINTER, 
GRKAT  NEW-IITREBT.  LONDON. 


PREFACE. 


Ok  the  death  of  Mr.  Hobert  Ualdane  in  December, 
1842,  a  very  strong  desire  was  in  many  quarters 
expressed  for  a  memob*  of  his  remarkable  career. 
There  were,  however,  several  objections  to  an  imme- 
diate publication.  It  appeared  that  if  a  record  of  his 
life  were  calculated  to  be  generally  useful,  and  not 
merely  designed  to  attract  an  ephemeral  interest,  it  would 
be  better,  in  regard  to  some  of  the  scenes  in  which 
he  had  been  engaged,  to  await,  at  least  for  a  few 
years,  the  mellowing  influence  of  time.  Besides,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  record  hia  life  without 
blending  with  it  that  of  his  then  surviving  brother, 
as  they  had  been  uniformly  associated  together  in 
nearly  all  of  their  plans  and  operations  for  the  diffiision 
of  the  Gospel.  The  death  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Hatdane,  in 
February,  1851,  and  the  lapse  of  more  than  nine  years, 


IV  PREFACE. 

have  removed  the  chief  of  these  objections.  The  desire 
for  a  Memoir  has  been  renewed,  and  it  is  now  committed 
to  the  Christian  pubUc. 

The  compiler  is  not  insensible  to  the  dehcacy  of  his 
position,  as  the  biographer  of  relatives  so  greatly  beloved 
and  revered.  But  if  his  position  has  its  disadvantages, 
these  are  not  without  compensation.  No  stranger  could 
so  well  delineate  their  character,  or,  at  all  events,  detail 
the  facts  of  their  lives,  as  one  who  from  childhood 
enjoyed  their  intimacy  and  confidence  ;  whilst  a 
close  and  continuous  correspondence  for  nearly  thirty 
years,  in  connexion  with  all  their  plans,  works,  and 
writings,  together  with  the  possession  of  niunerous 
other  letters  and  documents,  extending  over  a  period 
embracing  the  whole  of  their  career,  must  afford  more 
than  ordinary  means  for  illustrating  their  motives,  their 
opinions,  and  their  acts. 

It  will  require  no  recondite  skill  in  criticism  to  detect 
in  these  Memoirs  many  imperfections,  some  of  which 
will  be  attributed  by  the  candid  reader  to  the  circum- 
stances under  which  they  have  been  written,  at  intervals 
snatched  from  the  continuous  engagements  of  pro- 
fessional pursuits.  Amongst  these  imperfections  will  be 
found  two  or  three  unimportant  repetitions  in  the  use 
of  documents  available  for  different  parts  of  the  nar- 
rative. 

If,  however,  the  work  shaU  in  any  measiu'e  present 
the  two  brothers  such  as  they  were  in  faith  and  love 


PREFACE. 


and  zeal,  it  will  have  answered  its  design,  and  may, 
it  is  hoped,  tend  to  promote  the  glory  of  God  by 
stimulating  others  to  follow  their  example  in  so  far 
as  they  followed  Christ. 


ERRATA, 

Page  17,  line  10  from  the  bottom,  for  "  Strathbran^'  road  **  Strath- Tay.'* 

Pago  87,  line  13  from  top,  for  ** described,**  read  " cherished** 

Page  130,  line  7  from  the  bottom,  for  "  glozing  q/'affectation,"  read  "  glozing 

affectation.** 

Page  188,  in  the  note,  for  *<  the  laie  Admiral,**  road  "  Admiral  Sir  Charles.** 
Page  208,  line  11  from  top,  for  "  Mr,  James  Haldane,'*  read  "  Mrs,  James 

Haldane.** 
Page  260,  line  4  from  top,  and  note  at  the  bottom   of  the  page,  for 

"  Strathers,**  read  "  Struihers.** 
Page  873, 18  lines  from  top,  for  "  flinging  a  golden  sceptre,**  read  "  flinging 

OKMiy.*' 

Page  449,  line  8,  delo  "  the  offer  of.** 

Page  504,  line  12  from  bottom,  for  **  uncompromising"  read  "  compromising. 

Page  660,  line  6  from  top,  for  "  1742,**  read  "  1745. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

P»g« 
Their  Birth — Oleneagles — ^Anecdotes  and  Early  Characteristics       .      16 

CHAPTER  n. 

[1780—1794.] 

Robert  Haldane  joins  the  Monarch — ^Action  between  the  Foudroyant 
and  Pegase— Lord  St.  Vincent's  Prediction — Influence  of  Dr. 
Bogue — Loss  of  the  Koyal  George — Relief  of  Gibraltar — Chase 
of  the  Leocadia — Sails  to  Newfoundland — Quits  the  Navy — 
Tour  of  Europe — His  Marriage — ^Improvements  at  Airtbrey — 
Anecdotes 28 

CHAPTER  lU. 

[1785—1795.] 

James  Haldane  joins  the  Duke  of  Montrose — ^East  India  Ships— 
Anecdotes — Religious  Impressions — Conviviality  of  the  times — 
Duel— Anecdotes — The  Contrast — Appointed  to  command  the 
Melville  Castle — ^Marriage — Sir  Ralph  Abercromby — ^Detention 
of  the  Indian  Fleet — Quells  the  Mutiny  on  board  the  Dutton — 
Begins  to  study  the  Bible — Quits  the  Melville  Castle — ^Death  of 
his  Father-in-law — Goes  to  Edinburgh 45 


Vm  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

[1794—96.] 

P»ge 
"  Grasps  at  a  Shadow,  catches  the  Substance  ** — Effects  of  the  French 

ReTolution  on  Robert  Haldane — ^Freeholders'  Meeting  at  Stir- 
ling— Conferences  with  Ministers  near  Airthrey— Studies  the 
Evidences  of  Christianity — Progress  of  the  Change — Conversa- 
tion with  a  pious  Stonemason 79 

CHAPTER  V. 

[1795—98.] 

Robert  Haldane  plans  a  Mission  to  Bengal — Determines  to  sell 
Airthrey — His  intended  Associates,  Dr.  Bogue,  Dr.  Innes,  and 
Mr.  Ewing— Other  Preparations — Benares — ^Visits  Dr.  Bogue^ — 
Applies  for  Consent  of  the  East  India  Company — Letters  to 
Mr.  Secretary  Dundas — Errors  in  the  Life  of  Mr.  Wilberforce — 
Disclaims  Politics — Interviews  with  Members  of  the  Govern- 
ment — Mr.  Wilberforce — Bishop  Porteus*  Approval — Refusal  of 
the  Court  of  Directors — Further  Applications — Meetings  at  Mr. 
Newton's — Letter  to  Mr.  Campbell — Final  abandonment  of  the 
Design 94 

CHAPTER  VI. 

[1796—97.] 

Introduction  to  Mr.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Aikman — State  of  Religion 
in  Scotland  at  the  end  of  the  Eighteenth  Century — Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane's  Tour  with  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon — ^Visit  to  Rev. 
A.  Stewart,  of  Moulin — ^Important  Results — Accident  to  Mr. 
Simeon— Return  to  Edinburgh— Letter  of  Mr.  Simeon — Death 
of  Colonel  Duncan,  of  Lundie — Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  first  Plans 
of  Usefulness — ^Distribution  of  Tracts — Sabbath  Schools — Lay 
Preaching  at  Gilmerton — ^Tour  to  the  West  of  Scotland — Sixty 
Sabbath  Schools  founded — Preaching  at  Gilmerton — ^Dr.  Charles 
Stuart — ^Miss  Aikman's  Letter — ^Approval  of  Mr.  Simeon         .     122 


CONTENTS.  IX 


CHAPTER  VIL 

[1797.] 

Page 
Mr.  James  Haldane*8  first  Tour  through  the  North  of  Scotland  and 

the  Orkneys  in  1797— Prajer  Meeting  at  the  Bey.  Mr.  Black's 
— ^Lay  Preaching — Leaves  Edinburgh  on  the  12th  July — Letter 
from  Banff— Aberdeen — Magisterial  Interference — ^Preaching  at 
Banff— Its  Effects — State  of  Beligion  in  the  Orkneys — Conver- 
sion of  an  old  Man  of  ninety-two — ^Preaches  to  Crowds  at 
Kirkwall — ^Accident  to  Mr.  Aikman—Blessing  on  Mr.  J.  Hal- 
dane's  Labours  in  Caithness — Letter  of  Mrs.  M*Neil»  of  Elgin — 
Battle  of  Camperdown  —  State  of  Religion  at  Inverness — 
Conclusion 161 


CHAPTER  Vin. 

[1797—98.] 

Effects  of  the  Tour  of  1797 — Discussions  as  to  Lay  Preaching — 
Letters  from  Mr.  Simeon — Mr.  Simeon's  second  Visit  to  Scot- 
land— ^Tour  in  the  West  and  South  of  Scotland  in  1798 — 
Meeting  with  Bev.  Rowland  Hill — Mr.  Haldane  induces  Mr. 
Z.  Macaulay  to  bring  over  a  number  of  African  Children  from 
Sierra  Leone  to  be  educated 189 


CHAPTER  IX. 

[1798.] 

Mr.  Haldane  sells  his  paternal  estate — Correspondence  and  challenge 
of  Professor  Robison  —  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  opens  the  CSrcus — 
Preaches  to  immense  multitudes  on  the  Calton  Hill — Makes 
several  Tours — Returns  to  England  with  Mr.  Haldane — Corre- 
spondence with  Mr.  Macaulay  about  the  African  children — Mr. 
Rowland  Hill's  Journal 207 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

[1799.] 

Page 

Mr.  Haldane  plans  a  Seminary  for  the  education  of  Preachers— Plan 
for  erecting  places  of  worship,  to  be  called  Tabernacles,  in  the 
chief  towns  in  Scotland — ^Mr.  Ewing  resigns  his  post  as  a  minister 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland— Formation  of  the  Tabernacle  Church 
— Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  unanimously  solicited  to  become  the  Pastor 
— His  Ordination — Blessing  on  the  Tabernacle  preaching— Open- 
ing of  the  Glasgow  Circus — Mr.  Haldane's  classes,  or  seminaries 
for  preaching 230 


CHAPTER  XL 

[1799.] 

Opposition  to  the  new  plans — ^Pastoral  Admonition — Opposition  of 
Relief  Church  and  of  the  Anti-Burghers — Deposition  of  the  Rev. 
George  Cowie,  of  Huntley — Character  of  Mr.  Cowie — His  testi- 
mony to  Mr.  James  Haldane — Second  Tour  to  the  North,  joined 
by  Mr.  Innes  and  Mr.  Aikman — ^Visits  the  Orkneys  and  Shet- 
lands — Preaches  at  Fulah,  the  Ultima  Thule  of  the  Romans — 
Returns  to  Caithness — Inverness — Edinburgh  ....    253 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

[1799—1800.] 

Mr.  Haldane  attacked  by  the  "Anti- Jacobin  Review'* — Mr.  Haldane's 
"  Address  on  Politics  " — Views  of  the  dutj'  of  Christians  as  to 
politics,  similar  to  those  of  Joseph  Milner — Mr.  Pitt's  threatened 
measure  to  put  down  unlicensed  preaching — Preparations  for  Tour 
in  1800— Mr.  J.  Haldane  visits  Arran  and  Kintyre  with  Mr. 
Campbell — Arrested  and  sent  to  the  Sheriff,  under  an  escort  of 
Volunteers — Important  result  of  the  Tour — Dr.  Lindsay  Alex- 
ander's sketch  of  Mr.  J.  Haldane's  character    ....    273 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  XUI. 

[1799—1801.] 

Page 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  labours — ^Rev.  Andrew  Fuller— Mr.  R.  Haldane's 
First  Sermon — Anecdote  of  Sermon  at  Stilton — Opening  of 
the  Edinburgh  Tabernacle — Mr.  Aikman*s  Chapel— Labours  at 
Dumfries — Tour  in  Ireland — Mr.  Buchanan — Rev.  Thomas  Scott 
— Catherine  Haldane — Domestic  Character — Captain  Gardner — 
Death  of  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby 292 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

[1802—3.] 

Mr.  James  Haldane  visits  Buxton— Accompanied  by  a  Clergyman — 
Preaches  at  Macclesfield,  Castleton,  Matlock,  &c. — ^Revival  in 
Breadalbane — Tour,  in  1803,  from  Edinburgh  to  the  Orkney 
Islands — Tour  to  Berwick,  Alnwick,  Carlisle,  Dumfries,  and 
Glasgow — Mr.  Fuller's  Second  Journey— Groundless  Rumour — 
Mr.  Haldane's  Economy — His  Seminaries        ....    314 

CHAPTER  XV. 

[1804—5.] 

Mr.  James  Haldane  preaches  on  the  Death  of  Lord  Camelford,  and 
on  Duelling — Mr.  James  Haldane  visits  Buxton  and  Dublin— 
Preaches  in  the  Bethesda  Chapel — Mr.  Walker,  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College — Mr.  James  Haldane  goes  to  London— Death  of  Admiral 
Lord  Duncan — Tour  to  Breadalbane,  Inverness,  Caithness,  &c.     333 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

[1799—1810.] 

Progressive  changes  the  resiilt  of  circumstances — Mr.  Ewing's  zeal 
for  Congregationalism,  and  Weekly  Fellowship  Meetings — Con- 
stitution of  Churches  at  Glasgow — ^Discussions  about  Church 
order — Apostolic  Practice  and  Baptism — Disruption  in  the  New 
Connexion  in  1808— Its  consequences — Controversy  with  Mr. 
Ewing — Anecdote  of  Dr.  Stuart  and  Lord  Brqugham — ^Letter 
from  Montauban— Sentiments  of  the  two  Brothers  on  Church 
Order 352 


Xll  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

[1810—19.] 

Page 
Mr.  Haldane  purchases  AuchiDgray  as  a  Country  Residence — His 

Improvements — Plans  for  the  Continent— Airdrie — "Evidences 

of  Christianity*' — Letters   of  Mr.  Hardcastle  and  Mr.  Hill — 

"  Edinburgh  Christian  Instructor** — Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  continues 

to  preach  in   the  villages  round  Edinburgh  —  Usefulness  at 

Portobello— Sir  David  Milne — Scene  at  North  Berwick — ^Visit 

to  Harrowgate  —  The   Highlands  —  Anecdote  —  Death  of  his 

Mother-in-law — Abercromby  Family — Captain  Gardner — Death 

of  Mrs.  J.  A.  Haldane 380 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

[1816-17.] 

Mr.  Haldane's  Visit  to  Paris— Geneva — ^Letter  to  Rev.  E.  Bickersteth 
— Glory  of  Geneva  in  the  Sixteenth  Century — ^Its  Apostasy — 
State  in  1816 — Mr.  Haldane's  successful  Labours — Testimony  of 
Dr.  Pye  Smith — Mr.  Haldane  expounds  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
to  the  Theological  Students — Letter  to  Professor  Cheneviere — 
Righteousness  of  God — Sovereignty  of  God — Views  of  Forbear- 
ance— Mr.  Rieu*s  Triumphant  Death — ^Excitement  at  Geneva — 
Dr.  Malan's  Conversion — His  Sermon — Conflict  at  Geneva — 
Remarkable  Conversion  of  nearly  all  of  the  Theological  Students 
— ^Persecution — Mr.  Haldane  prepares  to  quit  Geneva — Parting 
Advice — Arrival  of  Mr.  Henry  Drummond — His  Zeal — Conver- 
sion of  Dr.  Merle  D'Aubign6— M.  Gaussen's  Testimony  .    409 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

[1817—1823.] 

Mr.  Haldane  passes  through  Lyons  to  Montauban  —  French 
Commentary  on  the  Romans  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth — 
Montauban — ^M.  Encontrei  Second  Mathematician  in  France — 
M.  Bonnard,  Dean  of  the  Faculty — ^Low  State  of  Protestantism 
in  France — ^M.   Gachon — Mr.  Haldane's  Labours — Professor 


CONTENTS.  Xm 

Page 
Pradel — ^Anecdote  of  M.  De  Villele  and  Lord  Stuart  de  Rothsay 

— Continental  Society — Henri  Pyt — ConTersion  of  a  Pelagian 
Pastor — Mr.  Haldane  quits  Montauban — M.  Bonnard  accom- 
panies him  to  Paris — Joseph  Wolff — Letters  of  M.  Marzials — 
Testimonies  of  Dr.  Merle  D'Aubign6  and  M.  F.  Monod — Returns 
to  Scotland — Continental  Society — Visits  Ireland — Mr.  J.  E. 
Gordon — Account  of  Peter  Heaman,  executed  for  Piracy — Mr.  J. 
A.  Haldane's  Occupations — ^Testimonies  to  his  Usefulness — His 
Writings — "  Scripture  Magazine" — Revelation  of  God's  Righ- 
teousness— Strictures  on  Mr.  Walker  of  Dublin — Duel  between 
Sir  Alexander  Boswell  and  Mr.  Stuart  of  Duneam — Letter  of 
Rev.  Rowland  Hill 454 


CHAPTER  XX. 

[1821—26.] 

Importance  of  the  Apocrypha  Controversy  as  involving  the  Canon 
of  Scripture — Origin  of  the  Controversy  in  1821 — Failure  of  Mr. 
Haldane's  endeavour  to  obtain  an  amicable  adjustment — ^Inter- 
mingled Apocrypha — Rev.  John  Owen — Vacillating  conduct  of 
the  Committee — First  Edinburgh  Statement — Cambridge  Pro- 
test— Mr.  Simeon  and  Mr.  Gorham — Doubts  as  to  the  Sacred 
Canon — Mr.  Haldane's  first  Review — Toulouse  and  Montauban 
Bibles — Second  Edinburgh  Statement — Character  of  Dr.  Andrew 
Thomson — ^Dr.  Thomson  personally  attacked — Dr.  Steinkopff's 
Pamphlets — ^Mr.  Haldane's  second  Review — Hafi&ier's  Preface — 
M.  Bost — Foreign  Bible  Societies  oppose  the  Preachers  of  the 
Gospel — Dr.  Gordon's  Testimony — Letter  of  Mr.  Haldane       .    489 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

[1826— 1833.J 

Discussion  respecting  the  Canon  and  Inspiration  of  Scripture — ^Dr. 
Pye  Smith's  Defence  of  Dr.  Haffiier — Dr.  Carson's  Reply — Mr. 
Haldane  on  Inspiration — Extracts  from  Dr.  Carson— Professor 
Gauasen's  Theopneustia,  or  "  It  is  written  " — ^Progress  of  right 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Page 
views  on  Inspiration — Progressive  Reformation  of  the  Bible 

Society — Dismissal  of  Van  Ess — Anglicanus — Mr.   Haldane's 

Pamphlets — Dr.  Thomson's  Speech — His  Visit  to  PaulVcray — 

Deplores  the  prevailing  laxity  of  Christian  principle^ — ^Friendship 

between  Dr.  Thomson  and  the  two  Brothers    ....    524 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

[1828—1833.] 

Rise  of  Irvingism — ^Rev.  Edward  Irving — Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's 
Refutation  of  the  Erroneous  Doctrines — Discussion  with  Mr. 
Drummond — Dr.  Thomson's  Letters  as  to  the  Gift  of  Tongues — 
Mr.  J.  E.  Gordon — Death  of  Dr.  Thomson — His  Character  by 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  M*Crie — Dr.  Thomson's  Farewell  Speech 
— Captain  J.  E.  Gordon — Annual  Meeting  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  1831 — Institution  and  Failure  of  the 
Trinitarian  Bible  Society — Pamphlets  of  Rev.  J.  Scott — Mr. 
J.  J.  Gumey  and  others  answered  by  Mr.  Haldane — Mr.  Wilks 
accuses  Mr.  Haldane  of  being  the  author  of  a  furious  Theological 
war  in  Switzerland — Mr.  Haldane's  Answer — Character  of  Mr. 
Haldane's  Pamphlets — Progressive  purification  of  the  Bible 
Society — Mr.  Bickersteth's  Motion — Good  effects  of  the  Con- 
troversy   543 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

[1824—1833.] 

Theological  Seminary  in  Paris — Publication  addressed  to  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Wilson — Preparation  of  his  ''Exposition  of  Romans"— Mr. 
James  Haldane's  Engagements — His  Letters — Respecting  Rev. 
Ebenezer  Brown's  Sermon  before  Lords  Brougham  and  Denman 
— ^Respecting  Dr.  Colquhoun  and  Ministerial  Popularity — 
Respecting  Dr.  Stuart's  Death — Respecting  the  Row  Doctrine 
of  Universal  Pardon — Mr.  James  Haldane's  Preaching  Tours  in 
1829-30 — Death  of  his  eldest  Son,  James — Dr.  M'Crie's  approval 
of  Mr.  James  Haldane's  Doctrine  of  Personal  Assurance — Mr. 
Howels'  Death— Mr.  Aikman's  Death,  and  Rowland  Hill's       .    561 


CONTENTS.  XV 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

[1834—1840.] 

Page 

Mr.  Haldane  publishes  an  Enlarged  Edition  of  his  "  Evidences " — 
Anecdote  of  David  Hume's  Death-bed — Anecdote  of  Adam 
Smith — Publication  of  "Exposition  of  Romans** — Dr.  Chal- 
mers' Opinion  of  the  Work — Letters  to  Dr.  John  Brown  on  his 
Refusal  to  Pay  the  Annuity-tax — Letter  to  Mr.  Macaulay  on 
his  Speech  on  the  Ballot — Letter  to  the  **  Edinburgh  Christian 
Instructor  " — Commences  his  Last  Labour        ....     678 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

[1840—42.] 

Mr.  Haldane's  Last  Labours  in  Revising  his  "  Exposition  of 
Romans" — ^Visit  to  Auchingray — His  Sermons — Completes  his 
Revision — Returns  to  Edinburgh — ^Publishes  his  "  Exposition  " 
— Plan  of  Circulating  the  Bible  in  Selected  Portions — Mr. 
Haldane's  Last  Illness  and  Death — Extract  from  the  "  Witness  ** 
— Testimony  of  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society — Death  of  Mrs. 
Haldane 599 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

[1842—48.] 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  Opposes  Errors  respecting  the  Atonement — Mr. 
Hinton,  Dr.  Jenkyn,  Dr.  Payne,  and  Dr.  Wardlaw— Letter  to 
the  "Evangelical  Magazine" — ^Labours  as  an  Octogenarian — 
Letter  on  the  Death  of  Mr.  Cleghom — Visit  to  London  and 
Buxton — Death  of  his  Eldest  Daughter — Letter  on  Miss  Hard- 
castle's  Death — Death  of  Dr.  Abercrombie — Treatise  on  Chris- 
tian Union — Publishes  **  Exposition  of  Oalatians" — His  Letters  616 


XVI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXVIL 

[1848—1851.] 

P«ge 

Mr.  J.  Haldane  as  an  Octogenarian — Sentiments  as  to  Public  Fasts 
— His  own  Practice — ^La  Mancha — Marriage  of  his  Daughter 
Isabella  —  Mr.  Burdon  Sanderson  —  Letter  describing  West 
Jesmond — ^Visit  to  the  Manor  House,  East  Ham — Sermons  at 
Woolwich — Death  of  Major  John  Gordon,  and  of  his  Mother, 
Mrs.  Haldane  Gordon — Visit  of  the  Rev.  James  Gordon — 
Jubilee— Illness,  1849— Winterfield— Letter  to  Colonel  Ander- 
son— Romaine's  Letters — "  Exposition  of  Hebrews  " — Letter  to 
Lady  Stair — ^Personal  Reign — Papal  Aggression — Close  of  1860 
— Illness  and  Death  —  His  Fimeral  —  Testimonies  to  his 
Character  and  Usefulness — Conclusion 644 


MEMOIRS 


OF    ROBERT    HALDANE    OP    AIRTHRET; 

AND  OF  HIS  BROTHER, 

JAMES  ALEXANDER  HALDANE. 


THEIR  BIBTH  AND  AKCESTBY—aLENBAGLES— AMECD0TE8— 
THEIR  PARENTS— TEEEB  aUARDIANS— EARLT  OHARA.C- 
TBRigilCS. 

Robert  Haldane  was  bom  on  the  28th  of  Februaryj  1764, 
in  bia  father's  bouse,  on  the  north  side  of  Queen  Ann-street, 
Cavendisb-square,  London.  His  younger  brother,  James  Alex- 
ander Haldane,  was  bom  at  Dundee,  on  the  14th  of  July,  1768, 
within  a  fortnight  after  hia  Other's  death. 

Both  on  their  father's  and  their  mother's  aide,  they  were 
descended  from  an  ancient  Perthshire  family,  for  many  centuries 
possessors  of  the  &ee  barony  of  Gleneagles,  a  valley  in  the 
Ochill  bills,  opening  upon  the  moor  of  Tullibardine,  and  the 
fertile  plains  of  Stnitheam,  towards  the  distant  Grampians, 
whose  towering  summits  bound  the  prospect.  In  old  charters, 
in  the  idUb  of  Parliament,  and  in  other  public  documents,  by 
the  caprice  of  orthography,  the  &mily  name  is  varionsly  written 
Halden,  Haldane,  Hadden,  or  Hauden.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
it  is  of  Norse  origin.  It  is  still  common  in  Denmark,  and  from 
Haldan  Hill,  near  Exeter,  to  Halden  Rig,  near  Kelso,  the 
Danish  chiefs,  who  were  driven  beyond  the  Hnmber  1^  King 
Alfred,  have  indented  many  local  and  onmutakeable  traces  fsi 


2  GLENEAGLES. 

their  leader's  name^  as  recorded  by  the  Saxon  chroniclers. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  lands  of  Halden  Rig  were  called 
after  the  Northern  warrior.  But,  passing  by  the  mist-enveloped 
traditionary  legends  of  a  barbarous  age,  and  approaching  the 
light  of  modem  records,  when  surnames  became  hereditary, 
it  is  on  record  that,  three  centuries  later,  a  younger  son  of  the 
border  family  of  Halden,  near  Kelso,  migrated  into  Perthshire, 
and  married  the  heiress  of  Gleneagles,  adopting  the  armorial 
bearings  of  that  family,  instead  of  his  own,  but  retaining  his 
surname,  as  derived  from  his  paternal  lands.  In  Scotland,  oral 
tradition  runs  into  the  deep  and  far  recesses  of  legendary 
antiquity.  Its  written  documents  arc  of  comparatively  modem 
date.  "  Nowhere,"  says  a  great  Scotch  legal  antiquarian,  Mr. 
lliddell, — "nowhere  is  ancestry  more  prized  or  paraded  than 
with  us,  and  yet  in  no  country  are  the  means  of  elucidating  it 
80  scanty."  In  proof  of  this,  a  charter  of  the  lands  of  Frandie, 
forming  part  of  the  Gleneagles  estate,  granted  in  the  twelfth 
century  to  Roger  de  Halden,  by  King  William  the  Lyon,  and  still 
in  possession  of  the  family,  is  noticed  by  Sir  James  Daliymple, 
in  his  Collections  (page  392),  as  amongst  the  earliest  extant. 

Rather  more  than  a  hundred  years  later,  Aylmer  de  Haldane, 
of  Gleneagles,  in  Strathearn,  is  found  amongst  the  bai*ons,  who, 
in  1296,  swore  fealty  to  Edward  I.  of  England;  and  Nisbet, 
in  his  "Critical  and  Historical  Remarks"  upon  the  Ragman 
Roll,  observes  that  the  Haldanes  were  "even  then  barons  of 
considerable  consequence,"  adding,  "the  house  of  Gleneagles  have 
vouchers  for  instructing  their  antiquity  beyond  most  families 
in  Perthshire/^  It  would  be  alike  tedious  and  unprofitable  to 
trace  their  descent,  from  that  period  to  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century,  through  seventeen  successive  marriages,  with  the  noble 
or  baronial  families  of  Graham,  Amott,  Mar,  Seton,  Menteith, 
Montrose,  Lawson,  Mar  (2),  Perth,  Glencaim,  Hume,  March- 
mont,  Tullibardine,  Wemyss,  Grant,  Strathallan,  and  Erakine 
of  Alva.  In  fact,  there  would  be  nothing  very  remarkable  to 
arrest  attention,  for  they  have  left  behind  them  little  more  than 
the  record  of  their  names,  their  knighthood,  or  their  offices;  and 
in  this,  as  in  most  other  genealogies,  we  are  reminded  of  what 


SIR   JOHN    HALDANE.  3 

the  celebrated  Sir  Thomas  Brown  quaintly  observes  :  "  There  is 
no  antidote  against  the  oblivion  of  time  *  *  generations  pass 
while  some  trees  standi  and  old  famiUes  last  not  three  oaks.  *  * 
The  greater  part  of  men  must  be  content  to  be  as  though  they 
had  not  been^  to  be  found  in  the  register  of  God^  not  in  the 
record  of  men/' 

It  will  be  sufficient  to  state^  that  the  most  eminent  of  the 
mediseval  Barons  of  Gleneagles  was  Sir  John  Haldane^  who 
held^  in  very  troublous  times^  several  of  the  highest  offices  in  the 
kingdom^  and  became  successively  Ambassador  of  James  the  Third 
to  the  Court  of  Denmark^  Master  of  the  King's  Household,  Sheriff 
Principal  of  Edinburgh,  until,  finally,  as  "  Lord  Justice-General 
of  Scotland  beyond  the  Forth,^'  he  attained  a  dignity  next  to 
that  of  the  Lord  Chancellor.  In  1460  he  married  Agnes 
Menteith,  of  Ruskie,  a  descendant  of  the  old  Earls  of  Menteith, 
and  one  of  the  two  co-heiresses  of  the  half  of  the  lands  and 
honours  of  her  maternal  great-grandsire,  Duncan,  last  of  the 
ancient  Saxon  Earls  of  Levenax  or  Lennox,  who  was  beheaded 
on  Stirling  Castle,  in  1424,  with  his  son-in-law,  the  late  Regent 
Albany,  and  his  own  three  sons. 

This  marriage  entailed  upon  the  Gleneagles  family  long  and 
arduous  litigation  with  Lord  Damley,  who  finally  established  his 
claim  to  the  peerage  and  one-half  of  the  lands,  in  right  of  his 
grandmother,  the  Duchess  of  Albany,  whose  priority  in  age,  as 
the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  had  been  disputed  by 
Sir  John  Haldane.* 

In  1482,  when  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  afterwards  Richard 
the  Third,  invaded  Scotland,  Sir  John  Haldane  was  appointed, 
with  G^rge  Lord  Seton,  Alexander  Ramsay  of  Dalhousie, 
ancestor  of  the  Marquis,  and  Robert  Logan  of  Restalrig,  ''joint 
Captains,  Chieftains,  Keepers,  and  Governors  of  the  town  of 
Berwick,  and  to  defend  it  against  the  invasion  of  our  old  enemies 

*  See  the  History  of  the  Partition  of  the  Lennox,  by  Mark  Napier, 
Esq.,  a  descendant  of  the  celebrated  inventor  of  Logarithms,  and  as  such 
from  the  other  co-heiress  of  Menteith,  who  divided  ivith  Agnes  Haldane 
the  other  half  of  the  I^nnox.  See  also  the  learned  Reply  of  John 
Riddelly  Esq.,  the  celebrated  Scottish  legal  antiquary. 

b2 


-1 


4  AN£CDOT£S. 

of  England/'  The  campaign  was  speedily  decided  by  the  defec- 
tion of  Douglas  (Bell  the  Cat)  Earl  of  Angus^  and  the  other 
rebellious  Barons^  at  the  Bridge  of  Lauder ;  and  Berwick^  left 
unprotected,  was  forced  to  capitulate  to  the  Plantagenct,  never 
more  to  be  retaken  or  restored.  Sir  John  died  in  1493,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Sir  James,  who,  shortly  before  his  death  in 
1505,  was,  at  a  time  of  national  alarm,  nominated  by  King 
James  IV.  to  be  keeper  of  the  King's  Castle  of  Dunbar.  His 
successor,  another  Sir  John,  had  scarcely  won  his  gilded  spurs 
when  he  fell,  in  early  manhood,  on  the  fatal  field  of  Flodden, 
along  with  a  great  part  of  the  chivalry  of  Scotland,  rallying 
round  their  rash  but  gallant  monarch. 

It  was  soon  after  these  times  of  turbulence  and  war  that  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  vulgar  tongue  was  pre- 
paring, both  for  Scotland  and  England,  a  moral  and  religious 
revolution  more  complete  and  decisive  than  any  which  had  yet 
occurred.  It  was  on  the  4th  February,  1526,  that  the  first  copy 
of  the  New  Testament,  translated  and  printed  abroad  in  English, 
arrived  in  Britain.  From  that  day  may  be  traced  the  increasing 
progress  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  in  no  country  did 
it  take  a  deeper  or  firmer  root  than  in  Scotland.  In  the  vain 
attempt  of  Rome  to  arrest  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  to  stop 
the  preaching  and  crush  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  the  whole 
nation  was  convulsed.  In  that  long  and  arduous  struggle  the 
Haldanes  seem  to  have  taken  a  consistent  part,  on  the  side  of 
religious  freedom.  The  name  of  Gleneagles  appears  amongst 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  and  during  the  reign  of  James 
VI.  they  stood  by  the  Protestant  cause,  both  in  its  prosperity 
and  adversity.  In  1585,  when  the  Earl  of  Angus  and  the  other 
banished  Lords  returned  from  England,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
popular  indignation  roused  by  the  persecuting  acts  of  the  Earl 
of  Arran^  the  Laird  of  Gleneagles  is  mentioned  by  Calderwood 
as  prominent  in  what  was  called  ^'  the  raid  of  Stirling.'^  He 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  town  when  it  was  attacked,  but  was  enabled 
to  join  the  assailants,  and  assisted  in  the  armed  remonstrance 
with  the  King,  which  brought  back  the  exiled  ministers  and 
drove  Arran  and  his  abettors  into  disgrace  and  banishment.     It 


ANECDOTES.  6 

is  mentioned^  that  when  Sir  William  Stewart^  Colonel  of  the 
Royal  Guards  and  brother  of  the  obnoxious  Earl^  was  repulsed 
fix)m  the  west  port  of  Stirling^  he  was  so  hotly  followed,  "  that 
Mr.  James  Haldane,  brother-german  to  the  Laird  of  Gleneagles, 
overtook  him ;  and  as  he  was  laying  hands  on  him,  was  shot  by 
the  ColoneFs  servant,  Joshua  Henderson/'* 

In  the  following  century  another  Knight  of  the  family  was,  in 
1650,  a  leader  in  the  Presbyterian  army  of  the  congregation 
opposed  to  CromweU,  and  fell  in  the  route  at  Dunbar.  His 
lady  received  from  one  who  alleged  that  he  was  his  messenger 
his  own  ring  (which  is  still  preserved),  with  an  assurance  that  he 
was  safe,  but  detained  with  other  prisoners  of  rank  in  the  castle 
of  a  nobleman  near  the  battle-field.  The  chiefs  said  to  be  his 
companions  in  captivity  were  found  as  described,  but  Sir  John 
had  never  been  amongst  them,  and  returned  no  more. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Sir  John  Haldane,  the  last  of  the  Knights 
of  Gleneagles  in  the  male  line.  In  truth,  the  country  was 
becoming  more  civilized  and  less  turbulent,  so  that  war  ceased 
to  be  the  chief  occupation  of  those  not  compelled  to  till  the 
soil.  The  change  in  the  times  was  also  manifested  in  the  family 
arrangements,  by  which  he  transgressed  the  feudal  notions  of 
the  exclusive  rights  of  primogeniture,  and  in  order  to  favour  a 
mother's  partiaUty  for  a  younger  son,  occasioned  the  separation 
of  a  large  section  of  the  M  enteith  or  Lanrick  estates  from  those 

of  Gleneagles.f 

His  successor,  Mungo  Haldane,  who  derived  his  not  very 
euphonious  Christian  name  from  the  noble  house  of  Murray, 
was  a  Member  of  the  Scottish  Parliament ;  obtained  a  charter  of 
his  lands  from  Charles  II.,  reciting  his  own  services  to  the 

*  4  Calderwood,  390. 

t  This  ofishoot  of  the  Gleneagles  stock  only  remained  at  Lanrick  for 
two  generations.  Patrick,  the  first  proprietor,  died  young,  having  married 
Miss  Dundas  of  Newliston,  who  was,  through  her  mother,  one  of  the 
younger  co-heiresses  of  the  original  stock  of  Halden  of  Haldenrig,  in  the 
South.  The  eldest  co-heiress  of  that  family  was  married  to  John,  first 
Earl  of  Stair,  who  in  her  right  acquired  the  lands  of  Newliston.  Patrick 
Haldane  left  two  younger  sons,  one  of  whom  was  a  Professor  at  St. 
Andrew's,  and  was  burned  to  death  wliilst  reading  in  bed.    John,  his 


6  ANECDOTES. 

Crown  and  those  of  his  progenitors;  and  is  mentioned  by 
Nisbet,  in  his  account  of  the  gorgeous  procession  of  the  liord 
Chancellor  the  Duke  of  Rothes^  public  funeral  in  1681,  as 
bearing  the  banner  of  his  relative,  the  Earl  of  Tullibardine, 
afterwards  Marquis  of  Athol. 

He  died  in  1685,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  John 
Haldane,  who  served  in  the  Scottish  and  British  Parliaments 
for  nearly  forty  years,  and  occupied  a  conspicuous  place  in 
public  affairs,  both  at  the  Revolution  and  at  the  Union. 

From  the  time  of  Cromwell  the  change  in  the  history  of  Scotland 
becomes  more  decided.  The  Reformation  had  been  the  grand 
crisis  of  the  nation,  but,  during  its  glorious  progress,  there  was  a 
long  and  deadly  struggle  between  the  despotic  tendencies  of  the 
Crown,  the  turbulence  of  the  old  feudal  Barons,  and  the  civilizing 
influences  of  advancing  Christianity.  The  strong  bond  of  Pro- 
testantism, with  its  common  dangers  and  common  blessings, 
had  been  gradually  drawing  together  the  great  mass  of  the 
Christianity,  the  intelligence,  and  the  respectability  of  the 
EngUsh  and  Scottish  nations,  for  more  than  a  century  before  its 
consummation  in  the  act  of  Union  of  1 707. 

At  this  period,  John  Haldane,  of  Gleneagles,  sat  as  one  of  the 
four  Barons  for  the  county  of  Perth  in  the  last  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment. He  had  been  previously  representative  for  Dumbarton- 
eldest,  took  part  in  the  rebellion  of  1745,  but  contrived  to  escape  for- 
feiture, and  returned,  after  many  years  of  exile,  to  die  at  Lanrick,  in 
1765,  at  the  age  of  85.  He  survived  his  two  sons,  but  left  six  daughters, 
of  whom  five  were  married  and  have  numerous  descendants.  Some  of 
the  male  heirs  of  Lanrick  are  said  to  be  still  found  in  the  north  of 
Scotland.  James  Oswald,  Esq.,  of  Auchencruive,  is  the  male  representative 
of  the  eldest  daughter  of  John  Haldane.  The  Rev.  James  Haldane 
Stewart,  Vicar  of  Limpsfield,  is  descended  from  the  Lanrick  family,  his 
grandfather,  Stewart  of  Ardshiel,  who  commanded  the  right  wing  of  the 
rebel  army  at  Culloden,  having  married  a  grand-daughter  of  Patrick.  Mr. 
Stewart  of  Ardshiel  on  one  occasion  fought  with  and  disarmed  Kob  Hoy. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  has  borrowed  the  incidents  of  this  adventure  in  his  talc, 
giving  the  catastro])he  a  turn  more  suited  to  the  dignity  of  his  hero.  It 
is  the  scene  at  the  clachan  of  Aberfoyle.  The  warlike  ancestry  of  the 
Vicar  of  Limpsfield  strikingly  contrasts  with  the  gentleness  of  his  own 
beautiful  Christian  character. 


ANECDOTES.  7 

shire^  and^  in  1688^  a  Member  of  the  Convention  Parliament. 
He  was  also  the  first  Member  for  the  county  of  Perth  in  the 
first  British  House  of  Commons^  and  one  of  the  Commissioners 
for  settling  the  equivalents  at  the  Union.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  energy  and  ability^  a  good  speaker^*  and  much  occupied 
with  pubUc  affairs.  One  of  his  sisters  was  married  to  Sir 
William  Murray,  of  Ochtertyre,  and  another  to  Mr.  Smythe,  of 
Methven.  He  was  himself  twice  married,  first  to  Mary,  third 
daughter  of  David  Drummond  Lord  Maderty,  elder  brother  of 
the  first  Viscount  Strathallan ;  secondly,  to  Helen,  only  daughter 
of  Sir  Charles  Erskine,  of  Alva,  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Rosslyn, 
and  grandson  of  John,  Earl  of  Mar.  He  had  a  numerous 
family  by  both  marriages.  His  eldest  son,  Mimgo  Haldane, 
was  successively  M.P.  for  the  counties  of  Perth  and  Stirling, 
and  died  in  1757,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  unmarried.  He 
was  well  remembered  by  a  tenant  of  the  Gleneagles  estate,  who 
lived  to  be  more  than  a  hundred  years  old,  and  was  known 
to  many  of  the  present  generation.  He  used  to  tell  how  the 
Laird  put  an  end  to  Sunday  trading  in  the  neighbourhood,  by 
means  not  very  consonant  with  the  modem  voluntary  principle. 
It  seems  that  Sunday  trafficking  was  then  prevalent  in  Scotland, 
in  consequence  of  the  packmen,  or  itinerant  hawkers,  bringing 
their  goods  for  sale  to  the  church-doors  on  the  Lord's-day.  As 
chief  magistrate  in  the  neighbourhood,  the  Baron  of  Gleneagles 

*  In  *'  Wodrow's  Correspondence  **  we  find  the  following  anecdote : — 
"  The  Septennial  Bill  is  passed  the  Commons  by  a  vast  plurality.  There 
<*  is  a  story  here  of  Mr.  Haldane,  of  Gleneagles,  and  one  Snell,  an 
*'  English  gentleman.  Mr.  Haldane  had  a  very  handsome  speech  in 
**  favour  of  the  Bill.  Mr.  Snell  said  he  did  not  much  wonder  to  hear  that 
**  gentleman  and  others  of  his  nation  speak  after  that  fashion,  for  their 
**  nation  was  sold  and  enslaved, — they  would  have  their  neighbours  so 
**  dealt  with ;  whereon  were  great  heats.  Sir  David  Dalrymple  (of  Hailes, 
''  and  grandfather  of  the  celebrated  Sir  D.  Dalrymple,  Lord  Hailes)  said 
«  the  gentleman  who  spoke  (Mr.  Snell)  knew  well  where  he  spoke,  and 
"  that  the  House  was  his  sanctuar)'.  Others  said,  more  plainly,  that  he 
**  durst  not  speak  so  without  doors.  Mr.  Snell  was  brought  to  the  bar, 
"  and  to  crave  pardon,  May  1st,  1716.**— From  the  "  Wodrow  Corre- 
spondence,** vol.  ii.,  p.  165. 


8  ANECDOTES. 

issued  an  order  prohibiting  the  practice.  On  the  following 
Sunday  he  did  not  happen  himself  to  go  to  Blackford  Church, 
but,  meeting  his  servants  returning,  he  inquired  whether  the 
packmen  had  obeyed  his  mandate.  Being  informed  that  they 
had  not,  the  old  tenant  used  to  tell,  with  great  emphasis,  how 
*'  the  Laird  clapped  his  hand  on  his  sword,"  and  declared  that, 
if  he  lived  over  another  Sabbath,  he  would  make  the  packmen 
repent  of  their  perverseness.  Accordingly,  on  the  following 
Simday,  he  himself  went  to  the  church,  and,  finding  the  pack- 
men assembled  as  usual  and  spreading  out  their  goods  for  sale,  he 
drew  out  his  sword  and  scattered  them  in  an  instant.  Having 
pursued  them  down  the  hill,  as  they  fled  in  trepidation  before  the 
irate  and  portly  Baron,  he  returned  to  the  church-gates  and 
tossed  their  wares  into  the  adjoining  lake.  This  exercise  of  3 
''rigour  beyond  the  law,"  which  in  those  days  was  not  very 
nicely  weighed,  had  the  desired  effect,  and  Sunday  trading  has 
never  been  again  attempted  near  Gleneagles,  from  that  day  to 
the  present.  Mungo  Haldane  was  succeeded  by  his  next 
brother,  Patrick,  an  able,  active,  and  bustling  politician,  who, 
in  his  youth,  was  Professor  of  History  at  St.  Andrew's;  then 
M.P.  for  the  St.  Andrew's  Burghs;  then  Solicitor-General;  a 
Royal  Commissioner  for  selling  the  forfeited  estates;  and  at 
one  time  appointed  a  Lord  of  Session.*  He  survived  for  ten 
years  his  only  son,  Brigadier-General  George  Haldane,  of  the 

*  This  appointment  was  made  in  1721,  during  his  father^s  life-time, 
and  gave  rise  to  a  curious  lawsuit  as  to  the  right  of  the  Crown  to  appoint 
a  Judge  or  Senator  of  the  College  of  Justice,  "  without  the  concurrence 
of  the  College  itself.*'  The  matter  was  carried  by  appeal  to  the  House  of 
Lords  (See  "  Robertson's  Appeal  Cases,"  422),  and  decided  in  favour  of 
the  Crown;  but  Patrick  Haldane's  right  was  not  insisted  on,  and  he 
received  another  appointment.  He  was  objected  to  as  not  being  a  prac- 
tising advocate,  but  the  pamphlets  which  appeared  on  the  occasion,  one 
of  them  attributed  to  the  celebrated  Duncan  Forbes,  of  CuUoden,  indicate 
strong  political  and  personal  rancour.  Mr.  Patrick  Haldane  is,  amongst 
other  things,  not  only  charged  with  bribery  at  his  elections,  but  with 
having  induced  his  younger  brother,  James  Haldane,  then  under  age,  the 
grandfather  of  the  subjects  of  this  memoir,  to  assist  in  carrying  off  and 
imprisoning  hostile  voters,  on  pretended  charges  of  high  treason  and 
Jacobitism. 


THEIR   FATHER.  9 

Guards^  who  was  also  Member  of  Parliament  for  the  Dundee 
and  Forfar  Burghs^  and  died^  in  1759^  Governor  of  Jamaica. 

Many  ancient  Scottish  families  were  ruined  by  the  change  in 
their  style  of  living  and  expenditure^  consequent  on  being  called 
to  attend  a  Parliament,  sitting  in  London  instead  of  Edinburgh. 
Patrick  Haldane^s  electioneering  expenses,  and  those  of  his 
son,  had  not  been  compensated  by  their  public  appointments. 
When,  in  the  same  year,  he  succeeded  his  elder  brother  and 
siurvived  his  son,  he  found  himself  encumbered  with  debt  and 
unable  to  retain  his  estates  with  comfort.  Under  these  circum- 
stances Gleneagles,  being  unentailed,  might  have  passed,  like 
Lanrick,  entirely  out  of  the  family,  had  it  not  been  purchased 
by  a  younger  brother  of  the  half-blood,  who  had  just  returned 
from  India  with  a  large  fortune,  being  the  first  Scotchman  who 
ever  commanded  an  East  India  Company^s  ship.  This  Captain 
Robert  Haldane  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  John  Oglander,  of 
Nunwells,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  becoming  himself  M.P.  for 
the  Stirling  Burghs,  is  referred  to  in  the  Letters  of  Junius.  He 
died  at  Airthrey,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1768,  without  leaving 
any  surviving  issue,  and  was  buried  at  Gleneagles,  by  his  own 
desire,  under  the  shade  of  four  majestic  spruce-firs,  which  he 
had  himself  planted  in  front  of  the  old  chapel  near  the  ruins  of 
the  castle. 

His  elder  brother  was  still  living  at  his  death,  as  well  as  his 
nephew.  Captain  James  Haldane,  the  only  son  of  another 
brother.  But  Captain  Robert  having  acquired  both  the  estates 
of  Airthrey  and  Gleneagles  by  purchase,  unfettered  by  any 
entail,  they  were  entirely  at  his  own  disposal,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  divide  them.  To  Captain  James  Haldane,  who  had 
acquired  a  fortune  of  his  own,  and  was  averse  to  a  residence  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  Ochils,  he  left  the  estate  of  Airthrey, 
with  its  southern  exposure,  beautifully  sloping  down  into  the 
Carse  of  Stirling,  charged  with  a  debt  of  14,000/. ;  whilst  the 
lands  of  Gleneagles  and  of  Trinity  Gask,  charged  with  the  remain- 
der of  his  debts,  were,  in  the  fiirst  instance,  entailed  on  the 
male  descendants  of  his  two  sisters  of  the  full  blood,  with 
remainder   ''to  my  nephew.  Captain  James  Haldane,  of  the 


10  THEIR   MOTHER. 

Dake  of  Albany  East  Indiaman/'  It  was  thus  upon  condition 
of  merging  his  own  name  and  arms^  and  assuming  those  of 
Haldane^  that  George  Cockbum,  only  son  of  Mrs.  Margaret 
Cockbum,  of  the  family  of  Ormistown,  in  East  Lothian^  succeeded 
to  Oleneagles^  but  on  his  death  and  the  failure  of  his  male  issue^ 
in  1799,  it  devolved  on  the  celebrated  Admiral  Viscount  Duncan, 
as  being  then  the  eldest  surviving  son  of  the  entailer's  other 
sister  of  the  full  blood,  Helen  Haldane,  wife  of  Alexander 
Dimcan,  of  Lundie,  and  also  the  maternal  grandmother  of  the 
subjects  of  these  Memoirs. 

Their  father  was  the  only  son  of  Colonel  James  Haldane, 
who  married  Margaret  Pye,  a  lady  belonging  to  a  well-connected 
family  then  resident  in  the  county  of  Durham,  some  of  whom  held 
considerable  preferment  in  the  Church  of  England. 

Colonel  James  Haldane,  like  the  rest  of  his  generation,  was  a 
man  of  great  stature  and  physical  strength,  and  served  from 
1715  to  1741  in  that  squadron  of  the  Royal  Horse  now  known 
as  the  2d  Regiment  of  Life  Guards.  He  died  at  sea  on  the 
9th  December,  1742,  near  Jamaica,  on  the  Carthagena  expedition, 
in  command  of  General  Guise^s  regiment  of  Infantry. 

On  the  15th  December,  1762,  their  only  son.  Captain  James 
Haldane,  married  his  first  cousin,  Katherine,  daughter  of 
Alexander  Dimcan,  of  Lundie,  and  Helen  Haldane,  conmionly 
called  Lady  Limdie,  by  the  courtesy  of  Scotland  then  allowed  to 
the  wife  of  a  minor  baron.  Of  this  marriage  there  were  three 
children ;  namely — 1,  Robert,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
estate  of  Airthrey;  2,  Helen,  bom  in  1765,  who  died  in  child- 
hood; and,  3,  James  Alexander  Haldane,  his  youngest  and 
posthumous  son. 


FROM   THEIR   BIRTH    TO   THE    DEATH    OF   THEIR   MOTHER. 

[1764—1774.] 

The  family  history  of  six  centuries  and  more  than  twenty 
generations,  has  been  compressed  into  a  very  narrow  space  in 
the  foregoing  pages.  Such  matters  have  in  them  more  of 
private  curiosity  than  public  interest.    The  quality  or  exploits 


THEIR    FATHERS    CHARACTER.  11 

of  a  remote  ancestry  belong  to  the  passing  things  of  time^  and 
are  but  bubbles  on  its  rapid  stream^  rolling  down  into  the 
gulphs  of  oblivion.  But  the  character^  the  instructions^  the 
example^  and  the  prayers  of  Christian  parents^  belong  to  the 
things  that  are  immortal^  on  which  God  himself  has  been  often 
pleased  to  suspend  the  destinies  of  children.  The  means  as 
well  as  the  end  are  under  the  control  of  Him  who  gives  no 
account  of  his  matters^  but  determines  all  things  by  the  council 
of  his  own  will.  Occasionally  He  sees  fit^  in  a  wonderful  and 
unexpected  manner^  to  assert  the  sovereignty  of  his  electing 
grace ;  yet  for  the  most  part  it  will  be  founds  that  He  works  by 
instruments,  and  puts  especial  honour  on  the  use  of  his  own 
appointed  ordinances.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the  two  brothers 
to  be  enabled;  practically  to  sympathize  with  the  sentiments 
expressed  in  the  noble  lines  of  Cowper,  when  he  exclaims — 

"  My  boast  is  not,  that  I  deduce  my  birth 
From  loins  enthroned,  or  rulers  of  the  earth, 
But  higher  far  my  proud  pretensions  rise, 
The  son  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies  \^ 

Of  their  father.  Captain  James  Haldane,  his  elder  son  knew  but 
little,  and  the  younger  nothing,  except  from  the  testimony  of 
others.  He  is  reported  to  have  been  a  man  of  much  worth,  of 
popular  manners,  good  sense,  and  ability,  who  was  generally 
respected  and  beloved.  It  is  related  of  him,  that  at  sea  he  was 
remarkable  for  his  attention  to  moral  discipline,  and  particularly 
for  putting  down  profane  swearing  in  his  ship.  The  late  Mr. 
Scrimgeour,  of  Tealing,  and  a  son  of  Mr.  Callender,  of  Craig- 
forth,  who  both  sailed  with  him,  used  to  tell  how  he  cured  his 
midshipmen  of  this  profane  and,  as  it  has  been  justly  termed^ 
"  profitless  vice,^^  by  compelling  any  one  who  thus  transgressed 
to  carry  a  clog  fastened  round  his  ancle,  for  the  remainder  of  the 
watch.  He  was  also  more  particular  than  was  then  common  at 
sea,  in  accustoming  the  young  men  to  act  like  gentlemen,  and 
when  inculcating  the  duty  of  politeness,  would  jocularly  remark, 
that  he  had  himself  spoiled  a  laced  hat  in  taking  it  off  to  two 
French  officers,  whom  he  had  brought  home  as  prisoners  from 
India,  during  Lord  Clivers  wars.    He  completed  his  last  voyage  at 


12  THEIR   father's    CHARACTER. 

the  close  of  1767,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  being  elected  an  East  India 
Director,  when  an  inflammatory  sore-throat,  said  to  have  been 
improperly  treated,  and  ending  in  violent  fever,  carried  him  off, 
after  a  few  days'  illness,  on  the  30th  June,  1768.  He  died 
whilst  on  a  visit  to  his  father-in-law,  at  the  old  house  of  Lundie 
^now  Camperdown),  near  Dundee,  where  he  had  arrived  a  few 
days  before.  When  asked,  shortly  before  his  death,  as  to  his  hopes 
for  eternity,  his  reply,  "  I  have  full  confidence  in  Jesus,*'  indi- 
cated the  simpUcity  as  well  as  the  sincerity  of  his  faith.  His 
attached  and  afflicted  widow  was  not,  therefore,  left  to  sorrow  as 
those  without  hope,  but  it  was  a  severe  shock  to  her  health, 
and  brought  on  her  confinement  nearly  two  months  before  it  was 
expected.  It  took  place  at  Dundee,  on  the  14th  of  July,  just  a 
fortnight  after  her  bereavement,  and,  combining  the  name  of 
the  husband  whom  she  had  lost,  with  that  of  her  father,  who 
survived,  she  called  her  infant  son  James  Alexander. 

In  order  to  be  near  her  parents,  Mrs.  Haldane  took  up  her 
residence  at  Dundee,  in  a  house  which  belonged  to  the  cele- 
brated George  Dempster,  so  well  known  as  a  leading  Member 
of  Parliament,  and  the  friend  of  Mr.  Fox,  who  had  named  him 
as  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  his  famous  India  Bill.  It  was  a 
large,  old  baronial  mansion,  now  pulled  down,  pleasantlysituated 
in  a  garden  sloping  down  to  the  Tay.  An  ancient  and  well- 
remembered  pear-tree,  which  still  remains,  was  visited  by  her 
yoimger  son  not  many  years  befoi*e  his  death. 

Mrs.  Haldane  belonged  to  a  family  in  which  there  had  been 
much  true  religion.*     Her  father  was  distinguished  as  a  strenu- 

•  An  ancestor  of  the  Lundie  family,  William  Lundie,  of  Sea  Side,  left 
in  his  own  handwriting  a  narrative  of  his  remarkable  preservation  from 
shipwreck  in  the  North  Seas  in  1631,  after  being  tossed  about  for  forty 
days  in  a  small  boat.  He  thus  begins : — "  My  Lord  God  has  put  it  into 
**  my  heart  to  leave  a  record,  how  that  he  has  been  so  extraordinarily 
"  merciful  to  me  by  sea  and  land, — how  in  many  dangers,  and  from  many 
**  perils,  he  did  work  my  deliverance,  and  particularly  in  that  miraculous 
*<  one  hereafter  described ;  that  my  successors  may  think  on  it,  and,  with 
**  God's  assistance,  it  may  be  a  mean  to  teach  them  to  be  humble  and 
^  thankful  to  God  for  having  so  protected  and  presented  ine,  and  made 
*^  his  fatherly  love  in  so  many  ways  known  to  me.**    At  the  conclusion  of 


THEIR   mother's    CHARACTER.  13 

bxxB  supporter  of  the  Protestant  succession^  and^  as  Provost  of 
Dundee^  did  good  service  to  the  Government  during  the 
rebellion  in  1745.  Towards  the  close  of  his  life  he  left  the 
fine  old  family  residence  at  Lundie  Castle^  to  reside  nearer 
the  town^  at  Oourdie  House^  a  name  for  which  his  eldest  son 
substituted  that  of  Lundie^  but  which  was  destined  to  be  again 
changed  to  Camperdown  upon  the  erection  of  a  new  and 
splendid  edifice  by  his  grandson.  His  second  daughter^  Mrs. 
Haldane^  was  herself  a  decided  Christian.  '^  She  lived/'  said 
her  eldest  son,  "  very  near  to  God,  and  much  grace  was  given 
to  her."  When  left  a  widow,  it  became  her  chief  concern  to 
bring  up  her  children  in  ''  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord.*'  From  their  infancy  she  laboured  to  instil  into  their 
minds  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  eternity,  particularly 
impressing  upon  them  the  necessity  of  prayer,  and  teaching 
them  to  commit  to  memory  and  understand  psalms,  portions  of 
the  shorter  catechism,  and  of  Scripture. 

'^  Her  instructions,''  says  her  youngest  son,  in  a  memorandum 
found  amongst  his  papers,  "  were  so  far  useful,  that  even  when 
**  she  was  not  present  I  made  a  conscience  of  prayer.  What  she 
said  concerning  sin  and  punishment  also  produced  a  consider- 
able impression  on  my  mind.  I  was  desirous  of  avoiding  sin, 
yet  frequently  conmiitted  those  sins  to  which  children  are 
particularly  exposed.  I  well  knew  that  this  was  wrong,  and 
having  been  told  that  infants  would  go  to  heaven,  I  regretted 
'*  that  I  had  not  died  before  I  had  sense  to  discern  what  was 
"  wrong." 

He  proceeds :  "  My  mother  died  when  I  was  very  young,  I 
*'  believe  under  six,  yet  I  am  convinced  that  the  early  impres- 
'^  sion  made  on  my  mind  by  her  care  was  never  entirely  effaced ; 
''and  to  this,   as  an  eminent  means  in  the  hand  of  God,  I 

the  narrative  he  mentions  his  first  meeting  with  his  grandfather  after  his 
escape,  and  then  with  his  mother,  and  adds,  **  Who  was  very  glad  to  see 
**  me,  and  thanked  my  Lord  God  for  my  preservation,  who  has  been  ever 
*'  since  very  gracious  to.  me.  Blessed  be  his  name,  and  the  praises  which 
^  I  give  are  due  unto  him,  desiring  all  those  who  shall  succeed  me  not  to 
"  be  unthankful  to  God  for  his  great  mercies.'' 


it 
u 
i€ 


14  MATERNAL    INSTRUCTIONS. 


t( 


impute  any  serious  thoughts  which,  in  the  midst  of  my  foUy, 
''  would  sometimes  intrude  upon  my  mind,  as  well  as  that  still 
*'  small  voice  of  conscience,  which  afterwards  led  me  to  see  that 
"all  below  was  vanity  without  an  interest  in  that  inheritance 
**  which  can  never  fade  away/'     He  adds :    ^^  I  mention  this 

more  particularly,  because  it  may  lead  Christian  parents  to 

sow  in  hope  the  seed  of  Divine  truth  in  the  minds  of  their 
''children,  and  may  prevent  their  considering  their  efforts 
''unavailing  even  where  the  things  which  they  have  taught 
"  seem  to  have  been  uttered  in  vain.  No  means  of  grace  is,  I 
"  apprehend,  more,  perhaps  none  is  so  much,  countenanced  of 
"  God  as  early  religious  instruction.'^ 

The  instructions  of  this  devoted  mother  were  not  weakened  or 
counteracted,  as  often  happens,  by  apparent  inconsistency.  Her 
life  was  a  life  of  practical  godliness  and  of  cheerful  trust  in 
the  Saviour.  Often  when  she  had  seen  her  children  in  bed,  and 
supposed  that  they  were  asleep,  she  was  overheard  by  them,  and 
particularly  by  her  elder  son,  on  her  knees  by  their  bed-side, 
earnestly  praying  that  the  Lord  would  be  pleased  to  guide  them 
through  that  world  which  she  felt  that  she  was  herself  soon  to 
leave;  that  their  lives  might  be  devoted  to  His  service  upon 
earth ;  and,  finally,  that  they  might  be  brought  to  His  everlasting 
kingdom. 

She  died  in  1774,  of  an  attack  of  illness  commencing  with  a 
cold  which  she  caught  when  on  a  visit  at  Femtower,  near  Crieff. 
Her  medical  attendant.  Dr.  Willison,  although  himself  an 
avowed  unbeliever,  emphatically  declared  that  such  a  death-bed 
was  enough  to  make  one  in  love  with  death.  It  was  another  obser- 
vation of  the  same  physician,  himself  the  son  of  the  celebrated 
divine  of  the  same  name,  and  a  melancholy  example  of  his  own 
remark,  that  grace  was  a  very  extraordinary  moral  phenomenon ; 
that  there  was  no  doubt  either  of  its  existence  or  of  its  influence, 
or  of  the  fact  that  it  ran  in  families;  but  that  it  resembled 
certain  constitutional  diseases  which  are  hereditary,  and  yet 
overleap  particular  generations.  He  was  thus,  in  effect,  bearing 
an  unwilling  testimony  to  the  degenerating  tendencies  of  our 
fallen  and  corrupt  nature,  as  well  as  to  the  unfettered  sovereignty 


THEIR  mother's   DEATH.  15 

and  electiDg  lore  of  God.  Shortly  before  she  expired  she  vaa 
asked  if  she  would  like  once  more  to  gee  her  children,  bat  she 
declined,  saying  that  it  wonld  only  agitate  her;  that  she  had 
been  enabled  implicitly  to  surrender  them  into  the  hands  of 
God,  and  she  would  rather  leave  them  there.  Her  faith  was 
strong,  not  only  for  herself,  but  for  them;  and  that  faith  was 
not  disappointed. 

She  was  buried  in  her  husband's  grave,  at  Lundie,  in  the 
burial-place  of  the  Duncans,  next  to  the  vault  where  the  ashes 
of  her  brother,  the  great  Admiral,  now  also  repose.  The 
church-yard  is  situated  in  a  retired  and  romantic  spot  on  the 
slope  of  one  ettremity  of  the  Sidlaw  range,  just  below  the  Hill 
of  Lundie,  from  whose  commanding  summit  the  eye  wanders  over 
one  of  the  most  extensive  and  picturesque  prospects  of  varied 
magnificence  and  beauty.  The  Carse  of  Gowrie  on  the  one  side, 
and  Strathmore  on  the  other,  with  an  array  of  castles,  towns, 
churches,  plantationa,  lakes,  and  streams,  are  bounded  to  the 
east  by  the  ocean,  to  the  south  by  the  Lowland  hills,  and  to  the 
north-west  by  the  vrooded  mountains  of  Dunkeld,  Athol,  and 
Braemar. 


PHOU    THEIR   mother's    DEATH,    IN    1774,    TO   THEIR   OOINQ 

to'  sea. 
[1774—1783.] 
When  death,  which  had  previously  robbed  them  of  the  guar- 
dianship of  a  iather,  now  deprived  them  of  the  tender  soUcitude 
of  their  mother,  the  three  children  were  scarcely  old  enough 
fully  to  appreciate  the  extent  of  their  loss.  The  elder  brother 
was  ten  years  old,  his  younger  scarcely  six,  whilst  their  only 
sister  was  eight.  The  union  of  parent  and  child  is  a  bond,  of 
which  it  has  been  finely  said,  by  a  celebrated  orator,  that  it 
strengthens  with  life,  acqnires  vigour  &om  the  understanding, 
and  is  sealed  and  rendered  perfect  in  the  community  of  love. 
Once  severed,  it  is  a  tie  too  saoed  and  holy  to  be  replaced. 
Bat,  in  the  present  bereavement,  there  were  several  compensa- 
tions to  be  found  in  the  paternal  vatchfulnesa,  the  unremitting 


16  THEIR    EDUCATION. 

affection^  and  the  superior  qualifications  of  the  kind  relatives 
who  undertook  the  guardianship  of  the  youthful  orphans. 

Their  grandmother^  Lady  Lundie,  had,  after  her  husband's 
death,  resided  with  her  daughter  on  the  banks  of  the  Tay,  at 
Dundee.  She  had  been,  in  her  younger  years,  famed  for  her 
beauty,  not  only  in  Scotland,  but  in  the  gay  circles  of  Bath,  at 
the  period  of  its  greatest  renown.  From  these  scenes  of 
pleasurable  excitement  she  had,  however,  long  retired,  and  at 
the  time  of  her  daughter's  death  the  care  of  her  grandchildren 
became  her  chief  occupation  during  the  peaceful  retirement  of 
her  remaining  years.  Her  eldest  son,  John,  a  young  man  of  great 
promise,  died  early,  in  China,  in  the  service  of  the  East  India 
Company.  Her  next  son.  Colonel  Alexander  Duncan,  married 
his  second  cousin.  Miss  Smythe,  of  Methven,  but  had  no 
fiunily,  and  was  now  a  war-worn  veteran,  retired  from  the  army, 
after  having  earned  considerable  distinction  by  his  good  and 
gallant  service  in  the  rebellion  in  1745,  in  the  campaigns  on 
the  Continent,  and  in  Canada.  His  younger  brother,  Adam, 
afterwards  Viscount  Duncan,  had  also  served  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  At  this 
time,  and  until  the  breaking  out  of  a  new  war,  he  was  enjoying 
the  repose  of  peace,  and,  with  his  mother,  resided  in  Mrs.  Hal- 
dane's  house  and  managed  all  her  affairs. 

Both  of  the  uncles  had  seen  much  of  the  world,  and  therefore 
knew  more  of  the  value  of  a  good  education  than  most  of  the 
Scottish  aristocracy  of  that  period.  The  learning  of  the  two 
boys  was  well  attended  to.  At  home  they  had  a  superior 
resident  tutor,  the  Reverend  Dr.  Fleming,  who  afterwards 
became  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh ;  and  they  were  also 
sent  to  the  grammar-school  at  Dundee,  that  they  might  at  the 
same  time  mingle  with  other  boys,  and  profit  by  the  stimulus  of 
competition.  Little  James  was  destined  for  the  sea,  and  it  was 
important  to  push  him  forward  in  his  education;  but  his  pro- 
gress was  speedily  arrested  by  a  dangerous  fever,  which  long 
confined  him  to  the  house,  and  of  which  he  nearly  died.  An 
anecdote  concerning  him,  which  relates  to  this  period,  used  to 
be  told  by  his  aunt.  Lady  Dimcan.     He  was  a  boy  of  great 


THEIR   sister's    DEATH.  17 

spirit^  and  recited  poetry  with  much  of  sentiment  and  animation. 
The  Admiral  had  taught  him^  amongst  other  things^  to  i^epeat 
the  celebrated  speech  of  Cassius^  in  Addison^s  "  Cato/^  begin- 
ning:— 

"  My  voice  is  still  for  war ! 
What !  can  a  Koman  Senate  long  debate 
Which  of  the  two  to  choose, — slavery  or  death  ?  " 

To  enable  him  to  give  due  effect  to  this  piece  of  declamation^ 
which  certainly  does  not  altogether  accord  with  the  views  of  the 
Peace  Society^  his  uncle  was  accustomed  to  place  him  on  a  side- 
table,  and,  after  his  task  had  been  accomplished,  make  him 
jump  down.  During  the  delirium  of  his  fever,  whenever  the 
Admiral  came  to  see  him  he  immediately  started  up,  and  began, 
with  great  emphasis, 

ti  \£y  voice  is  still  for  war ! " 

In  the  year  1776  his  sister's  health,  which  had  never  been 
strong,  finally  gave  way.  It  was  customary  in  those  days,  as  it 
now  is  in  Switzerland,  to  resort  to  places  in  the  country  "  for 
the  goat's  whey.''  During  Mrs.  Haldane's  lifetime  she  had 
for  one  summer  occupied  the  house  of  Kinnaird,  in  Strathbran, 
near  Dunkeld.*  Lady  Lundie  took  her  grand-daughter  for  the 
same  reason  to  the  Kallender  of  Crieff,  in  Stratheam,  where  she 
hired  a  house,  near  Ochtertyre,  the  residence  of  Sir  William 
Murray,  to  whom  she  was  doubly  related,  both  as  a  Haldane 
and  a  Dimcan.  Whilst  residing  here  they  were  much  at 
Ochtertyre ;  and  the  two  boys  found  great  enjoyment,  in  riding 
about  on  their  ponies,  or,  attended  by  their  tutor,  in  fishing 
for  perch  in  the  lovely  lake  of  Monivaird,  embosomed  amidst 
the  hanging  woods  and  romantic  hills  which  embellish  those 

*  Her  elder  son  had  here  a  narrow  escape  from  heing  kicked  to 
death.  One  of  the  carriage  horses  was  rather  violent  in  the  stable,  and, 
knowing  this,  in  a  sportive  mood  he  put  down  a  stick  from  the  loft  and 
touched  it  on  the  back.  The  animal  was  so  much  excited,  that  he  plunged 
and  kicked  till  the  loose  flooring  of  the  loft,  being  very  low,  was  shaken 
to  pieces,  and  the  youthful  author  of  this  piece  of  mischief  was  himself 
knocked  about  like  a  ball,  and  expected  every  moment  to  fall  down 
amongst  the  horses.    Providentially  he  was  unhurt. 

c 


1 8  FERNTOWER. 

beautiful  pleasure-grounds.  The  renowned  General,  Sir  George 
Murray,  was  then  a  boy,  under  five  years  of  age,  probably 
dreaming  as  little  of  those  fields  of  blood  in  which  he  w  as  after- 
wards to  be  engaged,  as  did  his  young  cousins  of  the  more 
peaceful  warfare  they  were  to  accomplish. 

The  two  boys  were  much  attached  to  their  drooping  sister, 
and  it  was  long  remembered  how  yoimg  James,  whose  warm, 
affectionate  disposition  was  remarked  from  his  boyhood,  never 
took  his  ride  without  dismoimting  to  gather  for  her  the  blue- 
bells and  the  cotton-flowers,  growing  on  the  wild  heaths  and 
moors  of  Stratheam.  A  little  while  before  Helenas  death,  she 
was  taken  to  Edinburgh  by  her  aunt.  Miss  Duncan,  for  medical 
advice,  but  it  was  of  no  avail.  She  died  on  the  11th  of  July, 
1776.  The  Admiral  was  with  them  at  the  time,  and  Colonel 
Duncan  was  sent  for,  so  that  once  more,  at  their  early  age,  the 
orphan  boys  stood  beside  their  two  uncles  at  another  funeral, 
when  their  only  and  much-loved  sister  was  committed  to  the 
dust,  in  the  vault  of  the  Murrays,  in  the  ancient  and  romantic 
churchyard  of  Monivaird,  which  is  now  included  in  the  park  of 
Ochtertyre,  and,  with  its  little  chapel,  is  exclusively  used  as  the 
mausoleum  of  the  family.* 

There  is  a  story  concerning  their  boyhood  which  belongs  to 
this  period.  They  were  spending  a  day  at  Femtower  with  their 
imcle  and  tutor,  who  were  together,  when  the  Admiral,  turning 
towards  the  window,  suddenly  started  up  with  an  exclamation  of 
mingled  alarm  and  indignation.  It  happened  that  his  carriage 
was  standing  before  the  door,  although  the  horses  had  been 
taken  out.  Dr.  Fleming  had  been  instructing  his  pupils  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  ancient  battering-ram  and  catapulta.  There 
was  a  steep  bank  in  front,  and  a  garden-wall  below,  which 
presented  a  most  inviting  object  on  which  to  try  an  experiment. 
With  considerable  exertion  the  two  boys  had  turned  the  carriage 
round,  and  having  given  to  the  pole  a  suitable  direction  for  a 
point  blank  charge,  were  just  in  the  act  of  launching  it  down 
the  precipitous  declivity,  when  their  uncle  descried  their  danger 

*  The  modem  church  of  Monivaird  is  now  situated  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  old  churchyard. 


DEATH  OF  THEIR  GRANDMOTHER.         19 

and  that  of  his  own  caiTiage.  It  was  too  late  to  avoid  the 
catastrophe;  the  chariot  rolled  down  the  bank  with  all  the 
majesty  of  an  engine  of  war^  acquiring  increased  velocity  at 
every  step^  and  did  the  work  of  a  battering-ram  with  so  much 
effect^  as  to  dash  through  the  wall  in  an  instant.  Happily  a 
broken  pole  was  the  total  amount  of  the  actual  damage,  besides 
the  displacement  of  some  masonry  or  brickwork. 

In  the  following  year  they  lost  their  kind  grandmother,  Lady 
Lundie,  who  was  rather  suddenly  taken  from  them,  at  an  advanced 
age,  in  May,  1777.  In  the  same  year  Lord  Duncan  married 
the  daughter  of  the  Lord  President  Dundas,  a  lady  the  remem- 
brance of  whose  charming  vivacity,  warm-hearted  kindness,  and 
many  admirable  qualities,  the  two  brothers  cherished  with  the 
grateful  feelings  of  almost  filial  affection.  Her  friendship  they 
enjoyed  to  the  close  of  her  long  and  happy  life  in  December, 
1832,  and  during  many  of  her  later  years,  it  was  the  privilege, 
especially  of  her  younger  nephew,  to  minister  to  her  spiritual 
comfort.  After  the  marriage,  it  was  necessary  to  make  new 
arrangements,  and  the  house  in  Dundee  having  been  relin- 
quished, it  was  determined  that  the  two  boys  should  go  to  the 
High  School  of  Edinburgh.  Accordingly,  in  September,  1777, 
they  were  boarded  with  the  Rector  of  the  High  School,  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Adam,  the  author  of  the  '^  Roman  Antiquities,^' 
and  other  valuable  works.  His  house  was  in  Charles-street, 
fronting  the  entrance  into  George-square,  and  overlooking  the 
large  mansion  with  the  court  in  front,  afterwards  Lord  Duncan's, 
but  then  occupied  by  the  Lord  Advocate,  the  Right  Hon.  Henry 
Dundas,  the  first  Lord  Melville.  In  a  letter  written  many 
years  afterwards,  by  Mr.  James  Haldane  to  his  son,  he  says,  ''  I 
"  have  told  you  of  Lord  Melville,  how,  in  winter.  Dr.  Adam, 
''  when  he  called  your  uncle  and  myself  in  the  morning,  used  to 
'*  point  to  his  candle,  burning  in  the  room,  where  he  had  been 
"  labouring  for  a  couple  of  hours  before  we  were  awake.*' 
There  were  along  with  them  at  Dr.  Adam's  several  other 
boarders,  also  attending  the  High  School,  some  of  whom  became 
publicly  known,  such  as  the  Earl  of  Rossmore,  General  Sir 
William  Erskine,  who  commanded  the  cavalry  in  Spain ;  two 

c2 


20  CONTEMPORARIES. 

VanddeurBj  one  of  whom  became  a  titled  General^  and  the  other 
an  Irish  Judge ;  also  the  eldest  son  of  Lord  Decies^  then  Arch- 
bishop of  Tuam^  George  Ramsay  of  Bamton^  &c. 

Robert  at  once  joined  the  fifth  or  Rector's  class  in  the  High 
School^  James  (although  more  than  four  years  younger)  the 
third  class^  then  taught  by  Mr.  French^  a  pious  and  estimable 
man^  with  whom  he  remained  till  August^  1779,  when  he,  too, 
reached  the  fifth  or  highest  class,  according  to  the  Scottish 
mode  of  reckoning,  where  the  lowest  is  the  first,  instead  of  being 
the  highest,  as  in  the  great  Englisli  pubUc  schools. 

There  were  at  the  High  School  several  cotemporaries,  who 
afterwards  became  distinguished  in  the  fields  of  literature,  law, 
or  poUtics.  Boys  of  all  ranks,  from  the  sons  of  the  noble  to 
the  sons  of  the  tradesman,  were  there  associated.  There  were 
also  two  with  whom  both  the  brothers  were  afterwards  to  be 
connected  in  the  reUgious  movement  in  Scotland,  but  with 
neither  of  them  had  they  at  the  time  any  personal  acquaintance. 
The  one  was  the  well-known  Mr,  John  Campbell,  the  African 
Missionary,  who  used  graphically  to  describe  the  time  when  he 
first  saw  his  future  friend  and  fellow-labourer,  James  Haldanc, 
then  buoyant  with  life  and  frohc,  an  energetic  and  high-spirited 
boy,  ever  foremost  in  the  race  of  fun  and  frolic.  The  other 
was  Mr.  Greville  Ewing,  the  son  of  a  respectable  teacher  of 
mathematics  in  Edinburgh.  Mr.  Campbell,  who  was  bom  in 
1766,  was  in  the  class  of  Nicholl,  the  friend  of  Bums,  and  a 
partaker  both  of  Bums'  genius  and  vices ;  Mr.  Ewing,  although 
fifteen  months  older,  was  in  the  same  class  with  James  Haldane, 
consisting  probably  of  nearly  an  hundred  boys,  placed  in  order, 
according  to  their  respective  merits.  Mr.  Ewing,  in  spite  of 
an  intermpted  education,  afterwards  became,  chiefly  through  his 
own  exertions,  esteemed  for  his  scholarship,  but  at  that  time  he 
only  occupied  a  place  about  the  middle  of  Mr.  French's  class. 
James  Haldane  was  near  the  head,  a  position  which  does  not 
always  guarantee  the  same  superiority  in  after-life,  although  it  is 
no  doubt  indicative  of  natural  quickness.  In  noticing  their 
course  of  study,  it  would  be  unjust  to  omit  the  name  of  their 
French  master,  Mr.  Cauvin,  more  usually  named  Mr.  Gavin, 


ANECDOTE.  21 

who  died  some  years  ago^  leaving  a  large  sum  of  money  to  foond 
an  hospital  at  Duddingstone^  where  he  resided.  With  him  they 
were  favourite  pupils^  and  after  they  left  the  High  School  were 
accustomed  to  go  to  his  residence^  and  make  very  agreeable 
excursions  with  him,  when  nothing  but  French  was  spoken. 

On  the  Saturdays,  Sundays,  and  other  casual  holidays,  the 
two  brothers  had  a  happy  home  at  Nellfield,  near  Edinburgh, 
where  their  uncle  then  resided,  imtil  the  war  again  summoned 
him  to  sea.     Their  long  vacation  was  spent  at  Lundie  House. 

In  connexion  with  their  visits  to  Nellfield,  there  is  a  little 
anecdote  which  is  indicative  of  the  manners  of  the  times,  and 
also  used  to  ftimish  some  amusement.  When  James  Haldane 
happened  to  be  walking  out  to  his  uncle's,  he  was  overtaken  by 
a  young  minister  on  horseback,  who  asked  him  where  he  was 
going.  With  great  simplicity,  the  boy  replied,  "  To  Nellfield," 
which  sounding  very  much  like  Melville,  the  minister  supposed, 
from  the  nearness  of  their  age,  that  the  young  gentleman  was 
the  son  of  the  great  dispenser  of  Scottish  patronage,  both  lay 
and  ecclesiastical,  and  was  going  to  Melville  Castle,  near  Lass- 
wade.  He  was  inmiediately  invited  to  mount  behind  the  saddle, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  day,  when  there  were  few 
wheeled  vehicles,  and  was  thus  very  pleasantly  conveyed  along 
the  road.  Arriving  at  the  gate  of  Nellfield,  James  informed  his 
conductor  that  they  must  now  part.  The  disappointment  mani- 
fested was  inexplicable  to  the  imsophisticated  mind  of  a  boy, 
but  the  story  amused  his  friends,  and  was  probably  enjoyed  by 
none  more  than  by  that  busy  statesman,  from  whom  both  of  the 
brothers  received  much  kind  notice,  and  who  had  himself  so 
deeply  studied  human  nature  and  so  well  understood  the  springs 
dir  influence. 

In  his  boyhood  it  was  for  several  years  the  desire  of  Robert 
Haldane  to  fit  himself  for  the  ministry  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  at  Lundie  House  he  used  regularly  every  Sunday  to 
exhibit  this  inclination  by  addressing,  or,  as  it  might  be  called, 
preaching  to  the  domestics  in  the  servants^  hall.  This  might  be 
considered,  perhaps,  as  rather  savouring  of  boyish  sport,  but  he 
himself  spoke  of  it  far  otherwise  near  the  dose  of  his  life,  and 


22  ROBERT   JOINS    THE    MONARCH. 

stated^  that  from  the  time  when  he  was  nine  years  old^  he  had 
more  or  less  of  serious  convictions  as  to  the  things  of  God. 
It  was  also  a  frequent  custom  of  the  two  boys,  after  they  had 
retired  to  bed,  to  converse  together  about  the  things  to  which 
their  departed  mother  had  attached  so  much  importance,  and 
this  habit  was,  no  doubt,  in  itself  beneficial  to  both,  tending  to 
cherish  in  their  hearts  a  hidden  spark  of  love  to  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  things  of  heaven.  But  whatever  were  his  inclinations 
as  to  the  ministry,  it  was  then  deemed  quite  contrary  to 
ordinary  usage  in  Scotland,  that  one  of  his  fortune  and  position 
should  become  a  minister.  He  himself  was  probably  easily 
persuaded  on  the  point,  more  especially  as  the  exploits  of  his 
uncle  kindled  in  his  breast  a  desire  to  follow  him  into  the  navy 
and  share  in  the  glories  of  the  ocean.  The  result  was,  that, 
rather  abruptly  leaving  his  studies  at  the  College  of  Edinburgh 
early  in  1780,  he  joined  the  Monarch  at  Portsmouth. 

The  departure  of  his  uncle  and  aunt  from  the  vicinity  of 
Edinburgh,  followed  by  that  of  his  brother,  were  circumstances 
of  disadvantage  as  well  as  discomfort  to  James.  In  the  memo- 
randum from  which  we  have  already  quoted,  and  which  will  be 
again  referred  to,  he  marks  this  period  as  one  from  which  he 
began  more  openly  to  depart  from  an  outward  attention  to  per- 
sonal religion. 

In  1779-80  and  1780-1  James  passed  through  the  Rector's 
class,  remaining  there  two  years.  He  was  reckoned  a  clever, 
shrewd  boy,  observant,  and  of  quick  perception,  possessing  a 
retentive  memory  and  the  capacity  of  application,  although  his 
love  of  adventurous  sport  strongly  preponderated,  whether  it 
was  exhibited  in  his  dangerous  rambles  on  the  Salisbury 
Craigs,  climbing  what  was  termed  the  "  Cat's  nick"  in  summer, 
or,  during  the  winter,  in  skating  at  Duddingstone  or  Lochend. 
Although  younger  than  the  generality  of  the  boys  of  hia  stand- 
ing in  the  school,  his  usual  place  during  his  last  year  at  the 
Rector's  class  was  about  third,  but  on  the  final  adjustment  of 
places,  the  industry  of  some  of  those  usually  below  him,  and  his 
own  indifference  on  the  subject,  made  him  only  seventh.  When 
Dr.  Adam,  before  the  public  examination,   went  through  his 


JOURNEY   TO    GOSPORT.  23 

usual  plan  of  asking  the  upper  boys  if  they  were  satisfied  with 
their  places^  he  put  the  same  question  to  James  Haldane^  and 
being  answered  in  the  affirmative^  the  Rector  very  significantly 
shook  his  head^  and  remarked^  that  if  he  were  satisfied^  it  was 
not  much  to  his  credit.  Two  or  three  years  before^  when  he 
was  under  Mr.  French^  Dr.  Adam  met  him  in  the  street  returning 
from  school^  and  proposed  to  give  him  the  pleasure  of  accom- 
panying him  to  some  show  or  exhibition.  But  observing  that 
his  clothes  had  been  soiled  in  the  boisterous  amusements  of  the 
High  School  yards^  the  Rector  reproved  his  Uttle  pupil^  and 
said  that  he  did  not  himself  choose  to  be  seen  in  such  company. 
Before  dismissing  the  boy^  he  asked^  however^  what  was  his 
place  in  his  class^  and  being  told  that  he  was  Dux^  or  firsts  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  learned  Rector  was  kindled^  and  affectionately 
grasping  the  hand  of  his  scholar^  he  exclaimed^  "  I  would  walk 
with  you  although  you  were  clothed  in  rags  1^' 

In  1781-2  he  went  to  the  College^  and  for  tKree  sessions 
continued,  under  the  observation  of  Dr.  Adam,  to  attend  the 
different  professors  of  Greek,  Latin,  mathematics,  logic,  meta- 
physics, and  natural  philosophy,  in  their  usual  order. 

In  1783  Colonel  Duncan  took  him  to  London,  on  a  visit  to 
(Josport,  where  the  future  Admiral  resided  for  five  years  with 
his  family,  during  the  peace,  in  command  of  the  Edgar  guard- 
ship.  The  interest  of  the  journey,  which  in  those  days  was  a 
formidable  affair,  with  the  novelty  of  a  new  country  and  new 
places,  became  enhanced  by  the  spectacle  of  a  remarkable  meteor 
which  then  passed  over  England.  After  seeing  the  wonders  of 
the  great  metropolis,  they  proceeded  to  Gk)sport,  where  an 
acquaintance  was  begun  with  the  great  and  good  Dr.  Bogue, 
which  ripened  into  Christian  friendship,  (mly  terminating  with 
death. 

It  was  the  wish  of  both  his  uncles  that  he  should  enjoy  the 
advantage  of  seeing  as  much  as  possible  of  their  own  country 
before  going  to  sea.  Accordingly  it  was  arranged,  that  in 
August,  1784,  Dr.  Adam  should  take  James  Haldane,  and  his 
schoolfellow,  the  late  George  Ramsay,  of  Bamton,  on  a  tour 
through  the  North  of  England.    They  travelled  on  horseback. 


24     TOUR  THROUGH  THE  NORTH  OF  ENGLAND. 

and  the  commencement  of  their  journey  was  rather  auspicious, 
for,  stopping  at  Haddington,  they  accidentally  made  acquaint- 
ance with  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Haldane,  who,  although 
an  entire  stranger,  was  so  much  pleased  with  his  young  name- 
sake, that  he  presented  him  with  a  very  handsome  and  well- 
bred  horse,  in  order  that  he  might  not  be  worse  mounted  than 
young  Ramsay,  who  had  been  furnished  by  his  uncle,  who  was 
then  the  Tattersall  of  Scotland. 

They  travelled  by  Berwick,  Newcastle,  York,  and  Hull,  into 
Derbyshire,  returning  by  Lancashire  and  Cumberland  to  Edin- 
burgh. They  were  accompanied  on  this  tour  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Macknight,  the  well-known  commentator,  whose  practical  disre- 
gard of  the  Lord^s-day  made  a  deep  impression  on  James  Haldane. 
Although  Dr.  Adam  was  not  an  enlightened  man  in  spiritual 
things,  and  then  attended  the  very  moderate  teaching  of  the 
minister  of  St.  Cuthbert^s  Chapel-of-Ease,  yet  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  reverence  the  outward  symbols  of  reUgion.  But 
when  they  had  crossed  the  border,  and  arrived  in  an  Episcopalian 
country.  Dr.  Macknight  persuaded  his  learned  friend  that,  being 
now  out  of  the  bounds  of  Presbytery,  and  under  no  obligation  to 
countenance  Prelatical  worship,  it  would  be  very  absurd  to  allow 
their  journeying  plans  to  be  deranged  by  the  intervention  of  the 
Sabbath.  This  convenient  doctrine  at  first  surprised,  but  at  last 
proved  very  palatable  to  the  young  travellers.  For  a  time.  Dr. 
Adam  felt  very  much  ashamed  when  they  entered  a  town  or 
village  when  the  church-going  bells  were  calling  the  people  to 
the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  But  these  scruples  were  soon 
overcome  by  the  doughty  commentator,  who  was  thus  in  effect 
giving  a  practical  warning  against  that  frigid  scheme  of  rational- 
istic Arminianism  which  pervades  his  writings.  There  was  no 
writer  whom  the  two  brothers  in  after-life  regarded  as  a  more 
dangerous  corruptor  of  the  truths  of  the  Gospel. 

On  their  retui-n  to  Edinburgh,  James  Haldane  bade  farewell 
to  Dr.  Adam  and  the  house  in  Charles-street,  where  he  had  now 
spent  nearly  seven  years  of  his  life.  The  months  during  which 
he  remained  in  Scotland  before  going  to  sea  in  the  East  India 
service  were  spent  at  Lundie  House,  and  the  ColoneFs  unre- 


EARLY    UISTOIIV.  25 

mitting  kindness  was  always  cherished  by  him  with  grateful 
recollection. 

He  was  now  in  his  seventeenth  year^  and  before  noticing  the 
chief  incidents  in  his  life  at  sea^  it  may  be  natmal  to  ask^  What 
now  was  his  spiritual  condition^  and  what  were  his  prospects 
as  to  an  eternal  existence  7 

For  a  long  time  after  their  mother's  deaths  both  the  brothers 
were  much  solenmized  by  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  those 
things  which  she  had  so  earnestly  inculcated.  Their  sister's 
death  had  doubtless  for  a  time  tended  to  deepen  the  impression. 
When  they  came  to  Edinburgh  they  used  to  be  remarked^  and 
even  laughed  at^  for  their  reverence  for  sacred  things.  Robert 
Haldane's  inclination  for  the  ministry  has  been  already  noticed ; 
and  two  elderly  ladies  from  Durham^  who  then  lived  in  Edin- 
burgh^ the  cousins  of  their  deceased  grandmother^  the  widow  of 
Colonel  Haldane^  often  lamented  that  young  James  should  be 
destined  for  so  rough  a  profession  as  that  of  a  sailor.  They  did 
not  desire  him  to  be  a  Presbyterian  minister^  but  said  that  it 
would  be  much  better  were  he  to  enter  the  English  Churchy  to 
which  they  themselves  belonged^  in  which  he  might  possibly 
become  a  Bishop^  and  added^  as  interfering  with  this  airy  castle^ 
the  expression  of  their  regret  at  the  death  of  their  brother, 
who  had  in  his  gift  an  excellent  preferment^  which  would  have 
admirably  provided  for  their  young  relative.  But  whatever 
appearances  of  seriousness  continued  for  some  years,  they  were 
not  enduring,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  extract  from  the 
manuscript  already  quoted : — 

'^  Till  I  was  twelve  years  old  I  continued  to  pray,  go  to  church, 
"  and  read  my  Bible  or  other  good  books  on  the  Sabbath,  but  it 
''  was  only  from  a  principle  of  duty,  and  was  indeed  only  that 
"  kind  of  bodily  exercise  which  profiteth  little.  I  had  no  pleasure 
"  in  any  religious  duty,  but  conscience  retained  a  certain  influ- 
''  ence,  and  made  me  afraid  to  give  them  up.  I  was  well  pleased 
''if  any  slight  illness,  or  anything  occurred  which  seemed  a 
''  sufficient  excuse  to  myself  for  staying  at  home  on  the  Lord^s- 
day.  Indeed,  I  hardly  attended  to  one  word  I  heard  when  at 
cborch,  but  only  made  a  form  of  joining  in  the  di£ferent  parts 


26  RELI0I0U8    IMPRESSIONS. 


tc 

€€ 
€{ 

4( 


of  the  worship.  Sometimes,  however,  I  had  serious  thoughts ; 
occasionally,  on  a  Sabbath  evening,  after  reading  the  Scriptures 
or  other  books,  I  felt  a  kind  of  flow  of  the  natural  passions,  and 
had  a  good  deal  of  pleasure  in  prayer.  This  always  puffed  me  up 
*'  with  thoughts  that  I  was  very  good.  But  to  show  how  much 
'^  I  considered  prayer  as  a  task,  if  I  had  bowed  my  knee  in  such 
"  a  frame  as  this  before  supper,  I  considered  it  unnecessary  to 
''  pray  again  when  I  went  to  bed.  About  that  time,  that  text  of 
"  Proverbs  xxvi.  12,  '  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his  own  conceit,* 
"  &c.,  struck  me  a  good  deal.  I  had  just  been  thinking  that  I 
'^was  in  the  right  road  to  heaven,  but  that  text  rather  cast  a 
'^  damp  upon  my  hopes,  for  it  seemed  to  describe  my  character. 
'^  I  generally  used  a  form  of  prayer,  but  when  I  felt  such  emo- 
'*  tions  as  I  have  described,  I  prayed  in  such  words  as  occurred. 
'^  From  about  13  to  16,  I  became  more  careless,  often  spending 
"  the  Sabbath  evenings  in  idle  conversation  with  my  companions, 
'^  and  I  was  pleased  to  And  my  conscience  become  less  and  less 
''  scrupulous.  I  also  began  to  swear,  because,  according  to  the 
*'  fashion  of  the  times,  it  seemed  to  be  manly,  and  except  a  form 
of  prayer,  which  I  still  kept  up,  every  serious  idea  seemed  to 
have  fled.  Some  things,  however,  occurred,  which  led  me 
back  to  a  kind  of  decency.  Some  vexation  I  met  with  from  a 
"  quarrel  with  some  companions,  caused  me  to  pray  to  Grod,  and 
I  began  again  to  read  my  Bible  on  the  Sabbath,  and  completely 
gave  up  swearing  for  a  season.  They  laughed,  and  I  endured 
some  ridicule  for  thus  spending  the  Sabbath,  but  the  opposition 
rather  confirmed  than  altered  my  determination.  I  do  not 
mention  this  as  anything  praiseworthy ;  it  certainly  proceeded 
more  from  pride  than  any  other  principle.^' 
Are  we,  then,  to  suppose  that  the  instructions  of  his  sainted 
mother  had  not  fallen  like  the  good  seed  into  good  ground? 
Had  it  been  scattered  by  the  wayside,  or  on  stony  ground,  or 
amongst  thorns,  and  so  perished  without  yielding  fruit  ?  Had 
her  prayers  been  offered  up  in  vain  ?  Had  the  confidence  of 
that  faith,  which  burned  so  bright  in  the  hour  of  her  departure, 
been  on  behalf  of  her  children  a  vain  trust  in  the  promises  of  the 
Gospel  ?     Had  she  miscalculated  the  meaning  of  those  declara- 


ti 


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tt 
it 


THEIR   mother's    PRATERS.  27 

tions  made  on  behalf  of  the  offspring  of  believing^  prayerful^  and 
persevering  parents  7  It  will  be  seen  that  the  blossoms  of  early 
piety  had  indeed  nearly  disappeared^ — ^that  they  had  proved  like 
the  early  cloud  and  the  morning  dew.  But  yet  the  faithful 
labours  of  the  trustful  mother  had  not  been  in  vain.  Her 
prayers  had  ascended  before  the  mercy-seat^  '' perfumed  with 
much  incense/'  and  were  registered  in  heaven.  The  good  seed 
was  only  buried,  not  lost ;  and  by  and  by,  after  a  long  winter, 
it  was  destined  to  spring  up  in  '^  the  power  of  an  endless  life,'' 
instinct  with  blessings  for  her  children  and  her  children's  chil- 
dren, nay,  for  thousands  who  were  to  receive  the  Gospel  from 
their  voice  or  from  their  writings. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FBOM  ROBERT  HALDANE'S  ENTERDfO  THE  NAVY  TO  HIS 
MARRIAGE  AND  SETTLING  AT  AIRTHREY— THE  MONARCH 
—ACTION  BETWEEN  THE  FOUDROYANT  AND  PEGASE— 
LORD  ST.  VINCENT'S  PREDICTION— INFLUENCE  OF  DR. 
BOGUE  — LOSS  OF  THE  ROYAL  GEORGE  —  RELIEF  OP 
GIBRALTAR— CHASE  OF  THE  LEOCADIA— SAILS  TO  NEW- 
FOUNDLAND—QUITS THE  NAVY— TOUR  OF  EUROPE— HIS 
MARRIAGE— IMPROVEMENTS  AT  AIRTHREY— ANECDOTES. 

[1780—1794.] 

The  current  of  this  narrative  has  conducted  the  reader  down  to 
1785,  when,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  James  Haldanc  went  to  sea. 
It  is  now  time  to  notice  the  career  of  his  elder  brother,  from  the 
period  when  he  rather  unexpectedly  quitted  his  studies  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  in  the  spring  of  1780,  being  then  too  in  his 
seventeenth  year,  entered  the  Royal  Navy. 

The  revolt  of  the  American  Colonies  was  the  first  great  public 
event  which  excited  the  interest  of  the  two  brothers,  and  even 
the  younger  used  to  mention  his  boyish  recollections  of  the 
excitement,  produced  by  the  sudden  arrival  of  the  declaration  of 
independence,  and  the  prospect  of  the  war  with  France.  It  was 
in  1779  that  the  establishment  at  Ncllfield  was  broken  up,  and 
their  uncle  once  more  entered  on  active  service.  It  may  easily  be 
supposed  with  what  interest  his  two  youthful  and  affectionate 
nephews  followed  the  history  of  his  exploits ;  how  their  ardent 
spirits  exulted  in  the  renown  he  obtained  in  Rodncy^s  action 
off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  where  the  Monarch,  outsailing  all  the 
fleet,  bore  the  brunt  of  the  engagement,  disabling  two  hne-of- 
battle  ships  and  capturing  a  third ;  how  they  sympathized  with 
the  burning  indignation  expressed  by  him,  when  the  Channel 
fleet  was  afterwards  compelled  to  retreat  before  the  French,  and 


THE  POUDROYANT.  29 

he  himself  could  only  "  stand  looking  over  the  stem  gallery  of 
the  Monarch^'*  sea-sick  as  well  as  heart-sick  through  contending 
emotions  of  shame  and  vexation.  It  was  shortly  after  this^  that 
Robert  Haldane  himself  joined  the  Monarchy  and  remained  in 
that  ship  until  the  spring  of  1781^  when  it  was  ordered  to  the 
West  Indies^  and  Lord  Duncan's  health  having  previously  severely 
suffered  from  the  climate  of  the  Havannah^  he  was  persuaded  to 
relinquish  a  tropical  expedition  for  active  service  nearer  home. 

Before  he  was  enabled  to  commission  the  Blenheim^  of  90  guns^ 
in  order  to  prevent  loss  of  time^  he  transferred  his  nephew  to  the 
Foudroyant^  of  80  guns^  commanded  by  his  friend  and  contem- 
porary. Captain  Jervis,  the  future  Earl  St.  Vincent. 

Of  the  Foudroyant,  Mr.  Haldane  was  accustomed,  even  in  old 
age,  to  speak  with  something  of  youthful  enthusiasm.  It  had 
been  captured  from  the  French,  and  was  the  finest  ship  in  the 
British  Navy.  It  was  not  only  a  model  of  naval  architecture, 
but  was  gilt  to  the  water's  edge ;  whilst  its  height  between  decks 
was  greater  than  that  of  the  Britannia  of  100  guns,  which  car- 
ried the  flag  of  the  renowned  Admiral  Barrington,  to  whose 
squadron  it  belonged.  He  used  to  mention  that  on  visiting  the 
Admiral,  whose  younger  brother  was  the  well-known  Bishop  of 
Durham,  and  whose  elder  brother  had  been  one  of  his  father's 
guardians,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  stoop  between  decks  of 
the  flag-ship,  whilst  in  the  Foudroyant,  although  standing  nearly 
six  feet  high,  he  was  able  to  walk  upright. 

But  a  short  time  after  he  joined  the  Foudroyant  he  was  called 
to  take  part  in  the  celebrated  action  with  the  Feg&se,  which  was 
the  foundation  of  all  Lord  St.  Vincent^s  great  fame.  It  was  a 
night  engagement.  A  French  fleet  of  six  sail-of-the-line  were 
retreating  before  Admiral  Barrington  with  twelve.  The  chase 
began  at  noon  on  the  19th  of  April,  and  the  Foudroyant,  out- 
sailing all  the  rest,  and  leaving  them  as  if  at  anchor,  singled  out 
the  Pegase  at  10  at  night,  and  at  47  minutes  past  12,  having 
run  at  the  rate  of  eleven  knots  an  hour,  brought  her  to  close 
quarters.  The  respective  forces  of  the  two  ships  were  nearly 
equal;  for  although  the  British  had  six  guns  more  than  the 
enemy,  yet  the  latter  had  sixty  more  men,  with  a  greater  weight 
of  metalj  carrying  forty-pounders  on  the  lower  decks,  and  a  crew 


80  ANECDOTE   OF   CAPT.   BO  WEN. 

of  seven  hundred  sailors.  These  particulars  Mr.  Haldane  used 
to  say  had  been  omitted  in  narratives  of  the  action^  although 
Admiral  Barrington^s  despatch  mentions^  in  general  terms^  that 
the  two  combatants  were  in  point  of  force  nearly  equal.  He 
often  referred  with  pleasure  to  an  instance  of  his  gallant  Com- 
mander^s  magnanimity.  Just  as  the  ships  were  about  to  open 
their  fire,  the  officer  on  the  forecastle  called  out  that  the  enemy 
had  '^put  her  helm  up  to  rake.''  Captain  Jervis  instantly 
exclaimed^  "  Then  put  the  helm  a-starboard/'  meaning  to  deUver 
his  broadside  from  the  starboard  guns.  At  that  critical  moment 
one  of  his  midshipmen, — a  friend  of  Mr.  Haldane's^  the  gallant 
Bowen,  who  fell  by  the  side  of  Nelson  at  Teneriffe, — saw  that 
an  opposite  manoeuvre  would  give  to  the  Foudroyant  the  advan- 
tage of  the  first  fire^  and  enable  her  to  rake^  instead  of  being 
raked.  On  the  moment,  this  gallant  young  man,  standing  by 
the  wheel,  called  out,  "  Port,  port ;  if  we  put  our  helm  to  port, 
we  shall  rake  her.''  His  eagerness  admitted  of  no  denial.  The 
helm  was  brought  to  port ;  the  broadside  of  the  Foudroyant  was 
poured  into  the  Feg&se ;  and  when  the  smoke  cleared  off.  Captain 
Jervis,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment,  pulled  off  his  hat  on 
the  quarter-deck,  and  turning  to  the  young  officer,  exclaimed, — 
"  Thanks^  Bowen :  you  were  right." 

The  battle  lasted  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  the  skill  as 
well  as  the  zeal  which  directed  the  guns  under  Robert  Haldane's 
charge^  attracted  the  notice  of  his  observant  Commander.  At 
one  time,  holding  a  lantern  in  his  hand,  he  wa^  seen  directing 
the  proper  elevation  of  a  gun.  An  old  sailor  warned  him  that 
he  was  making  himself  a  mark  for  the  enemy ;  but  he  indignantly 
repelled  the  admonition^  telling  his  well-meaning  and  sensible 
adviser  that,  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  he  should  disdain  to  think 
of  personal  danger.  At  one  time  the  ships  almost  touched  each 
other,  and  a  gunner  being  asked  why  he  did  not  withdraw  the 
rammer^  replied  that  he  could  not  on  account  of  the  Frenchman. 
The  gun  was  discharged  with  the  rammer  undrawn. 

After  the  Peg&se  was  laid  on  board,  and  had  struck,  the  ships 
separated ;  and  it  blew  so  fresh,  and  there  was  so  much  sea,  that 
it  was  with  great  difficulty  and  the  loss  of  two  boats  that  an 
officer  and  eighty  men  could  be  sent  into  the  prize  and  bring  off 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  PEGaSE.  31 

forty  prisoners.  During  the  action^  the  watchful  eye  of  the  hero 
of  St.  Vincent  had  marked  the  zeal  and  gallantry  of  Robert 
Haldane,  and  he  indicated  his  approval  by  appointing  him  to 
accompany  one  of  the  lieutenants  who  was  going  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  Peg&se^  with  orders  to  bring  back  its  commander^  Le 
Chevalier  Cillart.  There  was  another  reason  which  prompted 
the  selection.  He  had  discovered  Robert  Haldane^s  talents  and 
attainments^  and  often  employed  him  as  his  amanuensis,  and  he 
was  the  only  officer  on  board  who  understood  French.  The  duty 
assigned  to  him  was  discharged  with  characteristic  courtesy, 
determination,  and  zeal.  On  boarding  the  Peg&se,  he  found  the 
decks  floated  with  blood,  seven  men  lying  dead  at  one  gun. 
Having  been  conducted  through  this  scene  of  slaughter  to  the 
ChevaUer,  he  explained  the  nature  of  his  orders,  but  the  French- 
man protested  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  get  into  an  open 
boat  in  such  a  sea  and  at  such  an  hour.  The  necessity  of  the 
ease  was  explained,  the  weakness  of  the  captors  in  point  of 
numbers  as  compared  with  the  vanquished.  Still  the  captain 
demurred,  when  the  lieutenant,  who  had  charge  of  the  prize,  by 
drawing  his  sword  added  a  very  significant  argument,  which 
fully  compensated  for  his  inability  to  express  himself  in  French* 
The  Chevalier  then  submitted,  and  was  conducted  safely  to  the 
Foudroyant,  amidst  murmurs  which  promised  to  bear  in  mind 
this  treatment  when  he  returned  to  France. 

After  the  action  Sir  John  Jervis  wrote  to  Captain  Duncan, 
congratulating  him  on  the  determined  spirit  and  ability  of  his 
nephew,  and  predicting  that  Robert  Haldane  would  one  day  be 
an  ornament  to  his  country.  This  prediction  was  destined  to 
be  fulfilled  in  a  manner  far  difierent  from  that  which  the  hero  of 
St.  Vincent  then  imagined.  His  renown  was  not  to  be  won  on 
the  quarter-deck  of  a  British  man-of-war,  or  amidst  such  scenes  of 
blood  as  those  which  had,  for  the  first  time,  somewhat  solemnized 
the  exulting  joy  of  the  young  warrior.  But  even  then,  amidst 
the  satisfaction  derived  from  the  applause  of  the  great  officer 
under  whom  he  served,  there  was  one  circumstance,  the  recol- 
lection of  which  interested  his  mind  during  the  very  last  days  of 
hia  mortal  career,  although  sixty  long  years  had  elapsed.     He 


32  INFLUENCE    OF    DR.  BOGUE. 

mentioned  that^  on  that  night,  on  going  into  action  with  the 
Peg&se,  when  his  heart  heat  high  with  ardent  zeal,  he  breathed  out 
an  earnest  prayer  to  Grod,  that  he  might  now  be  strengthened  to 
discharge  his  duty  as  became  a  British  sailor,  in  defence  of  his 
country.  It  was  not  that  he  then  made  any  open  profession 
of  religion,  or  had  any  settled  or  abiding  principle  of  godliness 
in  his  heart.  On  the  contrary,  pride,  ambition,  the  love  of 
distinction,  and  other  forms  of  worldliness,  were  all  in  the 
ascendant.  But,  beneath  this  heap  of  rubbish,  there  was  still 
germinating  in  the  hidden  recesses  of  his  inmost  soul  the  incor- 
ruptible seed,  implanted  by  a  mother's  hand,  and  watered  by  a 
mother's  prayers.  Invisible  to  mortal  eye  it  there  existed,  and, 
on  such  an  occasion  as  that  of  his  going  for  the  first  time  into 
battle,  seemed  like  a  spark  of  life  ready  to  burst  out,  and  make 
the  gallant  youth  act  not  as  a  reckless  unbeliever,  but  as  a 
Christian  hero. 

After  the  return  of  the  Foudroyant  to  Spithead,  and  during  the 
period  which  elapsed  before  the  relief  of  Gibraltar,  he  had  frequent 
opportunities  of  spending  much  of  his  time  at  Gosport,  and 
attending  the  ministry  of  the  late  David  Bogue,  whose  influence 
on  his  own  mind  and  that  of  his  brother,  both  intellectually  and 
spiritually,  was  greatly  blessed.  Dr.  Bogue  was  a  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian minister,  educated  for  the  Established  Church,  who 
ultimately  settled,  in  1778,  at  Gosport,  where  he  continued  imtil 
his  death,  in  1825,  the  pastor  of  an  Independent  congregation, 
but  still  foremost,  throughout  the  land,  in  all  those  great  objects 
of  Christian  philanthropy,  which  marked  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

Between  1779  and  1787  Gosport  was  the  head-quarters  of 
Lord  Duncan.  Till  the  peace  of  1783  he  was  attached  to  the 
Channel  Fleet,  successively  commanding  the  Monarch  of  74, 
and  the  Blenheim  of  90  guns,  and  chiefly  cruizing  between 
Spithead  and  Gibraltar.  After  the  peace,  he  commanded  the 
Edgar  guard-ship  until  he  obtained  his  flag,  in  1787.  These 
circumstances  are  to  be  numbered  amongst  the  providential 
links  in  the  history  of  both  the  brothers.  It  was  thus,  that  they 
were  both  brought  much  into  contact  with  Dr.  Bogue,  to  whom 


LOSS  OF  THE  ROYAL  OEOROE.  33 

they  became  much  attached.  They  attended  hia  minUtry,  and 
by  him  they  were  directed  in  their  course  of  reading  and  in  their 
choice  of  books,  both  on  shore  and  at  sea.  Thus  is  it  that  the 
Lord  is  pleased  to  work  out  his  designs  of  mercy  and  of  love,  in  a 
way  which  we  cannot  comprehend,  subordinating  all  the  changes 
and  chances  of  life  to  the  purposes  which  he  has  foreordained, 
leading  his  dependent  creatures  by  a  way  which  they  know  not, 
until  the  mystery  of  God  shall  be  accomplished,  and  the  events 
which  seemed  only  accidental,  shall  be  seen  to  have  been  guided 
by  the  unerring  hand  of  Infinite  Wisdom. 

During  the  summer  of  1782,  Admiral  Barrington's  squadron 
was  placed  under  the  orders  of  Earl  Howe,  whose  duty  it  wag 
to  protect  our  shores  and  our  commerce,  menaced,  as  they  were, 
onthe  one  hand  by  the  Dutch,  and  on  the  other  by  the  French 
and  Spanish  fleets.  Towards  the  end  of  the  summer  pre- 
parations were  made  for  a  great  expedition  to  reheve  Gibraltar. 
At  this  period,  when  the  grand  fleet  lay  at  Spithead,  Mr.  Ilal- 
dane  was  a  witness  of  the  loss  of  the  Royal  George,  which 
happened  on  the  39tb  of  August,  1782.  On  the  morning 
of  that  memorable  day,  soon  after  breakiast,  he  was  looking 
through  a  telescope,  watching,  with  interest,  the  operation  of 
heeling  over  of  the  ship,  when,  on  a  suddeu,  it  overset,  filled,  and 
sunk.  There  were  at  least  twelve  hundred  souls  on  board, 
including  women  and  children,  and,  in  charge  of  a  boat  from  the 
Foudroyant,  he  was  one  of  the  most  active  in  picking  up  and 
saving  the  drowning  crew.  Of  those  who  went  down  not  more 
than  three  hundred  were  rescued;  and  at  Portsca  and  the  Isle  of 
Wight  so  many  dead  bodies  were  interred,  that  it  is  calculated 
that  nine  hundred  must  have  perished.  On  the  next  Lord's- 
day.  Dr.  B<^e  preached  a  sermon,  which  produced  a  deep  and 
general  impression,  from  Fsalm  zzxvi.,  "Thy  judgments  are  a 
great  deep." 

The  slate  of  public  affairs  at  this  juncture  may  be  inferred 
from  the  het,  that  the  catastrophe  of  the  Royal  George  was 
T^arded  as  a  national  calami^,  not  merely  involving  the  loss  of 
aa  admiral  and  a  gallant  crew,  but  diminishing  the  strength 
of  the  grand  fleetj  then  under  orders  for  Gibraltar,  and  expecting 


34  RELIEF   OF    GIBRALTAR. 

to  encounter  a  greatly  superior  force,  belonging  to  the  navies  of 
France  and  Spain.  On  the  11th  of  September  following.  Lord 
Howe  sailed  with  thirty-four  ships-of-the-line,  besides  frigates, 
and  a  great  convoy  of  one  hundred  and  forty  transports,  carrying 
troops,  stores,  and  provisions.  The  reUef  of  Gibraltar  forms 
one  of  the  most  striking  incidents  in  that  memorable  siege,  in 
which  the  united  resources  of  the  Bourbons  of  France  and 
Spain  were  vainly  lavished,  for  the  recovery  of  that  celebrated 
fortress.  It  was  a  great  crisis,  and  it  was  generally  believed 
that  its  reconquest  would  have  ruined  the  influence  of  Britain 
to  the  eastward  of  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  given  to  her  rivals 
the  command  of  the  Mediteri-ancan.  Lord  Howe's  fleet  was 
greatly  inferior  to  the  enemy.  But  Mr.  Haldane,  in  after- 
life, used  often  to  dwell  on  the  remarkable  interposition  of 
Providence,  by  which  he  beUevcd  that  the  disparity  of  force 
was,  in  some  degree,  neutrahzed,  and  the  convoy  enabled  to 
land  their  supphes.  On  the  10th  of  October  a  look-out  frigate 
returned  to  Lord  Howe,  with  the  formidable  inteUigence  that 
the  combined  fleets,  anchored  in  Algesiras  Bay,  consisted  of 
fifty  sail-of-the-line,  besides  frigates.  On  that  night  a  sudden 
and  violent  tempest  scattered  and  disabled  the  French  and 
Spanish  fleet,  whilst  the  British  rode  secure  under  the  lee  of 
the  African  mountains.  Several  of  the  enemy,  including  some 
three-deckers,  were  driven  ashore,  others  were  compelled  to  run 
to  the  eastward,  and  all  were,  more  or  less,  damaged ;  so  that, 
when  Captain  Curtis  arrived  from  General  Elliott  on  the  12th, 
he  was  enabled  to  inform  the  Admiral,  that  there  then  remained 
in  the  bay  only  forty  sail-of-the-line,  and  three  of  56  guns. 
But  this  was  not  all.  On  the  13th  the  enemy  put  to  sea, 
partly  to  protect  his  scattered  ships,  and  partly  to  intercept 
the  British  convoy.  He  cleared  Europa  point,  and  passed  the 
night  perfectly  becalmed;  whilst  Lord  Howe  being  to  the  east- 
ward of  the  rock,  taking  advantage  of  an  easterly  wind  which 
sprung  up,  carried  the  convoy  safe  into  Gibraltar,  amidst  the 
cheers  and  acclamations  of  the  garrison.  In  the  performance  of 
this  manoeuvre  the  Foudroyant  was  the  leading  ship,  and  bore 
the  chief  part  in  the  affair.     The  gallant  Earl's  movement  was 


PROVIDENTIAL    OCCURRENCES.  35 

no  doubt  masterly^  but  the  storm  which  burst  with  fury  on  the 
combined  fleets  on  the  10th,  and  the  calm  which  paralyzed 
them  on  the  12th,  together  with  the  sudden  change  of  the 
wind,  were  all  contingencies  enabling  the  British  to  effect  the 
grand  object  of  the  expedition.  To  those  who  would  banish  the 
remembrance  of  God  from  their  own  hearts,  and  exclude  the 
Almighty  fh)m  the  government  of  His  own  creation,  such 
incidents  will  appear  the  result  of  accident,  and  a  reference  to 
an  overruling  Providence  will  provoke  the  smile  of  ridicule. 
But  to  those  who  delight  to  trace  the  finger  of  God  in  the 
smallest  as  well  as  the  greatest  of  human  affairs,  such  facts  will 
furnish  in  after-life,  as  they  did  to  Mr.  Haldane,  fresh  matter  of 
grateful  meditation  on  the  character  of  Him,  who  is  wonderful 
in  working,  who  ^^  holds  the  winds  in  his  fist,  and  the  waters  in 
the  hollow  of  his  hands,''  and  who  does  amongst  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  according  to  His  own  good  pleasure.  '^  Whoso  is 
vnse,  and  will  observe  these  things,  even  they  shall  understand 
the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord.'' 

After  the  relief  of  Gibraltar,  Lord  Howe  gave  orders  to  return 
from  the  Straits,  but  so  intent  on  action  were  the  crew  of  the 
Victory  that  they  refused  to  put  round  the  wheel,  and  their 
murmurs  almost  amounted  to  open  mutiny,  until  the  Noble 
Admiral  assured  them  that  they  should  fight  in  the  open  seas. 
An  action  did  take  place,  in  which  the  Foudroyant  took  part, 
and  in  which  the  British  loss  amounted  to  276  in  killed  and 
wounded.  Sir  John  Jervis  was  much  dissatisfied,  and  pacing 
the  quarter-deck  in  great  excitement,  with  his  hat  in  his  hand, 
continued  to  exclaim,  ''For  shame  I  Lord  Howe."  But  the 
enemy  had  ten  sail-of-the-line  more  than  the  British,  with 
friendly  ports  in  case  of  a  defeat,  whilst  Lord  Howe  was  not 
only  inferior  in  forbe,  but  had  no  shelter  for  damaged  or  disabled 
ships.  Mr.  Haldane  used  also  to  state,  that  in  passing  Lord 
Howe's  orders  for  closer  action  from  ship  to  ship,  some  mistake 
occurred,  which  caused  them  to  haul  their  wind,  and  so  sepa- 
rated the  fleets.  In  the  morning  the  enemy  did  not  choose  to 
renew  the  combat. 

After  this  affair  the  fleet  sailed  for  England,  and  an  incident 

D  2 


36  CHASE    OF   THE    LEOCADIA. 

occurred  which  again  discovered  the  young  sailor's  force  of 
character.  The  Leocadia^  a  Spanish  sixty-gun  ship^  was  chased 
by  the  fleets  and  the  Foudroyant^  as  usual^  far  outsailing  the 
rest^  was  rapidly  coming  up  with  her^  when  a  signal  from  Lord 
Howe  induced  Sir  John  Jervis  at  once  to  abandon  the  chase. 
It  was,  however,  when  the  Foudroyant  was  carrying  a  press  of 
canvas  in  pursuit,  that  Robert  Haldane  was  ordered  to  take  his 
post  on  the  fore-top-gallant  mast,  and  remain  on  the  look-ouf 
till  recalled.  The  mast  sprung,  and  as  there  was  no  order  to 
descend,  he  expected  at  every  blast  to  be  hurled  into  the  deep. 
Another  midshipman  thought  himself  justified,  under  the  circum- 
stances, in  retiring  to  a  safer  position.  Not  so  his  companion, 
who  remembered  his  commander's  maxim,  ''never  to  make  a 
difficulty ^^  in  carrying  out  an  order.  He  therefore  heroically 
remained,  as  did  an  old  seaman,  who  advised  him  to  lay  hold  of 
the  lower  parts  of  the  ropes,  so  that,  in  the  event  of  the  antici- 
pated plunge,  there  might  be  a  better  chance  of  keeping  hold  of 
the  mast  with  their  heads  uppermost.  At  this  moment  there 
arose  a  cry  of  '*  A  man  overboard  !  '^  Sir  John  Jervis  instantly 
gave  an  order  to  shorten  sail,  and  then  for  the  first  time 
discovering  the  perilous  situation  of  those  on  the  look-out, 
they  were  commanded  to  come  down.  Those  who  remember 
the  character  of  Lord  St.  Vincent  will  easily  imagine  the  impres- 
sion produced  by  the  determination  with  which  his  orders  had 
been  obeyed  at  all  hazards. 

On  its  arrival  at  Spithead  the  Foudroyant  was  paid  ofiT,  and 
Sir  John  Jervis  was  appointed  to  commission  the  Salisbury,  of 
fifty  guns,  and  to  hoist  his  broad  pennant  as  Commodore  of  a 
squadron,  bound  on  an  expedition,  intended  to  combine  a  voyage 
round  the  world  for  purposes  of  discovery,  with  an  attack  on  the 
Spanish  settlements  in  South  America.  Robert  Haldane  was 
one  of  those  whom  he  expressly  selected  to  accompany  him,  as 
a  young  man  of  whom  he  entertained  high  expectations,  and 
whose  services  he  valued  both  on  the  deck  and  in  his  cabin. 
Long  before  this  Sir  John  Jervis  had  won  his  regard,  and  when 
the  fleet  sailed  for  Gibraltar  he  had  declined  his  imcle^s  kind 
proposal  to  remove  to  the  Blenheim,  justly  considering  that  the 


QUITS    THE    NAVY.  37 

comforts  of  being  with  a  relation  were  counterbalanced  by  its 
necessary  disadvantages. 

The  peace  put  an  end  to  the  South  American  expedition. 
The  Salisbury  went  to  Newfoundland^  but  not  under  Sir  John 
Jervis,  who,  for  a  time,  retired  into  private  life.  Mr.  Haldane 
made  this  voyage,  but  having  no  longer  the  promise  of  imme- 
diate promotion,  returned  in  the  ^olus  frigate  to  Lisbon,  and 
thence  rejoined  his  uncle  at  Gosport. 

All  incitement  to  enterprise  being  thus  withdrawn,  he  bade 
adieu  to  a  service  to  which  he  was  enthusiastically  attached  to 
the  very  last.  Even  to  the  end  of  his  career,  nearly  sixty  years 
after  his  retirement,  it  was  interesting  to  observe  how  easily  his 
youthful  predilections  seemed  to  revive  when  the  British  navy 
was  the  topic  of  conversation.  To  everything  which  concerned 
its  efficiency,  as  an  arm  of  national  defence,  or  the  moral  welfare 
and  comforts  of  sailors,  his  sympathies  were  always  alive.  He 
was  never  an  egotist,  and  talked  little  of  his  own  exploits,  even 
to  his  nearest  relations.  But  there  were  occasions  when,  in  the  * 
confidence  of  friendly  intercourse,  he  might  be  drawn  on  to 
speak  of  his  adventures  at  sea ; —  how  he  had  been  on  one  occa- 
sion reproved  by  a  lieutenant  for  taking  the  wheel  from  the 
helmsman,  and  how  Sir  John  Jervis,  ascertaining  that  it  was  in 
order  to  learn  to  steer,  applauded  his  zeal,  and  issued  orders 
that  all  the  midshipmen  should  take  their  turn  at  the  wheel ; 
how  he  was  employed  as  the  amanuensis  of  his  captain ;  or  how, 
in  his  nucleus  ship,  when  pursuing  some  French  men-of-w^ar, 
the  Monarch,  outsailing  the  rest  of  the  fleet,  got  into  the  midst 
of  a  convoy,  but  the  discipline  of  the  ship  was  such,  that  boats 
were  let  down  on  each  side  without  swamping,  filled  with 
armed  crews  to  take  possession  of  the  prizes,  whilst  the  Monarch 
never  slackened  her  speed,  but,  with  studding-sails  set,  bore 
down  on  the  flying  ships  of  war. 

When  the  subject  of  manning  the  navy  was  in  1840  so 
prominently  brought  before  the  public  by  Admiral  Hawker, 
writing  imder  the  signature  of  "  A  Flag  Officer,^'  he  read  and 
made  notes  on  his  pamphlets,  and  used  to  say  that  under- 
manning  was  the  worst  possible  economy,  and  that  Lord  Duncan 
always  denounced  the  system.     He  would  also  tell  how,  in  hia^ 


38  INTEREST   IN    NAVAIi    MATTERS. 

own  time,  an  economical  order  had  been  sent  down  from  the 
Admiralty,  to  the  eflfect  that  the  line-of-battle  ships  should 
carry  water-casks  on  deck  to  supply  other  vessels  at  sea;  and 
how  Ijord  Duncan  had  indignantly  declared,  that  whilst  he 
obeyed  the  order  as  in  duty  bound,  yet  it  was  his  intention  to 
avail  himself  of  his  own  discretion,  as  soon  as  he  got  to  the 
back  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  by  staving  every  cask  on  the  deck  of 
the  Monarch  the  moment  he  descried  a  strange  sail.  But  there 
was  nothing  of  this  kind  on  which  latterly  he  talked  with 
greater  interest  than  on  the  care  which  Lord  Duncan  took  of  the 
health  and  comfort  of  his  men,  and  of  his  efforts  to  prevent  the 
necessity  of  their  being  subjected  to  the  constant  wear  and  tear 
of  keeping  "  watch  and  watch/'  One  of  the  chief  evils  of  under- 
manning  consisted,  he  thought,  in  the  necessity  thus  imposed 
on  the  commander  of  constantly  requiring  his  men  to  keep 
"  watch  and  watch,"  even  when  drenched  with  wet,  instead  of 
allowing  them  alternately  the  opportunity  of  eight  hours  of 
'  repose.  On  this  subject  he  spoke  with  much  earnestness  not 
long  before  his  death.  It  was  an  indication  of  his  natural  bene- 
volence, and  of  his  continued  interest  in  a  body  of  men  amongst 
whom  he  had  spent  his  early  years. 

In  fact,  his  natural  bent  towards  the  navy  was  remarkable; 
and  considering  his  energy  and  force  of  character,  his  foresight 
and  powers  of  combination,  together  with  that  faculty  of  inspiring 
confidence  which  he  eminently  possessed,  it  is  no  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  two  of  the  greatest  British  Admirals  under  whom  he 
served,  should  have  concurred  in  the  prediction  that  he  would 
himself  rise  to  reno^ni.  His  career  was  to  be  distinguished,  but 
not  in  the  way  which  attracts  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
The  blood-stained  laurels  of  the  conquering  hero  were  not  to 
encircle  his  brow,  nor  was  he  to  merit  and  achieve  stars, 
coronets,  or  ribbons.  But  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,  he 
was  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith, — to  wrestle  with  princi- 
palities and  powers  and  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places, — 
and  finally,  finishing  his  course  with  joy,  to  lay  hold  of  the 
crown  of  righteousness  and  the  palm  of  victory,  but  only  to  cast 
them  all  before  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb. 

Robert  Haldane  was  only  in  his  twentieth  year  when  the 


MAKES   THB  TOPE  OP   EOEOPE.  39 

peace  of  1783  brought  his  short  but  active  and  eventful  career 
in  the  navy  to  a  close.  The  real  businesB  of  his  useful  life  did 
not  bcglD  for  twelve  years  afterwards,  when  his  brother  alao 
quitted  the  sea,  with  a  mind  impressed  with  the  littleness  of 
time  and  the  magnitude  of  eternity. 

He  remained  for  some  months  at  Gosport,  enjoying  the  advan- 
tage of  Dr.  Bogue's  society  and  tuition,  and  then  proceeded  to 
Edinburgh,  where,  during  the  ensuing  session,  he  resumed  his 
studies  at  the  Umveiaity.  The  summer  of  1784  he  spent  partly 
at  Lundie  House,  and  partly  in  a  short  tour  to  Paris  and  the 
Netherlands,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Bogue,  who  had  also  another 
young  man  under  hia  charge.  In  that  eminent  minister's 
private  joomal,  as  published  in  his  Life  by  Dr.  Bennett,  he 
says,  "  We  spent  a  month  in  wandering  through  Prance  and 
Flanders.  It  was  not  good  for  my  soul."  On  his  return  home, 
Dr.  B(^e  adds,  "  I  bless  God  that  my  lot  is  cast  in  a  land  of 
Gospel  light,  and  adore  him  for  the  care  of  his  providence  over 
me  in  this  expedition,  and  desire  to  live  to  his  glory." 

The  winter  of  1784-5  was  again  spent  in  attending  the 
professors  at  Edinburgh,  and  in  the  spring  he  set  out  upon 
what  used  to  be  called  "the  grand  tour."  Embarking  at 
Harwich,  accompanied  by  a  naval  officer  who  had  been  with  him 
in  the  Foudroyant,  and  soon  afterwards  became  Admiral  of  the 
Turkish  fleet,  he  passed  through  the  principal  cities  of  Holland 
and  Germany  to  Vienna,  where  be  remained  for  some  time. 
Thence,  crossing  the  Tyrolese  Alps,  he  visited  Venice  and  the 
chief  cities  in  Northern  Italy,  Rome  and  Naples,  returning  home 
by  Florence,  Marseilles,  Lyons,  Switzerland,  and  Paris.  He 
was  naturally  an  acute  and  penetrating  observer,  a  great  admirer 
of  scenery,  particularly  of  mountains ;  and  the  interest  which  be 
took  in  his  travels  was  always  manifest,  whether  he  spoke  of  the 
Alps,  the  Pyrenees,  or  the  Appenninea,  or  discoursed  of  the 
antiquities  whi<^  he  had  examined  at  Nismes,  at  Lisbon,  at 
Hercnlaneum,  or  at  Borne. 

On  the  28th  February,  1785,  whilst  he  was  abroad,  he  had 
attained  his  majority,  and  in  the  month  of  April  in  the  following 
year,  shortly  after  his  retnm  home,  he  married  Katherine  Coeh- 


40  HIS    MARRIAGE. 

rane  Oswald,  then  only  in  her  eighteenth  year,  second  daughter 
of  the  late  George  Oswald,  Esq.,  of  Scotstown,  by  his  wife,  the 
daughter  of  Mr.  Smythe,  of  Methven,  in  Perthshire.  Mrs. 
Haldane  was  the  younger  sister  of  the  present  Miss  Oswald,  of 
Scotstown,  as  well  as  of  the  late  Richard  Oswald,  Esq.,  of 
Auchincruive,  long  M.P.  for  Ayrshire.  The  union  was  destined 
to  prove  long  and  happy.  It  lasted  nearly  fifty-seven  years,  and 
Mrs.  Haldane  was  singularly  adapted  to  be  a  true  helpmeet  in 
all  his  future  plans,  participating  in  his  designs  of  usefulness^ 
aiding  him  by  her  prudent  counsel  and  sympathy,  and  never 
intcq)0sing  her  own  personal  wishes  or  comforts  as  an  obstacle 
to  their  accomplishment. 

In  September,  1786,  they  settled  at  his  residence  at  Airthrey, 
near  Stirling,  and  in  the  month  of  April,  1787,  their  daughter 
and  only  child  was  bom. 

For  nearly  ten  years  after  his  marriage,  his  time  was,  in 
a  great  measure,  occupied  ^ith  country  pursuits,  partly  in 
improving  his  estates,  and  partly  in  ornamenting  his  pleasure- 
grounds,  at  a  time  when  landscape-gardening  was  less  common 
in  Scotland,  than  it  has  become  during  the  last  fifty  or  sixty 
years.  In  these,  as  in  other  things  to  which  he  turned  his 
energies,  he  was  eminently  successful,  and  those  most  acquainted 
with  the  subject  were,  in  after-years,  often  glad  to  consult  him 
on  the  best  method  of  laying  out  grounds,  overcoming  natural 
difficulties,  or  transplanting  trees.  At  Airthrey  there  were 
many  fine  old  trees,  chiefly  beeches,  elms,  and  limes,  but  in 
some  places  they  had  been  planted  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century  with  too  much  formality.  This  he  undertook  to 
remedy,  at  a  period  when  the  practice  of  transplanting  full-grown 
trees  had  scarcely  been  attempted  in  Scotland.  His  experiments 
in  this  way  were  generally  successful,  and  at  the  time  attracted 
so  much  wonder  as  to  give  rise  to  the  absurd  report  amongst 
the  people,  that  he  was  contemplating  the  removal  of  the  old 
house  to  a  preferable  situation.* 

•  When  the  site  of  the  Botanical  Gardens  of  Edinburgh  was  changed, 
more  than  twenty  years  ago,  Dr.  Robert  Graham,  the  Professor  of  Botany, 


HIS    OCCUPATIONS    AT   AIRTHREY.  41 

The  situation  of  Airthrey,  on  the  last  slope  of  the  Ochill 
range  of  hills,  is  singularly  picturesque.  Water  was  the  one 
thing  wanting  to  complete  its  beauty.  This  want  Mr.  Haldane 
determined  to  remedy.  Before  he  had  been  settled  there  six 
months  he  commenced  the  excavation  of  an  artificial  lake, 
covering  thirty  acres  of  old  pasture  land  in  the  park,  into  which 
he  conducted  an  abundant  supply  of  water  from  the  hills.  He 
also  erected,  in  1791,  a  new  house,  in  a  castellated  form,  which 
was  designed  by  Adam,  father  of  the  late  Lord  Chief  Com- 
missioner, and  the  grandfather  of  Sir  Charles  and  Sir  Frederick 
Adam.  Mr.  Adam  was  the  architect  of  the  day,  but  his  man- 
sions do  not  impress  us  with  a  high  opinion  of  his  taste  or  skill. 
Mr.  Haldane  also  built  a  stone  wall,  extending  four  miles  round 
the  park,  enlarged  the  gardens,  conducted  walks  through  the 
woods  which  cover  the  overhanging  rocks  and  hills,  and  erected 
summer-houses  on  such  elevated  and  commanding  positions,  as 
overlook  the  most  picturesque  views  of  the  surrounding  scenery. 
Eastward,  the  silver  Forth,  winding  through  one  of  the  richest 
agricultural  valleys  in  the  world,  seeks  the  far-off  German 
Ocean,  lingering  in  its  progress  through  woods  and  rocks, 
villages,  towers,  and  towns,  whilst  westward  its  source  is  hidden 
amidst  the  grandeur  of  the  lofty  Grampians.  Stirling  Castle, 
Craig  Forth,  the  Abbey  Craig,  and  other  striking  objects,  with 
the  ruins  of  Cambuskenneth,  all  so  rich  in  historical  recol- 
lections, lend  a  deeper  moral  interest  to  the  varied  magni- 
ficence of  the  scene,  more  especially  when  the  glow  of  the 
setting  sun  gilds  the  purple  mountains  with  its  changing  hues, 
and  diffuses  a  softer  radiance  over  the  varied  realms  of  natural 
beauty. 

Amongst  the  erections  in  the  woods  of  Airthrey,  there  was 
one  which  excited  considerable  interest,  and  existed  for  many 
years  after  Mr.  Haldane  left  the  place,  but  which  has  long  ago 

was  indebted  to  Mr.  Haldane,  for  much  useful  advice  and  assistance  as  to 
the  transfer  of  a  large  number  of  forest  trees,  of  various  kinds  and  con- 
siderable dimensions,  some  of  them  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  in  height, 
which  were  removed  from  the  old  ground  to  the  new,  a  distance  of  two 
miles  or  upwards.    Dr.  Graham  was  an  old  friend  of  Mr.  H. 


42  HERMITAGE    AT    AIRTIIREY. 

tumbled  into  ruins.  It  was  an  hermitage^  constructed  after  the 
model  of  the  woodland  retreat  to  which  Goldsmith^s  Angehna 
is  led  by  the  "  taper's  hospitable  ray/'  and  discovers  her 
slighted  lover^  who  had  sought  for  consolation  in  a  hermit^s 
life  away  from  the  haunts  of  men.  "  The  wicket  opening  with 
a  latch/'  "  the  rushy  couch/'  "  the  scrip  with  herbs  and  fruits 
supplied/'  all  the  other  sylvan  articles  of  furniture  described 
by  the  poet,  were  there,  whilst  on  the  sides  of  the  adjacent 
rock,  or  within  the  hut  itself,  the  lines  of  Goldsmith  were 
painted  at  proper  intervals, — the  invitation  to  "the  houseless 
child  of  want  to  accept  the  guiltless  feast,  and  the  blessing  and 
repose,'^  concluding  at  last  with  the  sentimental  moral, — 

«  Then,  pilgrim,  turn,  thy  cares  forego,— 
All  earlh-bom  cares  are  wrong, — 
Man  wants  but  little  here  below. 
Nor  wants  that  little  long." 

The  erection  of  this  hermitage  had  nearly  cost  Mr.  Haldane 
his  life,  for,  standing  too  near  the  edge  of  the  rock  on  which  it 
was  placed,  giving  directions  to  the  workmen,  his  foot  slipped, 
and  but  for  a  post  which  he  was  enabled  to  grasp,  would  have 
been  precipitated  to  the  bottom.  The  celebrated  Henry  Erskine, 
with  his  usual  ready  wit,  exclaimed,  "It  was  a  post  for  life!'' 
But  not  content  with  the  erection  of  this  ideal  hermitage,  Mr. 
Haldane,  who  in  his  younger  days  always  delighted  in  a  practical 
joke,  advertised  for  a  real  hermit,  specifying  the  conditions,  which 
were  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  beau-ideal  of  Goldsmith's, 
including  the  prohibition  of  animal  food.  But  the  restrictions 
did  not  prevent  the  author  of  the  jest  from  being  obhged  to  deal 
seriously  with  applications  for  the  place,  and  one  man,  in  parti- 
cular, professed  himself  ready  to  comply  with  all  the  conditions 
except  one,  which  was  that  he  should  never  leave  the  wood. 
To  the  doom  of  perpetual  seclusion  the  would-be  hermit  could 
not  make  up  his  mind  to  submit,  and  the  advertisement  was  not 
repeated. 

Shortly  after  the  construction  of  his  beautiful  lake,  Mr. 
Haldane  was  again  placed  in  imminent  danger.  It  was  winter, 
and,  dui'ing  the  frost,  there  was  a  large  party  of  visitors  and 


REPUTATION    OF    HIS    ABILITIES.  43 

others  on  the  ice,  enjoying  the  amusement  of  skating  and 
curling.  He  was  himself  standing  near  a  chair  on  which  a 
lady  had  been  seated,  when  the  ice  suddenly  broke,  and  he  was 
nearly  carried  under  the  surface.  With  his  usual  presence  of 
mind  he  seized  on  the  chair  which  supported  him,  and  quietly 
gave  directions  to  send  for  ropes,  as  a  rash  attempt  to  extricate 
him  might  have  only  involved  others  in  the  impending  catas- 
trophe. Providentially  there  was  help  at  hand,  and  by  laying 
hold  of  the  ropes  brought  by  a  gamekeeper  and  an  old  servant, 
he  was  happily  extricated  from  his  perilous  position. 

It  is  said,  that  before  the  time  of  Charles  the  Second,  there 
was  not  one  inclosed  park  in  Scotland,  and  this  fact  may  assist 
us  in  estimating  the  amount  of  improvement  which  has  since 
been  accomplished.  By  those  who  remember  how  many  of  the 
principal  mansions  and  parks  in  Scotland  are  of  modem  date,  or 
who  consider  what  must  have  been  their  state  at  the  period 
when  Sir  Walter  Scott  describes  the  old  ch&teau  of  the  Baron  of 
Bradwardine,  and  down  to  the  time  of  Dr.  Johnson^s  tour  to  the 
Hebrides,  it  may  easily  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Haldane's  doings 
at  Airthrey  excited  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  country,  and 
stirred  up  a  disposition  both  to  embellish  and  improve. 

It  was,  moreover,  impossible  to  be  in  his  society  without 
admiring  his  great  abilities,  his  originality  of  thought,  his 
vivacity,  and  general  information.  His  superiority  was  never 
disputed,  and  he  was  reckoned  a  young  man  of  rising  character 
and  great  promise.  The  probability  of  his  coming  into  Parlia- 
ment for  the  county  was  commonly  spoken  of,  not  only  because 
of  his  own  merits,  but  because,  in  those  days  of  oligarchy  in 
Scotland,  his  abilities  and  force  of  character  seemed  to  be 
appreciated  by  the  most  influential  men  in  the  county,  and 
particularly  by  the  late  Duke  of  Montrose,  the  Lord-Lieutenant, 
at  whose  residence  both  the  brothers  had  been  accustomed  to 
visit  from  their  boyhood,  and  who  was  himself  an  occasional 
guest  at  Airthrey.  His  near  neighbour,  the  celebrated  Sir 
Ralph  Abercromby,  who  was  always  remarkable  for  his  sagacity 
and  quick  discernment  of  character,  used  often  to  say,  that  he 


44  SIR   RALPH    ABERCROMBy's    OPINION. 

never  was  in  Mr.  Haldane^s  company  without  hearing  something 
worth  remembering. 

In  the  winter  of  1792-3,  both  Sir  Ralph  and  Mr.  Haldane 
being  in  Edinburgh,  agreed  to  attend  Dr.  Hardy^s  lectures  on 
Church  History,  and  as  Mr.  Haldane's  house  was  then  in 
Frederick-street,  and  Sir  Ralph's  at  the  west-end  of  Queen- 
street,*  the  General  used  every  day  for  many  months  to  call  for 
Mr.  Haldane,  and  walk  with  him  across  the  bridges  to  the 
College,  and  return  together. 

It  may  be  easily  supposed  that  these  daily  meetings  were 
long  remembered.  It  was  to  enter  on  a  course  of  foreign  service, 
which  continued  ^dth  httle  intermission  till  his  death  at  Alex- 
andria, that  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  was  called  away  from  the 
peaceful  and  instructive  lectures,  to  which  both  he  and  his 
young  friend  listened  with  so  much  interest. 

But  a  new  career  was  also  about  to  open  on  Mr.  Haldane, — 
a  career  in  which  he  was  not  to  command  the  applause  of 
listening  senates,  or,  like  his  gallant  friend,  "  to  close  a  life  of 
honour  by  a  death  of  glory,''  but  a  career  in  which  all  his  talents^ 
all  his  energies,  regenerated,  renewed,  and  sanctified,  were  to  be 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promotion  of  that 
kingdom  for  whose  coming  we  are  taught  to  pray. 

•  Connected  with  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby's  house,  in  Queen-street, 
there  is  a  recollection  which  marked  the  simplicity  and  benevolence  of 
that  great  man's  character.  The  Commander-in-chief  in  Scotland  usually 
had  two  soldiers  as  sentinels  before  his  door,  but  Sir  Ralph  declared  that 
it  was  a  "  custom  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance," 
and,  considering  it  to  be  a  useless  parade,  he  would  not  allow  the  men  to 
be  thus  fatigued.  The  sentry-boxes  therefore  stood  untenanted  at  his 
door  during  all  the  time  he  held  his  command.  His  boundless  popularity 
as  a  general  was  due  as  much  to  his  consideration  for  his  men  in  their 
quarters  as  to  his  own  conspicuous  gallantry  in  the  field. 


CHAPTER  III. 

JAMES  HALDANE*S  LIFE  AT  SEA  TILL  HIS  MARRIAGE  AND 
RETIBEMENT— JOINS  THE  DUKE  OP  MONTROSE —EAST 
INDIA  SHIPS— ANECDOTES— RELIGIOUS  IMPRESSIONS— 
CONVIVIALITY  OP  THE  TIMES— CALCUTTA— DUEL— ANEC- 
DOTES—THE  CONTRAST— FOURTH  VOYAGE— CAPTAIN  OP 
THE  MELVILLE  CASTLE— MARRIAGE— SIR  RALPH  ABER- 
CROMBY— PROSPECTS— DETENTION  OF  THE  INDIA  FLEET 
—QUELLS  THE  MUTINY  ON  BOARD  THE  DUTTON— BEGINS 
TO  STUDY  THE  BIBLE— QUITS  THE  MELVILLE  CASTLE- 
DEATH  OP  HIS  FATHER-IN-LAW— GOES  TO  EDINBURGH. 

[1785—1795.] 

Having  sketched  the  history  of  Robert  Haldane  down  to  the 
year  1794^  it  next  becomes  necessary  to  trace  that  of  his  brother 
down  to  the  same  period. 

James  Haldane  was  in  his  seventeenth  year  when  he  entered  the 
service  for  which  he  had  been  destined  from  his  infancy.  For 
three  generations  the  family  had  possessed  the  chief  interest  in 
one  of  the  East  India  Company's  "  regular  chartered  ships/'  the 
property  of  which  was  shared  with  other  connexions  or  friends 
of  the  Gleneagles  and  Lundie  families^  including  Mr.  Coutts, 
the  banker^  and  the  Dundases  of  Amiston.  At  the  time  he 
went  as  midshipman  in  the  Duke  of  Montrose,  the  command 
of  the  Melville  Castle  was  held  by  Captain  Philip  Dundas, 
half-brother  of  the  late  Viscountess  Duncan,  and  father  of 
the  Bight  Honourable  Robert. Adam  Christopher,  M.P.,  lately 
appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster.  But  an 
arrangement  provided,  that  as  soon  as  James  Haldane  attained 
the  age  which  qualified  him  for  the  command.  Captain  Dundas 
should  retire.      Before  he  sailed,   an  offer  was  made  to   his 


46  SAILS    IN    THE   DUKE   OP   MONTROSE*. 

uncles,  which,  had  it  been  accepted,  would,  humanly  speaking, 
not  only  have  insured  a  splendid  fortune,  but  changed  the 
current  of  his  life.  Mr.  Coutts  had  been  on  terms  of  muck 
intimacy  with  his  father,  to  whom  it  is  said  that  the  great  banker 
reckoned  himself  to  have  been  indebted,  at  a  time  when  he  was 
a  junior  in  a  house  in  St.  Mary  Axe,  near  Leadenhall-street, 
before  he  migrated  westward  to  the  Strand.  Mr.  Coutts,  there- 
fore, oflFercd  to  take  him  into  his  bank,  with  a  view  to  a  share  in 
the  business,  but  added  that  he  scarcely  liked  to  recommend  the 
experiment,  as  there  would  probably  be  more  of  drudgery  than 
would  suit  a  high-spirited  young  man  with  such  prospects  of  his 
own.  The  tempting  proposal  was  declined,  and  the  circumstance 
is  now  only  noticed  as  one  of  the  incidents  in  a  life,  in  which  the 
guiding  hand  of  an  overruling  Providence  was  uniformly  con- 
spicuous. Mr.  Coutts  always  continued  to  evince  the  same 
friendly  feeling,  and  not  long  before  his  death  told  Mr.  James 
Haldane  that  few  things  would  confer  on  him  more  pleasure  than 
to  be  of  use  to  any  of  the  family  of  his  old  friend. 

The  Duke  of  Montrose,  East  Indiaman,  was  bound  on  a  voyage 
to  Bombay  and  China.  The  commander  was  Captain  Gray,  a 
well-known  oflBcer,  who,  many  years  afterwards,  perished  near 
Madagascar  in  the  Blenheim,  along  with  Sir  Thomas  Troubridge 
and  a  crew  of  six  hundred  men.  The  third  officer,  Mr.  Patrick 
Gardiner,  was  the  son  of  one  of  the  tenants  of  Gleneagles,  and 
had  gone  to  sea  imder  the  patronage  of  the  family.  He  was 
reckoned  a  first-rate  navigator  and  practical  seaman,  so  that  on 
every  account  it  was  a  great  advantage  for  the  young  midshipman 
to  be  under  the  care  of  one  whose  own  personal  interests  were 
likely  to  conspire  with  kind  feeling  in  his  favour.  This  expecta- 
tion was  not  disappointed ;  and  the  opportunity  of  quietly  studying 
in  Gardiner's  cabin,  as  well  as  of  receiving  his  practical  instruc- 
tions, not  only  contributed  to  James  Haldane's  future  skill  in 
seamanship,  but  also  to  his  proficiency  in  general  knowledge. 

The  voyage  was  tedious,  even  in  those  days,  when  a  great 
monopoly  prevailed,  and  economy  in  time  was  of  little  conse- 
quence. The  charge  for  freight  in  an  East  Indiaman  then 
ranged  as  high  as  forty  poimds  sterling  per  ton,  and  upwards. 


EAST    INDIA    SHIPS.  47 

The  same  freight  now  ranges  as  low  even  as  forty  shillings. 
In  like  manner,  the  crew  of  an  Indiaman  varied  from  a  mini- 
mum of  126  up  to  180  men.  That  of  the  Duke  of  Montrose 
was  145 ;  whilst  little  more  than  a  third  of  that  number 
would  now  be  deemed  adequate.  The  armament  of  the  Com- 
pany's ships  used  to  be  on  the  same  scale^  each  carrying  from 
twenty-six  to  thirty-six  guns^  and  in  time  of  war  sometimes  suc- 
cessfully beating  off^  or  even  capturing  ships  of  war.  Many  of 
the  captains,  such  as  the  Elphinstones,  Lindsays,  Ramsays,  and 
Trenches,  were  the  younger  sons  of  the  nobility.  Some  of  them 
were  baronets,  most  of  them  were  either  connected  with  the 
landed  aristocracy  or  the  great  merchants,  and  all  of  them  fre- 
quently indulged  in  expensive  habits,  which  rendered  them 
rather  objects  of  jealousy  to  the  juniors  in  the  Royal  Navy,  who 
had  not  the  same  means  of  acquiring  fortune.  These  matters 
are  all  so  much  changed  since  the  alteration  of  the  Company's 
charter  in  1814,  and  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  monopoly  in 
1834,  that  this  notice  of  a  splendid  service  now  extinct  may 
neither  be  wholly  useless  nor  iminteresting. 

In  many  respects,  it  might  be  said  that  James  Haldane's  con- 
duct on  board  the  Montrose  was  highly  exemplary.  He  resolutely 
set  himself  to  master  the  details  of  his  profession ;  his  attention 
to  his  duties  attracted  the  approbation  of  his  superiors ;  and  his 
seal  and  energy  were  always  combined  with  good  sense,  intelli- 
gence, and  skill.  He  had  also  been  furnished  with  a  valuable 
store  of  books,  consisting  of  the  most  useful  histories  of  ancient 
and  modem  times,  besides  a  good  selection  of  the  poets,  drama- 
tists, and  writers  on  general  literature.  These  books,  which 
filled  a  large  sea-chest,  and  afterwards  occupied  a  considerable 
space  in  his  Ubrary,  were  chosen  by  the  discriminating  taste  of 
Dr.  Bogue,  of  (josport,  who  also  took  care  to  add  a  few  well- 
selected  useful  religious  works,  amongst  which  was  Doddridge's 
**  Rise  and  Progress."  It  was  often  in  after-Ufe  matter  of  sur- 
prise, that  a  sailor  should  have  been  so  well-read  and  well- 
informed.  The  fact  was,  that  not  only  did  he  go  to  sea  at  a 
later  period  than  usual,  but  he  was  always  fond  of  reading,  so 
thatj  whilst  ploughing  the  ocean  or  visiting  distant  regions,  he 


48  NARROW   ESCAPE. 

was  also  deep  in  history,  biography,  voyages,  and  travels,  diver- 
sifying these  pursuits  ^ith  the  best  of  our  poets,  not  omitting 
some  of  the  French  authors,  and  the  most  distinguished  writers 
on  Philosophy,  Rhetoric,  and  Metaphysics. 

It  is  on  the  12th  January,  1785,  that  the  log  of  the  Montrose 
begins.  In  one  of  his  letters  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  which 
recals  early  scenes,  he  observes  that  the  ship  came  round  to 
Portsmouth  in  March,  when  he  spent  a  short  time  at  Gosport, 
and  sailed  on  the  day  after  his  cousin,  the  present  Earl  of  Cam- 
perdown,  was  there  bora. 

In  the  course  of  this  voyage  several  incidents  occurred,  calcu- 
lated to  make  a  deep  impression  on  his  mind.     On  the  2d  of 
June  it  was  blowing  very  hard,  and  it  became  necessary  to  take 
in  sail.     For  this  purpose  James  Haldane  was  ordered  to  go 
aloft,  with  a  party  of  men.     Just  as  he  was  beginning  to  mount 
the  rigging,  Captain  Gray  called  out  to  him  to  stop,  and  ordered 
an  able  seaman  to  go  first.     The  log  notices  that,  in  taking  in 
the  main  top-sail,  ''  James  Duncan  fell  from  the  yard,  and  was 
unfortimately  drowned.'^      He  was  struck  on  the  head,   and 
knocked  overboard.     Young  Haldane  was  immediately  behind, 
and  had  he  been  first,  would  doubtless  have  found  a  watery 
grave.     He  saw  the  drowning  seaman  amidst  the  billows,  and 
never  forgot  the  anxious  look  which  eagerly  sought,  but  sought 
in  vain,  for  succour.     He  used  also  to  mention  that  this  sailor 
was  the  only  man,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  experience  at  sea, 
of  whom  he  ever  heard  or  knew  anything  which  indicated  the 
possession  of  a  vital  acquaintance  with  true  Christianity.    It  was 
the  general  remark  that  it  would  be  well  if  all  on  board  were  as 
fully  prepared  for  death  as  James  Duncan.     On  the  6th  August 
the  ship  arrived  at  Bombay,  where  it  remained  more  than  two 
months,  and  he  was  much  on  shore  with  the  late  Mr.  Crawford 
Bruce,  who  had  come  out  in  the  Montrose  as  a  passenger,  as 
well  as  with  the  Hon.  William  Fullarton  Elphinstone,  then  the 
captain  of  an  Indiaman,  but  afterwards  a  director  and  chairman 
of  the  Company. 

Exactly  a  year  from  the  date  of  their  arrival  at  Bombay,  they 
reached  Macao,  in  China ;  and  after  remaining  there  four  months. 


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it 
it 


MALAYS.  49 

the  Montrose  proceeded  homewards,  and  arrived  at  Deptford  on 
the  16th  June,  1787. 

It  may  here  be  proper  to  introduce  the  continuation  of  Mr.  J. 
Haldane's  interesting  manuscript  ^  already  quoted,  intituled, 
''  Dealings  of  God  with  my  Soul." 

"  After  going  to  sea,  I  went  on  much  in  the  same  way  for 
'^  about  a  twelvemonth,  having  no  more  fear  of  God  than  others 
"  aroimd  me,  excepting  that  I  abstained  from  taking  His  name 
in  vain,  and  that  I  read  my  Bible  on  the  Sabbath,  and  still 
used  a  form  of  prayer.  During  that  voyage,  which  lasted 
above  two  years,  I  just  recollect  one  occasion  on  which  my 
prayers  deserved  the  name.  A  man  had  been  murdered, 
''  another  severely  wounded,  by  some  savages  on  an  island 
''  (North  Island,  near  Bantam),  and  as  I  had  been  the  last  who 
"  had  been  with  them,  before  it  happened,  I  considered  my 
preservation  as  an  instance  of  God's  care  of  me,  and  with 
some  gratitude  I  gave  him  thanks.  Indeed,  I  had  cause. 
For  some  hours  before  it  happened,  attracted  by  curiosity,  I 
''  went  alone  into  the  woods,  on  purpose  to  converse  with  the 
''  same  people  who  soon  afterwards  committed  the  murder. 
"  They  had  been  aU  day  about  us,  while  getting  water  for  the 
ship.  I  came  to  their  fire,  but  they  were  not  there,  or 
probably  I  had  returned  no  more.  During  the  same  voyage 
^'  I  fell  overboard  from  a  boat.  As  I  could  not  swim,  I  thought 
I  should  have  been  drowned,  but  was  so  hardened,  that, 
although  I  recollect  what  passed  in  my  mind  while  in  the 
water,  I  never  considered  the  consequences  of  death.  Pro- 
videntially I  had  an  oar  in  my  hand  when  I  fell  from  the 
boat,  but  remembering  that  an  old  sailor  had  told  me  that 
no  one  need  be  drowned  who  could  keep  hold  of  an  oar,  this 
proved  the  means  of  my  preservation.  Some  other  things 
occurred,  which  might  have  struck  me,  but  my  conscience 
was  becoming  seared,  as  with  a  hot  iron.  On  my  return  I 
never  thought  of  going  to  church  in  London,  because  they 
'*  had  not  the  same  form  of  worship  there  as  in  Scotland.  This 
''  shows  how  easily  the  mind  finds  an  excuse  for  a  neglect  of 
^'  duty.     My  conscience,  even  at  that  time,  would  have  testified 

E 


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50  RELIGIOUS    IMPRESSIONS. 


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against  me^  had  I  stayed  away  from  public  worship  in  Scot* 
land,  yet  the  difference  of  form  in  England  easily  silenced 
its  rebuke.  I  now  began  more  fully  to  surrender  myself 
to  what  is  called  a  life  of  pleasure,  yet  however  incon- 
sistent, I  still  had  sometimes  a  form  of  prayer,  but  this  became 
gradually  less  frequent.  Indeed,  it  was  wholly  given  up  in 
the  morning,  and  often  at  night  I  fell  asleep  in  the  midst  of 
this  duty,  while  pleasing  myself  with  the  thought,  that  such 
prayers  might  be  of  some  avail.  When  I  felt  any  check  of 
conscience,  I  satisfied  myself  with  thinking,  that  I  was  at 
least  as  good  as  any  in  the  ship  in  which  I  sailed;  that 
probably  no  one  else  even  made  a  form  of  prayer,  and  thus 
that  the  balance  was  in  my  favour,  and  I  thought,  Surely  God 
would  never  cast  so  many  into  misery.  On  my  first  voyage  I 
was  brought  under  more  than  common  concern,  by  'Dod- 
"  dridge's  Rise  and  Progress,'  which  I  read,  like  some  other  reli- 
gious books,  as  a  task.  I  found  I  was  not  right,  and  resolved 
to  begin  to  amend,  but  my  resolution  was  like  the  morning 
cloud  and  early  dew.  I  now  quieted  my  conscience  with 
''  the  consideration  that  I  wronged  no  one,  and  therefore  could 
"  not  be  very  criminal.  The  Lord  laid  his  hand  on  me  during 
''  one  voyage,  and  I  was  supposed  by  all  to  be  dying.  I 
"  thought  so  myself,  but  was  at  that  time  perfectly  hardened, 
"  and  sometimes  considered  how  I  should  talk  to  those  aroimd 
'^  me,  when  dying,  determined,  although  I  might  feel  it,  I 
would  show  no  unmanly  signs  of  fear.  The  Lord  however 
restored  me,  and  preserved  me  from  other  dangers  in  which  I 
had  plunged  myself  by  my  folly,  and  all  the  return  I  made 
"  was  to  harden  myself  in  my  rebellion.'* 

The  allusions  in  the  above  memorandum  to  his  further  depar- 
tures from  God,  have  particular  reference  to  his  future  voyages, 
and  to  the  life  of  pleasure  which  he  afterwards  led  both  in 
Calcutta  and  in  London.  His  second  voyage  was  in  the  Phoenix, 
also  commanded  by  Captain  Gray,  his  friend  Gardner  being 
chief  officer,  and  himself  fifth.  During  its  continuance  he  spent 
nearly  six  months  on  shore  at  Calcutta,  at  a  time  when  the  state 
of  society  in  that  great  city  was  such  that  it  would  have  required 


it 


it 
€€ 


CALCUTTA.  51 

the  power  of  the  highest  principle  to  have  escaped  its  seductions. 
'Hiere  were  also  peculiar  circumstances  which  rendered  his  posi- 
tion in  this  respect  more  difficult.  There  was  at  Calcutta  a 
friend  and  relation  high  in  the  service^  and  expending  a  great 
income^  who  welcomed  him  with  the  most  affectionate  hospitality^ 
and  loaded  him  with  kindness.  Mr.  John  Haldane^  with  his 
younger  brother^  the  late  General  Robert  Haldane^  were  the 
sons  of  a  deceased  relative^  who  held  an  office  in  the  Excise  in 
London^  and  had  been  originally  nominated  one  of  the  executors 
of  Captain  James  Haldane's  will.  Mr.  John  Haldane  Uved  in 
splendour^  having  a  great  establishment  in  Calcutta^  and  another 
at  Garden  Reach^  which^  from  its  luxurious  magnificence  and 
the  number  of  lustres  with  which  it  was  adorned^  used  to  be 
jocularly  called  '^the  illustrious  house  of  Haldane.'^  Living 
with  him  and  introduced  to  all  the  gaiety  of  Calcutta^  James 
Haldane's  life  was  at  this  time  one  constant  round  of  excitement 
and  fashionable  dissipation.  His  society  was  muoh  sought  after^ 
and  he  derived  some  Mat  from  the  attentions  he  received  from 
the  Marquis  of  Comwallis^  at  whose  residence  he  was  a  frequent 
visitor^  and  by  whom  he  was  noticed^  as  a  well-informed^  agree- 
able^ and  superior  young  man.  On  his  leaving  Calcutta^  a 
most  splendid  entertainment  was  given  to  him  by  his  friends^ 
which  was  attended  by  the  principal  civil  and  military  officers^ 
and  his  return  as  Captain  of  the  Melville  Castle  was  anticipated 
as  an  accession  to  their  social  gaiety.  The  convivial  habits  of 
the  times  were  at  that  period  sufficiently  bad  in  England.  In 
the  climate  of  India  they  were  hardly  tolerable^  and  instead  of 
wondering  at  the  mortality  which  then  prevailed^  it  is  only 
marvellous  that  it  was  not  greater.  As  an  example  of  the 
state  of  society,  it  is  said  that  a  little  before  the  time  of  which 
we  are  speaking,  Mr.  John  Haldane  being  persuaded  that  he 
had  amassed  a  sufficient  fortime,  had  resolved  to  return  home, 
but  the  ship  in  which  he  had  taken  his  passage  having  been 
wrecked  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  he  was  received  with  some 
other  passengers  into  the  house  of  a  gentleman  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. After  supper  they  sat  down  to  cards  and  played  so 
high,  that,  before  morning,  Mr.  John  Haldane,being  a  great 

£  2 


52  THIRD    VOYAGE. 

loser^  determined  to  return  to  Calcutta,  which  he  never  left, 
except  in  the  discharge  of  his  public  duties,  till  his  death  in 
1803.  After  James  Haldane's  eyes  were  opened  to  the  folly 
of  that  giddy  round  of  pleasure,  in  which  he  had  been  himself 
involved,  he  wrote  repeatedly  and  most  aflFectionately  to  his 
friend,  at  Calcutta,  setting  the  truth  before  him,  and  earnestly 
intreating  him  to  remember  that  life  was  too  short  even  for 
such  follies  as  the  world  deems  innocent.  The  celebrated  Dr. 
Carey,  in  a  letter,  dated  27th  of  September,  1804,  thus  writes: — 

"  I  am  favoured  with  yours  of  January  4th,  of  the  present  year,  for 
which  I  return  you  my  hearty  thanks.  I  trust  that  every  expression  of 
that  regard  which  is  borne  to  the  cause  in  which  I  am  embarked,  has  an 
effect  upon  my  spirit  of  a  salutary  nature. 

**  I  am  sorr)'  to  say,  that  John  llaldane,  Esq.,  departed  this  life  about 
two  months  before  I  received  yours.  I  delivered  the  letter  and  parcel  to 
Kev.  Claudius  Buchanan,  who  undertook  to  communicate  the  same  to  the 
gentleman  who  has  the  disposal  of  Mr.  H.  s  affairs,  who,  I  understand*,  is 
—  Forsyth,  Esq* 

"  Your  intention  of  coming  to  this  country  engaged  my  heart  in  love  to 
you,  though  I  am  now  convinced  that  the  Lord  has  abomided  in  goodness 
to  you  by  preventing  your  taking  that  step." 

Mr.  James  Haldane  made  in  all  foiu*  voyages  to  India  and 
China,  and  in  the  fourth,  which  lasted  fifteen  months,  as  second 
officer  in  his  old  ship,  the  Duke  of  Montrose.  A  circumstance 
occurred  in  connexion  with  his  third  voyage,  which,  for  the 
time,  made  an  impression  on  his  mind,  and  led  him  to  think 
of  an  overruling  Providence.  Through  the  late  Sir  Robert 
Preston,  a  contemporary  of  his  father's,  who  had  himself  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  great  fortune  as  an  East  India  captain,  he 
unexpectedly  received  an  appointment  as  third  officer  of  the 
Foulis  Indiaman.  Owing  to  some  inevitable  circumstances  he 
was  detained  in  Scotland,  and  not  having  been  fully  informed  of 
the  urgency  of  the  case,  he  found  to  his  surprise  and  mortifica- 
tion, on  his  arrival  in  London,  that  the  Foulis  had  sailed,  and 
his  place  had  been  filled  up.  He  was  immediately  nominated 
third  officer  of  the  Hillsborough,  under  Captain  Coxwell ;  but 
the  loss  of  the  first  appointment  was,  on  several  accounts,  very 
mortifying,  and  occasioned  at  the  time   much  vexation.      He 


PROVIDENTIAL   ESCAPE.  53 

little  thought  of  the  guardian  ann  that  was  aroimd^  the  child 
of  many  prayers.  The  Foulis  was  never  again  heard  of,  and  is 
supposed  to  have  foundered  or  been  burned  at  sea. 

There  was  another  occasion  on  which  he  ran  some  voluntary 
risk  of  a  di£Ferent  kind,  in  consequence  of  the  shortness  of  the 
time  which  had  been  allowed  for  his  outfit.  The  ship  was  in 
the  Downs,  and  having  stayed  in  London  till  what  he  considered 
the  last  safe  moment,  he  posted  down  to  Deal  with  great 
rapidity,  and  arrived  in  the  middle  of  the  night.  There  was 
a  gale  of  wind,  occasioning  great  difficulty  and  no  little  danger 
in  the  way  of  getting  on  board,  but  a  high  bribe  soon  tempted 
the  daring  boatmen  of  Deal  to  take  him  alongside  his  ship.  It 
was  his  object  to  report  himself  as  present  to  the  Company's 
officer,  specially  appointed  for  that  purpose.  It  was  found  that 
he  had  already  sent  off  his  report,  notifying  Mr.  Haldane's 
absence.  The  official  was  called  up,  and  requested  to  despatch 
another  letter  intimating  the  arrival.  By  no  means  in  good 
humour  at  the  imtimely  disturbance  the  man  on  duty  peremp- 
torily refused,  but  at  last,  after  some  altercation,  admitted  that 
it  might  be  proper  to  make  the  announcement,  if  there  were  any 
means  of  doing  so.  But  in  those  days  there  were  no  electric 
telegraphs,  the  mail  was  gone,  and  the  night  was  most  tem- 
pestuous. The  young  officer  urged  that  he  would  himself  be 
responsible  for  the  safe  conveyance  of  the  despatch,  and  in  the 
sequel  carried  it  on  shore,  and  posting  up  to  London  delivered  it 
at  the  India  House,  and  again  returned  with  equal  rapidity  to  the 
Downs.  It  may  be  noted  as  characteristic  of  the  India  service, 
that  it  was  then  unusual  for  an  officer  of  any  East  India  ship  to 
travel  with  less  than  four  horses. 

When  appointed  to  the  Duke  of  Montrose,  in  1792,  he  was 
in  his  twenty-fourth  year.  A  skilful  navigator,  a  good  seaman, 
and  as  an  officer  distinguished  alike  for  his  firmness  and  suavity, 
he  was  looked  up  to  by  his  companions  as  a  fortunate  young 
man,  of  superior  talents,  attainments,  and  prospects.  The 
chief  officer,  Mr.  Charles  Dundas,  was  in  bad  health,  and  the 
Captain,  although  a  man  of  worth  and  respectability,  had  not 
much  confidence  in  himself,  so  that,  in  a  certain  sense,  the 


54  ESCAPE    FROM    SHirVVRECK. 

command  of  the  ship  substantially  depended  on  Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane.  In  every  emergency  of  difficulty  or  of  danger^  it  was 
to  his  dauntless  resolution  and  experienced  seamanship  that  all 
eyes  were  turned.  The  Captain  himself  acknowledged  that, 
when  it  blew  hard  at  night,  or  the  navigation  was  difficult,  he 
never  slept  with  comfort  unless  he  knew  that  James  Ilaldane 
was  on  deck,  and  when  the  voyage  terminated  he  testified  his 
sense  of  these  services  by  the  presentation  of  a  costly  collection 
of  charts,  as  a  grateful  acknowledgment.  On  one  occa- 
sion it  happened,  as  appears  by  the  log,  that  on  the  12th  of 
June,  1792,  the  ship  had  nearly  struck  on  the  rocks  in  the 
Mozambique  Channel,  under  circumstances  similar  to  those 
which,  about  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  seas,  occasioned 
the  loss  of  the  Winterton,  with  a  great  part  of  the  crew, 
including  its  commander.  Captain  Dundas  of  Dundas.*  The 
promptitude  and  decision  of  James  Haldane  saved  the  Mon* 
trose  from  a  hke  catastrophe.  It  was  soon  after  midnight, 
or  very  early  in  the  morning,  when  a  passenger^  walking 
upon  deck,  became  alarmed  at  some  convei-sation  amongst  the 
older  seamen,  which  he  overheard.  He  instantly  went  to  Mr. 
Haldanc^s  cabin,  and  awakening  him  from  sleep,  told  him  of  his 
fears,  and  brought  him  immediately  upon  deck.  The  officer  of 
the  watch  apprehended  no  danger,  but  the  Captain  having  been 
called  by  Mr.  Haldane's  order,  and  the  lead  heaved,  it  appeared 
that,  instead  of  being  out  of  soundings,  the  depth  was  only  nine 
fathoms.  The  Captain  was  imdecided,  when  Mr.  HaJdane, 
considering  that  there  was  no  time  for  further  parley,  put  a 
speaking  trumpet  to  his  lips,  and  the  cry,  "Every  soul  upon 
deck  this  instant,'^  sent  alarm  through  the  whole  ship,  and  in  a 
moment  brought  the  men  from  their  hammocks.  To  put  the 
ship  about  was  the  work  of  a  few  minutes,  and  this  was  scarcely 
accomplished,  before  the  shout,  from  the  main-top,  "Breakers 
ahead,'^  warned  them  of  the  imminence  of  their  danger,  and 
it  was  discovered  that  another  quarter  of  an  hour^s  saihng  in  the 

•  An  interesting  account  of  the  loss  of  the  Winterton  was  some  years 
ago  published  by  Qeorge  Buchan,  Esq.,  of  Kelloe,  who  was  one  of  the 
passengers,  and  an  attach^  to  Sir  George  Staunton's  embassy. 


CONVIVIAL    HABITS    OP   THE   TIMES.  55 

same  directioD^  would  have  probably  left  the  Montrose  a  wreck 
on  "  the  Barren  islands/' 

The  Montrose  arrived  at  Deptford  on  the  19th  June^  1793. 
The  commencement  of  the  war  with  France  had  been  announced 
before  the  ship  reached  St.  Helena^  and  from  that  island  a 
large  fleet  of  Indiamen  were  in  company  under  convoy.  This 
circumstance  occasioned  a  frequent  interchange  of  hospitaUty 
between  the  officers  of  the  different  ships^  and  in  those  days  of 
convivial  excess  the  result  was  anything  but  favourable  to  habits 
of  sobriety.  Happily  James  Haldane  was  never^  even  in  his 
early  days^  inclined  to  exceed  the  boimds  of  temperance.  He 
was^  on  the  contrary^  naturally  rather  abstemious:  but,  for  a 
young  man  fcHid  of  society^  full  of  life  and  spirit,  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  escape  without  sometimes  being  carried  away  by 
the  stream.  In  fact,  it  was  considered  a  reproach  to  the  hospi- 
tality of  any  ship  which  sent  a  party  away  sober.  When  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  went  to  India,  as  Colonel  Wesley,  the 
same  practices  prevailed.  But  we  have  lived  to  see  the  time 
when  such  degrading  scenes  are  deemed  low  and  immoral,  when 
a  young  man  is  not  inevitably  shut  up  to  insobriety,  unless  he 
chooses  to  make  himself  peculiar,  and  when  religion  and  virtue 
are  no  longer  treated  only  as  objects  of  ridicule. 

It  was,  however,  upon  one  of  those  occasions  that  James 
Haldane,  on  returning  to  his  own  ship,  very  narrowly  escaped 
faUing  down  the  hatchway,  which  must  have  proved  certaiii 
death.  He  was  only  slightly  injured,  and  his  preservation  was 
almost  miraculous,  but  the  circumstance  awakened  serious 
thoughts,  and  made  a  lasting  impression  on  his  mind.  To  him 
it  was  at  the  time  the  more  mortifying,  as  the  captain,  who  was 
himself  reckoned  rather  an  austere  man,  had  previously  been 
kindly  cautioning  him  against  these  convivial  meetings,  telling 
him  that  the  inebriety  to  which  they  were  sure  to  lead  might 
be  well  enough  for  some  others,  but  in  one  of  his  superior 
mind,  and  with  his  resources,  was  altogether  unworthy  and 
unpardonable. 

It  might  seem,  perhaps,  scarcely  necessary  to  allude  to  such 
things,  except  to  show  the  greatness  of  the  change  afterwards 


5G  DUEL. 

wrought  on  his  moral  character  by  the  grace  of  God.  But,  for 
the  same  reason,  it  may  be  necessary  to  mention  a  duel  in 
which  he  was  involved  on  his  voyage  from  India  in  the  Hills* 
boraugh.  The  facts  are  chiefly  derived  from  the  information 
of  his  own  second  and  that  of  two  of  his  brother  officers. 
The  ship  was  crowded  with  passengers;  amongst  these  there 
was  a  cavalry  officer,  who  was  returning  home, — a  notorious 
shot,  a  successful  duellist,  and  much  of  a  bully.  It  after- 
wards appeared  that  he  had  been  forced  to  leave  the  King's 
service,  in  consequence  of  his  quarrelsome  temper  and  aptitude 
for  such  brawls.  In  the  course  of  the  voyage  he  made  himself 
veiy  disagreeable,  and  was  rather  an  object  of  dread.  On  one 
occasion  some  high  words  occurred  between  him  and  Mr.  James 
Haldane,  arising  out  of  a  proposal  to  make  the  latter  a  party  to 
a  paltry  trick,  designed  to  provoke  an  irritable  invalid  as  he  lay 
in  his  cot  with  his  door  open,  and  was,  in  fact,  actually  dying. 
Mr.  J.  Haldane's  indignant  refusal  issued  in  this  captain's 
taking  an  opportunity  deliberately  and  publicly  to  insult  him  at 
the  mess-table,  when,  in  return  for  a  somewhat  contemptuous 
retort,  the  aggressor  threw  a  glass  of  wine  in  Mr.  Haldane's 
face.  He  little  knew  the  spirit  which  he  evoked.  To  rise  from 
his  seat  and  dash  at  the  head  of  the  assailant  a  heavy  ship's 
tumbler  was  the  work  of  an  instant.  Providentially  the  missile 
was  pitched  too  high,  pulverized  against  the  beam  of  the  cabin^ 
and  descended  in  a  liquid  shower  upon  the  offending  dragoon. 
A  challenge  ensued,  and  Mr.  J.  Haldane  consulted  with  a  friend 
as  to  the  ])ropriety  of  accepting  it.  That  the  challenger  was 
under  a  cloud  with  his  own  regiment  was  certain,  although  the 
particulars  were  unknown,  and  it  was  decided  that  it  was 
optional  to  accept  or  decline  the  cartel.  But,  as  the  matter  was 
then  doubtful,  it  was  ruled  that,  in  obedience  to  the  code  of 
honour,  it  was  safer  to  give  the  captain  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt ;  and  he  was  himself  the  more  clear  on  the  point,  as  the 
reputation  of  the  challenger  as  a  shot  might  probably  be 
regarded  as  having  influenced  a  refusal. 

The  preliminaries  being  arranged,  it  was  agreed  that  they 
should  meet  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  but  the  captain  of  the 


DUEL.  57 

^^       • 

ship  suspecting  mischief^  refused  leave  to  land.  The  meeting 
was  accordingly  postponed  till  they  arrived  at  St.  Helena,  when 
they  all  went  ashore,  unobserved,  very  early  in  the  morning. 
The  night  before  James  Haldane  made  his  will,  wrote  a  letter  of 
farewell  to  his  brother,  in  the  event  of  his  death,  and  then  went 
to  bed,  and  slept  so  soundly  that  he  did  not  awake  till  he  was 
called.  It  happened  that,  owing  to  the  apprehension  of  being 
observed  and  detained,  the  duellists  had  only  one  case  of  pistols, 
which  belonged  to  Mr.  Haldane^s  second,  a  naval  officer  of  some 
distinction,  afterwards  better  known,  during  the  war,  as  Admiral 
Donald  Campbell,  who  commanded  the  Portuguese  fleet,  and 
also  enjoyed  a  pension  for  services  rendered  to  Lord  St.  Vincent 
and  Lord  Nelson.  The  two  antagonists  were  placed  at  twelve 
paces  distant,  and  were  to  fire  together  and  by  signal.  Before 
the  pistol  was  given  into  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  hand,  his  second,  in  a 
low  tone,  repeated  what  he  had  before  told  him,  that  this  was  a 
case  in  which  he  must  have  no  scruple  about  shooting  his 
challenger;  that  it  was  not  a  common  duel,  but  a  case  of  self- 
preservation,  and  that  one  or  the  other  must  fall.  The  signal 
was  given,  and,  as  Mr.  J.  Haldane  raised  his  pistol,  with  strange 
inconsistency  he  breathed  the  secret  prayer, — ^'  Father,  into  thy 
hands  I  commend  my  spirit  ;^^  thus  verifying  the  observation  of 
TertuUian,  that  in  moments  of  imminent  danger  men  involun- 
tarily call  upon  God,  acknowledging  his  presence  and  his  provi- 
dence, even  when  they  seem  practically  to  forget  his  existence 
and  trample  on  his  laws.  With  this  prayer  in  his  heart,  and, 
as  Admiral  Campbell  testified,  with  his  eye  fixed  on  his  antagonist, 
without  a  symptom  of  trepidation,  he  calmly  drew  the  trigger^ 
when  his  pistol  burst,  the  contents  flying  upwards  and  a  frag- 
ment of  the  ban*el  inflicting  a  wound  on  his  face.  The  other 
pistol  missed  fire,  and  the  challenger  immediately  intimated, 
through  his  second,  that  he  was  so  well  satisfied  with  the 
honourable  conduct  of  Mr.  Haldane,  that  he  was  willing  that 
the  afiair  should  terminate.  This  message  was  accepted  as 
sufficient.  Bowing  to  each  other,  they  parted  with  civility,  but, 
as  might  be  anticipated,  without  reconciliation.   To  such  matters 


t    .  .J"*    Jlfc«*a« 


Jlli 


am  |f  iim  ^^usairi.  li^r  lomc  Js  m  ii» 

—  a 

ziKTinfirit^L  "uac   lutinr  12.  '*:i'SE«'  tdts  'ai»  oikL  Mr.  liBBa  Hal- 
ttuiK  j2inoK3it:L  Ti    IK  c  3irjtn.   jl  zui  jaaiat  yaeat  at  one  cf 

"r%.  ^.  r.iiiranif  "vift  *ini-r    mi.  ieksiicl  «b  ker  accomt. 


«r.&  Z7»ac  ru^eciea*  TnTirtfaner  T^wcaieii  £.  Mr.  J.  H«Mm» 
«Ml,  "^  Tfti^Tit  TM  a  ^:i2P.^  Str,  na  I  mmd  baiv  zvsKnicd  tkk 
&i&p^:ft»£.#7.«3Ky  M2£  I  faa.Te  szot  ksiSBed  ca  fanm  mjiaria  and 

At  t^i#;  (««rfv^  fA  vliidi  ve  vixte,  ^  afEun  of  bonowv^  aa  thej 
uff.  uttJ^^uikil,  tr#;rfc  fif  frequent  oonimence,  and  dicMC  who  chooe 
Ut  liv^  iiwUf  th*:  tyranny  of  the  world  fdt  h  freqnentlT  impoa> 
Mflilr  t/f  i!«#»i|i«;«  Inrk«d|  from  his  ardent  tempeiament  and 
n\iintmi  \triHU^H\  iutiinnfif,  it  is  perhaps  matter  of  snrpiiaey  oon- 
fliili  riti|/  t.li(r  H|iirii  of  the  times^  that  such  a  Toong  man  was 
(ml  iiHrtirr  iltii«  involved.  It  has  been  said  by  his  eontem- 
|iiititf MMi  lliut  tliiH  WHN  imrtly  owing  to  the  fact  that  his  known 
ililrtMihiMlKHi  UMiiilly  Hhielded  him  from  provocation,  and 
|iiiillv  lliiil  Inti  imiiirnl  (tiii|)OHition  being  amiable,  the  q>irit 
s^\\\\^\  HMiilil  not  limnk  n\\  iuNult  was  equally  averse  to  offer 
|mmumi(IImii  In  lliriiiHrlvi%  duelling  and  personal  quarrels 
^M'H*  «liliMiM»hl  Im  l»N  imhuv,  aad,  more  than  once,  whoi  his 
i.ti  M|H'M4Mo»»  H«  «  *»»*MUhl  wuM  ivqucntod,  he  was  the  means  of 
\\\\M\s^\  Mr*»n»'OmUMU  wiUhua  blmHUhi'd.  In  one  of  these 
\  „  «  U^\\\  \^^  1^*^  M^U^uli^l  Mlwnvuta  had  requested  to  be 
^\lx\\\\\  »^*  i*^'***'  *^**^**  '*^'*^^'"*  *"  '*^*  '*^"^'*'  '^^  refusing  to  act 
*'   ,^»^.v  \^»l^^^  ^^»  ^^^  ^*^Um>^»»>»I  >^^^  ^^»*  enabled  to  arrange  ttc 


»-^'",   ,A,  ,.  V  v>.-  v.^s  ^,,^.h«vv*«tum«u«,  under 


ANECDOTE.  59 

the  title  of  a  Baronetcy^  which  he  had  assumed^  without  legal 
authority^  on  the  ground  of  collateral  descent.  This  colonel  had 
fought  more  duels  than  most  men^  and  was  equally  expert  at  his 
pistol  or  his  rapier.  He  had  frequently  woimded^  and^  at  leasts 
in  one  affair^  killed  his  antagonist.  Sitting  in  a  large  party 
at  a  dinner-table^  after  the  ladies  had  withdrawn^  at  the  house 
of  his  brother-in-law,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stirling,  the 
belligerent  colonel  engaged  in  a  trifling  dispute  with  an  elderly 
and  much  respected  gentleman,  at  whose  head  he  finally  levelled 
a  decanter.  This  act  of  violence  had  been  preceded  by  a  torrent 
of  abuse  which  moved  the  indignation  of  the  whole  company, 
although  every  one,  including  their  host  himself,  seemed  para- 
lyzed. Scarcely  had  the  decanter  sped  its  way,  when,  at  the 
same  moment,  the  colonePs  own  collar  was  seized  by  the  mus- 
cular arm  of  a  young  man  sitting  by  his  side,  and  he  himself 
and  his  chair  were  suddenly  projected  into  the  middle  of  the 
room.  Kising  from  the  ground,  his  paroxysm  of  rage  now  sought 
another  object  of  attack,  but  he  was  so  calmly  confronted  by  the 
steady  eye  and  determined  bearing  of  James  Haldane,  whose 
character  was  well  known  to  him,  that  he  involuntarily  and 
obviously  cooled.  He  contented  himself  by  hastily  demanding 
the  meaning  of  this  imcalled-for  interference  in  a  quarrel  that 
was  not  his,  and  being  briefly  but  emphatically  told  that  it  was 
to  prevent  violence  in  his  company,  the  irate  duellist  once  more 
turned  his  reproaches  on  the  original  object  of  his  ungovernable 
fury,  and  with  great  skill  adopting  the  words  of  the  unwelcome 
pacificator  as  a  satisfactory  explanation,  walked  out  of  the  room, 
exclaiming,  "  As  for  my  friend,  Captain  Haldane,  his  object  was 
only  to  prevent  violence/'  The  gentleman  who  had  been  so 
rudely  insulted  was  himself  an  old  colonel,  and  at  first  considered 
that  he  was  obliged  ^'to  demand  satisfaction,^^  but  the  two  brothers 
went  to  his  house  the  next  day  and  succeeded  in  convincing 
him  that  he  was  absolved  by  the  subsequent  rencontre  from  any 
such  obligation.  So  far  as  the  aggressor  was  himself  concerned, 
it  seemed  as  if  a  spell  had  been  broken;  the  terror  which  was 
connected  with  his  name  was  dissipated.  He  shortly  afterwards 
went  abroad,  and  never  again  returned  to  reside  in  Scotland. 


60  ANECDOTE, 

It  will  be  seen^  in  a  future  part  of  these  M^moirs^  with  what 
power  and  effect  Mr.  J.  Haldane  assailed  the  practice  of  duelling. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  attention  he  then  excited^  and  the 
crowds  who  came  to  hear  him  when^  in  1804^  he  preached  on 
the  death  of  Lord  Camelford^  were  partly  due  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  fact^  that  he  himself  had  been  a  votary  of  the  so-called 
laws  of  honour^  and  had  been  seen  to  brave  the  wrath  of  one  of 
the  most  notorious  duelUsts  of  his  time. 

A  little  before  the  occurrence  just  related,  there  was  another, 
which  had  attracted  some  notice  in  the  county.  It  happened 
that  a  warrant  had  been  issued  for  the  apprehension  of  a  tenant 
on  the  Airthrey  estate,  who  was  a  very  desperate  character,  and 
had  committed  an  act  of  swindUng,  accompanied  by  forgery. 
When  the  officers  went  to  apprehend  him  they  were  severely 
beaten,  and  came  to  the  house  of  Airthrey  in  the  evening 
to  report  the  result  and  sohcit  additional  aid,  as  well  as 
the  authority  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  presence.  Both  he  and  his 
brother  accordingly  went,  taking  with  them  some  of  the 
servants.  On  arriving  at  the  house  of  the  culprit,  at  the  mill 
near  the  Bridge  of  Allan,  or  the  modem  village  of  Airthrey 
Wells,  they  found  the  doors  and  windows  barricaded,  and  the 
man,  with  his  dogs  and  some  of  his  sons  and  servants,  armed 
with  guns  and  bludgeons,  threatening  death  to  any  one  who 
dared  to  break  in.  The  officers  were  themselves  alarmed,  but 
neither  of  the  two  gentlemen  whose  aid  they  had  claimed  chose 
to  be  thus  ignominiously  repulsed.  WTiilst  considering  how  to 
proceed,  Mr.  Haldane,  with  characteristic  generalship,  walked 
round  the  premises,  and  suddenly  called  out  to  his  brother  that 
there  was  an  unguarded  window,  which  had  been  overlooked  by 
the  besieged  in  their  plans  of  defence.  James  Haldane,  with 
determination  equally  characteristic,  no  sooner  heard  the 
announcement  than  he  sprung  through  the  window,  which 
dropped  behind  him,  just  as  the  men  and  dogs,  attracted  by  the 
noise,  were  hurrying  to  the  point  of  attack.  Pausing  for  a 
moment  to  produce  his  pistols,  looking  his  intended  assailants 
steadily  in  the  face,  warning  them  as  to  the  consequences  of 
assailing  him  in  discharge  of  his  duty,  he  coolly  walked  to  th^ 


ANECDOTE    OP    MR.  PITT.  CI 

front  door^  which  he  unlocked^  and  then  left  the  peace  officers 
to  remove  their  prisoner.  The  culprit  was  convicted^  and  sen- 
tenced either  to  transportation  or  imprisonment. 

The  change  of  social  habits  since  the  last  generation  passed 
away^  is  a  fit  subject  of  congratulation  and  thankfulness.  In 
the  higher  ranks  of  society  the  vices  of  drinking^  swearings  and 
duelling,  are  now  nearly  as  vulgar  as  they  were  once  fashion- 
able. Three  centuries  ago  swearing  was  so  common,  that  a 
chaplain,  preaching  the  funeral  sermon  of  a  titled  lady  of  the 
noble  house  of  Berkeley,  belonging  to  the  Court  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  mentions  it  as  a  proof  of  her  virtue,  that  she  was 
never  heard  to  use  a  profane  oath.  Within  a  much  shorter 
period  than  sixty  years  ago  it  was  difficult  for  any  young  man 
who  did  not  affect  singularity  to  escape  from  the  contamination 
of  that  convivial  intemperance  which  disgraced  the  age.  It  was 
not  every  one  who  could  act  like  Dr.  Johnson,  who,  unable  to 
resist  the  temptation,  at  last  substituted  lemonade  for  wine,  so 
as  to  enjoy  social  intercourse  and  yet  avoid  excess.  Even  Mr. 
Pitt  could  enter  the  House  of  Commons  so  much  intoxicated, 
that  Mr.  Fox,  who  could  well  sympathize  with  the  indiscretion, 
moved  an  adjournment;  and,  as  connected  with  these  Memoirs,  it 
is  rather  a  curious  circumstance  that  this  historical  fact  occiirred 
after  the  great  Premier,  in  company  with  his  friend  Mr.  Dundas, 
had  been  dining  at  Deptford,  on  board  the  Melville  Castle,  with 
Captain  Philip  Dundas,  shortly  before  Captain  Haldane  assumed 
the  command.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  profane  swearing  and 
duelling  should  be  connected  with  deep  potations,  and  that 
▼ices  should  have  been  fashionable  in  the  last  generation  which 
would  now  be  reckoned  vidgar  and  discreditable.  The  pious 
Colonel  Blackadder,  in  his  remarkable  diary,  which  includes  the 
wars  of  Marlborough,  bewails  an  occasion  when  he  had  himself, 
in  his  old  age,  been  betrayed  into  intemperance,  and  even  per- 
aons  having  a  reputation  for  religion  were  known  to  be  not 
wholly  exempt  from  the  habit  of  infringing  on  the  third  com- 
mandment. 

If  such  topics  have  been  glanced  at  in  connexion  with  Captain 
Haldane's  early  life,  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  a  just 


02  THE   CONTRAST. 

representation  of  the  character  which  he  had  by  nature^  but 
which  was  changed  by  grace.  In  reading  these  incidents,  who 
would  believe  that  this  is  the  same  person  of  whom  Mr.  Simeon 
not  many  years  afterwards  writes:  "The  Lord  has  fiavonred 
you  with  a  meek  and  spiritual  mind?''  The  gentleness  and 
benevolence  of  his  character  seemed  to  grow  as  he  advanced 
in  age,  even  to  the  last. 

His  elder  brother,  a  short  time  before  his  own  death,  during 
a  wcll-remcmbeiH;d  and  most  agreeable  walk  at  Auchingray,  was 
relating  some  of  the  facts  which  have  been  just  recorded,  and 
finished  his  interesting  details  by  saying,  "  See,  then,  the 
power  of  grace.'' 

There  was  a  time  when  few  seemed  to  be  more  "stout- 
hearted and  far  from  righteousness," — when  the  dread  of  the 
world  was  the  only  fear  which  seemed  to  influence  his  actions, 
and  God  was  not  in  all  his  thoughts.  But  neither  the  world, 
the  flesh,  nor  the  devil,  were  destined  long  to  retain  their  prey. 
He  was  "  a  chosen  vessel,"  ordained  to  be  himself  a  monimient 
of  Divine  mercy,  and  an  instrument  to  convey  that  mercy  to 
others.  His  whole  nature  was  to  undergo  renovation.  The 
good  seed,  still  lodged  in  his  breast,  was  soon  to  burst  forth  and 
produce  its  glorious  fruits.  The  proud  heart  which  would  not 
bend  before  his  fellows,  or  before  the  world  itself,  was  to  become 
broken  under  a  melting  sense  of  the  Saviour's  love.  That  lofty 
spirit  which  would  not  quail  even  at  the  approach  of  death,  and 
which  could  not  brook  a  word  or  a  look  that  menaced  it  with 
insult,  was  to  abandon  its  stubborn  rebellion  and  become  lowly, 
humble,  and  contrite  before  the  Lord.  His  energies,  his 
courage,  his  determination^  were  indeed  to  remain,  but  these 
energies,  that  courage,  that  determination,  were  to  be  directed 
into  a  nobler  channel.  They  were  to  be  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  another  and  a  better  Master.  They  were  to  be  no 
longer  the  attributes  of  a  haughty  rebel,  but  a  part  of  the 
glorious  panoply  of  the  Christian  hero,  the  devoted,  self-denying, 
faithful  champion  of  the  cross. 


HIS    MARRIAGE.  63 

Mr.  James  Haldane^s.  fourth  voyage  in  the  Duke  of  Mon- 
trose ended  on  the  19th  June,  1793.  In  less  than  a  month  he 
attained  the  age  of  twenty-five,  and  having  passed  the  necessary 
examinations,  he  was  pronounced  fully  qualified  to  command  an 
Indiaman.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was  nominated  to  the  Melville 
Castle,  hound  to  Madras  and  Calcutta,  and  the  ship  was  ordered 
to  he  in  the  Downs  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  January. 
But  before  the  time  arrived  he  had  taken  another  step,  which 
exerted  an  important  influence  on  his  future  life. 

Soon  after  he  went  down  to  Scotland,  he  met  at  Airthrey 
a  young  lady,  to  whom  he  was  married  on  the  18th  of 
September  following.  She  was  the  only  child  of  Major  Alex- 
ander Joass,  of  Culleonard,  in  the  county  of  Banff,  by  Eliza- 
beth Abercromby,  second  daughter  of  George  Abercromby,  of 
Tulliebody,  in  the  county  of  Clackmannan.  Major  Joass, 
through  his  grandmother,  the  daughter  of  George,  the  second 
Lord  Banff,  was  the  heir  general  of  the  fourth  Baron,  who 
died  without  issue.  In  early  life  he  had  served  in  the 
Royals,  with  his  brother-in-law.  Colonel  Edmonstone,  of 
Newton,  but  having  been  disabled  for  active  service  by  rheu- 
matic fever,  he  accepted  the  appointment  of  Fort  Major  and 
Acting  Deputy-Governor  of  Stirling  Castle,  which  was  conferred 
by  his  uncle,  General  James  Abercromby,  of  Glassaugh.  This 
office  placed  him,  with  very  easy  duties,  in  an  agreeable  resi- 
dence, in  the  centre  of  his  own  friends  and  his  wife's,  where,  for 
thirty  years,  although  much  of  an  invalid,  he  made  the  old 
palace  at  Stirling  Castle  famed  for  its  hospitality.  Major 
Joass,  having  no  male  issue,  had  sold  his  paternal  estate  of 
Culleonard,  near  Banff,  to  the  Earl  of  Findlater  and  Seafield, 
some  years  before  the  great  rise  which  took  place  in  the  value  of 
land  in  Scotland.  His  only  daughter  was  a  general  favourite, 
and  such  was  the  charm  of  her  vivacity  and  the  sweetness  of  her 
disposition,  that  it  was  naturally  expected  she  should  make  what 
is  called  ''a  good  marriage.^'  It  is  not,  therefore,  matter  of 
surprise  that  there  should  have  been  some  hesitation  as  to  the 
proposed  union  of  an  only  child  with  a  younger  son,  whose 
prospects  were,  indeed,  excellent,  but  whose  fortune  was  still  to 


64  SIR   RALPH    ABERCROMBY. 

come  from  the  ocean  and  from  foreign  climes.  Difficulties^ 
however,  gave  way  before  strong  attachment,  aided  by  the  affec- 
tionate zeal  of  Mr.  Robert  Haldane,  who  was  anxious  that  there 
should  be  a  new  attraction  to  help  on  the  arrangement  by  which 
he  hoped  to  detain  his  brother  at  home. 

Sir  Ralph  Abercromby,  then  on  foreign  service  with  the  Duke 
of  York  in  France,  also  expressed  his  approval ;  and  the  follow- 
ing letter,  written  in  the  heat  of  a  busy  campaign,  is  at  once 
interesting  as  coming  from  so  distinguished  a  General^  and  as 
indicating  the  good  sense  of  his  manly  character. 

"  Lieut. 'General  Ralph  Abercromby  to  Major  Joass, 

"  Camp  before  Dunkirk,  August  27, 1793. 

"My  DEAR  Major, — You  may  easily  conceive  that,  in  a 
matter  in  which  your  family  is  so  nearly  concerned,  an  old 
friend  and  near  relation  cannot  but  be  interested.  If  your 
daughter  likes  Mr.  Haldane,  which  is  the  case,  there  is  no  diffi- 
cidty.  They  have  and  will  have  abundance.  He  is  a  young 
man  in  a  profession  which  will  command  fortune ;  and  allow  me 
to  say,  it  is  a  better  match  for  real  happiness  than  if  '  Miss 
Joass'  had  married  an  idle  country  gentleman,  let  his  character 
be  what  it  may.  I  warmly  congratulate  you  on  this  event ;  and 
from  the  good  principles  of  the  family  into  which  your  daughter 
goes,  I  have  no  doubt  of  her  happiness. 

"  We  are  now  preparing  for  the  siege  of  Dunkirk.  I  hope  it 
will  be  of  shorter  duration  than  that  of  Valenciennes.  That  of 
Bergens  will  follow,  so  that  we  shall  have  no  idleness.  I  keep 
my  health  wonderfully  well.  Sir  Robert  Laurie  is  here  with  us. 
He  begs  his  compliments.  I  am  sorry  it  has  not  been  in  my 
power  to  pay  as  much  attention  to  several  young  gentlemen  from 
our  country  as  I  could  wish.  Young  Duff  is  a  fine  lad ;  so  is 
young  Shawfield.     My  love  to  you  all. 

"  Ever  yours,  affectionately, 

"Rh.  At.'^ 

Shortly  after  their  marriage.  Captain  and  Mrs.  James  Haldane 
repaired  to  London,  where,  for  some  months,  they  resided  in 


ANECDOTE.  65 

Sackville-street,  Piccadilly.  Between  the  bustle  of  preparing  for 
the  voyage  and  the  gaieties  of  the  metropolis,  there  was  not  much 
opportunity  for  serious  thought.  Mrs.  James  Haldane  had  been 
well  brought  up,  and  had  also  been  accustomed  to  the  excellent 
ministry  of  Mr.  Simeon's  friend.  Dr.  Walter  Buchanan,  and 
more  recently  to  that  of  Dr.  Innes.  She  was,  therefore,  a  good 
deal  shocked  at  the  disregard  of  the  Lord's-day,  and  the  aban- 
donment of  public  worship.  It  is  a  striking  thought,  that  her 
husband  was  then  borrowing  the  arguments  he  had  learned  from 
Dr.  Macknight  on  his  tour  with  Dr.  Adam,  as  to  the  difference 
between  neglecting  these  duties  in  Scotland  and  in  England, 
addijig,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  was  much  easier  to  get  to 
heaven  than  she  imagined.  Such  arguments  are  not,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  out  of  date,  in  the  present  age,  but  they  were  formerly 
much  more  common.  In  illustration  of  this,  Mr.  James  Haldane 
used  himself  to  tell  of  a  scene  to  which  he  was  witness,  at  the 
house  of  a  noble  Earl  in  the  north  of  Scotland.  It  happened 
that  a  celebrated  and  somewhat  eccentric  Duchess  arrived  rather 
unexpectedly  on  a  Sunday.  Out  of  compliment  to  her  Grace 
and  her  London  habits,  she  was  offered  in  the  evening  the 
amusement  of  cards.  This  improper  compliance  was  contrary 
to  the  usages  of  the  family ;  and  her  instant  and  emphatic  reply, 
''  Not  on  this  side  of  the  Tweed,  my  Lord,''  whilst  it  rebuked 
the  complaisance  of  her  noble  host,  almost  implied  that  she  felt 
ashamed  of  the  proposal. 

The  preparations  for  the  voyage  were  completed  before  the 
end  of  December,  including  the  arrangements  for  Mrs.  J. 
Haldane's  return  and  safe  convoy  to  Scotland.  Their  separation 
was  the  only  dark  spot  in  the  horizon,  as  all  things  seemed  to 
smile  on  a  bright  future.  They  had  met  with  kindness  from  all 
their  family  connexions  and  friends  in  London,  including  Mr. 
Secretary  and  Lady  Jane  Dundas.  Captain  Haldane  also 
visited  that  distinguished  Minister  at  Walmer  Castle,  and  redbived 
from  him  the  hearty  and  unsoUcited  assurance  of  his  support  and 
interest.  Mr.  Hobart,  afterwards  Earl  of  Buckinghamshire,  was 
then  going  out  as  Governor  of  Madras,  and  he  informed  Mr. 
Coutts,  the  banker,  that  he  had  been  requested  by  the  President 


66  PROSPECTS. 

of  the  Board  of  Control  to  regard  Captain  Haldane  as  one  in  whom 
he  took  a  personal  interest.  The  fact  of  his  wife's  unele^  Sir 
Robert  Abercromby,  having  been  Governor  and  Commander-in- 
chief  at  Bombay,  and  being  then  at  the  head  of  the  whole  Indian 
army,  was  another  circumstance  in  his  favour,  whilst  above  all,  his 
own  reputation  was  sure  to  give  full  effect  to  all  his  family  and 
personal  influence.  As  the  value  of  a  command  greatly  depended 
upon  the  number  and  quality  of  the  passengers  returning  home, 
it  may  be  easily  supposed  that  few  of  his  contemporaries  took 
leave  of  the  East  India  House  with  brighter  prospects. 

The  Melville  Castle  had  been  manned  with  unusual  rapidity, 
the  popularity  of  the  captain  rendering  employment  in  thai  ship 
an  object  of  competition  with  seamen.  It  arrived  at  Portsmouth 
on  the  31st  of  December,  1793,  and  it  was  expected  that  the 
East  India  fleet,  consisting  of  no  less  than  twenty-five  ships,  would 
shortly  sail  under  a  strong  convoy.  But  after  all  was  ready,  there 
were  various  circumstances  which  combined  for  their  detention. 
In  the  first  place,  the  Government  then  entertained  a  plan  for 
availing  themselves  of  the  Indiamcn  to  reduce  the  Mauritius ; 
and  in  the  next  place,  there  was  a  continuance  of  westerly  winds 
for  such  an  unusual  period,  that  the  fleet,  which  should  have 
sailed  in  January,  did  not  weigh  anchor  till  the  month  of  May. 
Upon  these  contingencies  was  suspended  the  future  history  of 
Captain  Haldane's  life. 

But  before  relating,  chiefly  from  his  own  notes,  the  revolution 
which  took  place  in  his  religious  state,  it  may  be  proper  to 
recount  a  circumstance  which  occurred  at  this  time,  strongly 
illustrating  the  same  force  of  character  and  dauntless  energy  which 
always  marked  his  career.  The  part  he  took  in  quelling  the 
mutiny  on  board  the  Dutton  has  now  become  "a  history 
little  known. '*  For  many  years  it  was  remembered  by  all  con- 
nected with  the  great  East  India  fleet,  finally  amounting  to  thirty- 
six  ships,  which  were  then  collected  at  Portsmouth.  The  following 
account  was  kindly  furnished  by  the  Rev.  Christopher  Anderson, 
not  long  before  he  rested  from  his  useful  labours.  His  brother 
was  a  surgeon  on  board  the  Dutton,  and  kept  a  journal,  in  which 
the  facts  were  noted.    There  are  a  few  other  incidents  which  were 


MUTINY    OP    THE    BUTTON.  07 

gleaned  from  Mr.  Ualdanc's  own  conversation,  but  they  were  in 
full  accordance  with  Dr.  Anderson's  narrative,  and  add  but 
slightly  to  his  vivid  description  of  the  scene. 

At  the  close  of  1793,  a  large  East  India  fleet  was  detained, 
from  various  causes,  in  the  Downs  and  at  Spithead,  from  Christmas 
to  April  following.     A  mutinous  disposition  was  detected  in 
three  or  four  men  on  board  the  Dutton,  Captain  Samson,  in 
December;  but  the  captain,  with  his  officers,  after  consultation, 
released  those  men  from  confinement,  on  promise  of  good  beha- 
viour.    On  the  Slst,  the  Melville  Castle  and  two  other  East 
Indiamen  anchored  at  Spithead.     The  Camatic  and  many  others 
followed,  till  they  came  to  be  styled  '  the  grand  fleet.'     By  the 
19th  March,  however,  in  paying  off  certain  men  at  Portsmouth 
from  the  Dutton,  such  a  spirit  was  shown  as  made  it  necessary 
for  the  Captain  to  apply  for  assistance  to  his  Majesty's  ship  the 
Regulus.*     On  the  evening  of  the  19th,  Lieutenant  Lucas,  of 
the  Begulus,  with  his  boat's  crew,  came  on  board,  to  demand 
four  of  the  ringleaders,  the  same  men  formerly  mentioned,  when 
the  greatest  part  of  the  crew  hastily  got  up  the  round  shot  on 
deck,  threatening  that  they  would  sink  the  first  boat  that  came 
alongside.     The  crew  emboldened  and  increasing  in  fury,  the 
Lieutenant  thought  it  prudent  to  leave  the  ship,  as  did  also  the 
Captain,  under  the  impression  that  their  absence  might  assist  in 
restoring  peace  and  quietness.     The  crew,  however,  getting  out- 
rageous, were  going  to  hoist  out  the  boats.     The  Camatic  India- 
man,  hearing  the  confusion,  fired  several  alarm  guns,  and  armed 
boats  from  the  other  ships  were  now  advancing.     By  this  time 
the  crew  of  the  Dutton,  being  in  a  most  serious  state  of  mutiny, 
had  begun  to  arm  themselves  with  shot,  iron  bars,  &c.,  and  made 
a  determined  attack  on  the  quarter-deck.     The  officers,  having 
lost  their  command,  were  firing  pistol-shots  overhead,  when  one 


•  The  men  complained  that,  owing  to  their  detention,  their  stores  were 
exhausted,  and  they  demanded  an  additional  advance  of  pay  to  purchase 
tea  and  other  comforts.  The  crew  of  the  Melville  Castle  hod  received  this 
indulgence,  as  a  boon  which  it  was  reasonable  to  grant  It  was  refused 
by  the  captain  of  the  Dutton,  and  hence  the  mutiny. 

p  2 


d 


68        CAPTAIN    HALDANE   QUELLS   THE   MUTINEERS. 

■caman,  getting  over  the  booms,  received  a  wound  in  the  head, 
of  which  he  died  six  days  after. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  mutineers  threatened  to  carry  the 
ship  into  a  French  port,  but  at  this  moment,  far  more  serious 
apprehension  was  felt  lest  the  men  should  gain  access  to  the 
ship's  gunpowder,  and  madly  end  the  strife  by  their  own  death, 
and  that  of  all  on  board.     One  of  the  two  medical  men  on  board 
had  serious  thoughts  of  throwing  himself  into  the  water  to  escape 
the  risk.     It  was  at  this  critical  moment  that  Captain  Haldane, 
of  the  Melville  Castle,  appeared  at  the  side  of  the  vessel.     His 
approach  was  the  signal  for  renewed  and  angry  tumults.     The 
shouts  of  the  officers,  "  Come  on  board ;  come  on  board,''  were 
drowned  by  the  cries  of  the  mutineers,  "  Keep  off,  or  we  '11  sink 
you."     The  scene  was  appalling,  and  to  venture  into  the  midst 
of  the  angry  crew  seemed  to  be  an  act  of  daring  almost  amount- 
ing to  rashness.     Ordering  his  men  to  veer  round  by  the  stem, 
in  a  few  moments  Captain  Ilaldane  was  on  the  quarter-deck. 
His  first  object  was  to  restore  to  the  officers  composure  and 
presence  of  mind.    He  peremptorily  refused  to  head  an  immediate 
attack  on  the  mutineers,  but  very  calmly  reasoning  with  the  men, 
cutlass  in  hand,  telling  them  that  they  had  no  business  there,  and 
asking  what  they  hoped  to  effect  in  the  presence  of  twenty  sail 
of  the  line,  the  quarter-deck  was  soon  cleared.     But,  obsen'ing 
that  there  was  still  much  confusion,  and  inquiring  at  the  same 
time  from  the  officers  where  the  chief  danger  lay,  he  was  down 
immediately  at  the  very  point  of  alarm.   Two  of  the  crew,  intoxi- 
cated with  spirits,  and  more  hardy  than  the  rest,  were  at  the 
door  of  the  powder  magazine,  threatening  with  horrid  oaths  that 
whether  it  should  prove  Heaven  or  Hell  they  would  blow  up  the 
ship.     One  of  them  was  in  the  act  of  wrenching  off  the  iron  bars 
from  the  doors,  whilst  the  other  had  a  shovel  full  of  live  coals, 
ready  to  throw  in  I     Captain  Haldane,  instantly  putting  a  pistol 
to  the  breast  of  the  man  with  the  iron  bar,  told  him  that  if  he 
stirred  he  was  a  dead  man.     Calling  at  the  same  time  for  the 
irons  of  the  ship,  as  if  disobedience  were  out  of  the  question,  he 
saw  them  placed,  first  on  this  man  and  then  on  the  other.     The 
rest  of  the  ringleaders  were  then  secured,  when  the  crew,  finding 


REFLECTION.  69 

that  they  were  overpowered,  and  receiving  the  assurance  that 
none  should  be  reinoved  that  night,  became  quiet,  and  the  Cap- 
tain returned  to  his  own  ship.  Next  day,  the  chief  mutineers 
were  put  on  board  the  Regulus,  King^s  ship,  and  the  rest  of  the 
crew  went  to  their  duty  peaceably. 

"  Had  any  one,''  said  the  venerable  narrator,  "  then  foretold 
that  this  daring  captain  of  the  Melville  Castle  would  ere  long 
become  a  minister  of  Christ,  the  pastor  of  a  large  Christian  Church, 
and  of  a  larger  congregation,  and  that  this  surgeon  on  board  the 
Dutton  now  bound  for  India,  and  well  known  afterwards  as  Dr. 
James  Anderson  of  Edinburgh — ^would,  after  returning  home, 
one  day  join  that  Church,  where  he  remained  for  years  until  his 
dissolution,  nothing  would  have  appeared  so  incredible/' 

This  was  the  last  of  the  perils  of  his  life  at  sea,  in  which  his 
bold  and  adventurous  spirit  seemed'  to  take  pleasure.     The  time 
had  now  come  when  he  was  to  enter  on  a  holier  calling,  and  to 
be  engaged  in  occupations  of  more  enduring  importance.     The 
change  was  not,  however,  sudden,  but  gradual ;  not  the  result  of 
enthusiastic  excitement,  but  of  calm  reflection.     '^  Marriage,"  it 
has  been  said,  ''  sobers  even  the  soberest."     It  operated  on  his 
moral  feelings  with  a  most  beneficial  influence.     He  had  been 
thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  bacchanalian  joviality  of  his  last 
voyage  from  St.  Helena ;  he  also  felt  the  responsibility  of  his  new 
position,  as  Commander  of  a  ship  with  a  numerous  crew  of  officers 
and  men,  besides  passengers  and  soldiers.     He  resolved  that  his 
influence  should  be  exerted  for  good,  and  that  he  would  set  an 
example  befitting  his  station,  by  having  Divine  worship  on  board. 
To  alt  this  it  may  be  added,  that  the  idea  of  parting  so  soon  and 
for  so  long  a  time  from  his  young  wife,  to  whom  he  was  tenderly 
attached,  was  justly  assigned  by  some  of  his  friends  as  one  cir- 
cumstance that  made  him  for  the  time  at  least  more  thoughtful 
and  reflective.      To  borrow  from  his  manuscript   memoranda, 
which  still  serve  us  as  a  guide  : — 

Some  circumstances  which  took  place  tended,  before  I  left 
the  sea,  to  render  me  more  circumspect ;  yet  was  my  heart 
still  unchanged.  I  lived  on  board  ship  nearly  four  mcmths 
at  Portsmouth,  and  having  much  spare  time  and  being  always 


it 
t< 

ti 

€€ 


70  BEGINS  TO. READ  THE  BIBLE. 

"  fond  of  reading,  I  was  employed  in  this  way,  and  began, 
"  more  from  a  conviction  of  its  propriety  than  any  real  oonoem 
"  about  eternity,  to  read  the  Bible  and  religious  books,  not  only  on 
'*  the  Sabbath,  but  a  portion  of  Scripture  every  day.  I  also  began 
"  to  pray  to  God,  although  almost  entirely  about  the  concerns 
*^  of  a  present  world.  During  all  this  time  I  did  not  go  on  shore 
'*  to  public  worship  above  once  or  twice,  though  I  could  have  done 
''  so,  and  heard  the  Gospel  with  the  same  form  of  worship  (at 
''  J)r.  Itogue's)  as  in  Scotland.  At  length  some  impressions 
'*  s(*emed  to  be  made  on  my  mind,  that  all  was  not  right,  and 
"  knowing  that  the  liord's  Supper  was  to  be  dispensed,  I  was 
^'  desirous  of  being  admitted,  and  went  and  spoke  with  Dr.  Bogue 
"  on  i\\v.  subject.  He  put  some  books  into  my  hand  on  the 
"  nature  of  the  ordinance,  which  I  read,  and  was  more  regular 
"  in  prayer  and  attending  pubUc  worship.  An  idea  of  quitting 
^*  the  sea  at  this  time  was  suggested,  apparently  by  accident,  and 
"  literally  so,  except  in  so  far  as  ordered  of  God.  The  thought 
*^  sunk  into  my  mind,  and,  although  there  were  many  obsta- 
'^  cles,  my  inclination  rather  increased  than  abated.  Being  now 
*^  in  the  habit  of  prayer,  I  asked  of  God  to  order  matters  so  that 
**  it  might  be  brought  about,  and  formed  resolutions  of  amend- 
"  mcnt,  in  case  my  i)rayer  should  be  heard.  Several  circum- 
"  stances  occurred  which  seemed  to  cut  off  every  hope  of  my 
''  being  able  to  get  away  before  the  fleet  sailed ;  yet  the  Lord 
'*  overruled  all  to  farther  the  business,  and  I  quitted  the  ship 
"  about  two  days  before  she  left  England.  A  concern  about  my 
"soul  had  very  little  influence  in  this  step;  yet  I  was  now 
"  determined  to  begin  'to  make  religion  a  matter  of  serious  consi- 
"  deration.  I  was  sure  I  was  not  right.  I  had  never  joined  at 
"  the  liord's  Supper,  being  formerly  restrained  partly  by  con- 
"  science,  while  living  in  open  sin,  and  partly  by  want  of 
''convenient  opportunities,  and  I  had  been  prevented  by  my 
engagements  in  the  week  of  quitting  the  sea,  from  joining  at 
Gosport,  as  I  had  proposed.  However  dark  my  mind  still  was, 
I  have  no  doubt  but  that  God  began  a  work  of  grace  on  my 
"  soul  while  living  on  board  the  Melville  Castle.  His  voice  was 
''  indeed  still  and  small,  but  I  would  not  despise  the  day  of  small 


u 


ti 


QUITS    THE    MELVILLE    CASTLE.  71 

''things^  nor  undervalue  the  least  of  His  gracious  dealings 
'^  towards  me.  There  is  no  doubt  that  I  had  sinned  against  more 
"  light  than  many  of  my  companions  who  have  been  cut  off  in 
*'  their  iniquities^  and  that  I  might  justly  have  been  made  a 
*'  monument  of  His  wrath." 

The  chief  obstacles  to  his  leaving  the  sea^  arose  from  the 
opposition  of  his  own  uncles^  and  from  his  wife^s  relatives.  They 
naturally  considered  it  to  be  an  act  of  folly  to  relinquish  pros- 
pects of  fortune  such  as  he  had  before  him,  and  the  idea  of  a 
young  man  sitting  down  as  ^'  an  idle  country  gentleman"  was 
one  which  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  had  in  his  letter  particularly 
singled  out  as  unfavourable  for  happiness.  But  the  advice  of 
his  brother  decided  the  matter.  Mr.  Haldane  had  previously 
laboured  earnestly,  although  without  success,  to  induce  him  to 
settle  at  home,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Airthrey.  When^ 
therefore,  he  heard  that  an  opportunity  had  occurred  of  disposing 
of  the  command  for  the  sum  of  9000/.,  being  at  the  rate  of 
3000/.  a  voyage,  exclusive  of  the  Captain's  share  in  the  property 
of  the  ship  and  stores,  which  amounted  in  all  to  GOOO/.  addi- 
tional, Mr.  Haldane  wrote  strongly  recommending  that  this 
offer  should  be  accepted.  His  letter  decided  the  matter,  and 
Captain  Haldane  returned  with  his  wife  to  Scotland  early  in  the 
summer  of  1794. 

During  that  summer  they  resided  chiefly  at  Stirling  Castle 
and  at  Airthrey.  On  the  6th  October,  their  first  child,  Eliza- 
beth, was  bom,  and  in  less  than  a  month  afterwards  the  death 
of  Major  Joass  dissolved  their  connexion  with  Stirling  Castle, 
and  all  its  agreeable  associations.  A  letter  from  Sir  Ralph 
Abercromby  on  the  marriage  of  his  niece  has  been  already  given. 
The  following,  addressed  by  him  to  his  sister  on  the  removal  of 
her  husband,  was  written  in  the  midst  of  the  disastrous  campaign 
in  Holland,  and  a  few  days  after  his  wound  in  the  successful  sally 
on  the  French  at  Nimmegen : — 

''Elsty  November  16/A,  1794. 

*'  My  dear  Sister, — From  my  not  writing,  I  trust  you  will 
not  accuse  me  of  unkindness.  With  Mrs.  Abercromby  alone  I 
correspond,  and  it  sometimes  happens  that  I  have  not  an  oppor- 


72  TAKES    A    HOUSE    IN    EDINBURGH. 

tunity.  She  has  regularly  iiifonned  me  of  everything  that  related 
to  your  family.  I  cannot  but  feel  severely  a  change  that  has 
lately  taken  place  in  it.  I  have  lost  an  old  and  a  most  worthy 
friend.  It  would  have  given  me  the  greatest  satisfiEU^tion  had 
Provideuce  so  ordered  it,  that  we  should  have  met  once  more 
after  the  end  of  all  these  troubles.  He  is  gone  to  a  better  world, 
and  is  relieved  from  the  pains  of  this.  It  is  an  event  which  you 
and  all  his  family  foresaw.  Still  that  does  not  diminish  the 
severity  of  the  stroke.  I  am  told  Mr.  Haldane  is  an  excellent 
young  man,  with  a  great  share  of  humanity,  and  that  his  conduct 
at  this  trying  time  has  been  most  praiseworthy.  I  hope  it  will 
always  be  so,  and  that  he  and  his  wife  will  be  a  comfort  and 
consolation  to  you.  Knowing  your  sensibility  I  much  fear  your 
health  must  ha\'e  .suffered.  You  must  endeavour  to  support 
yourself  from  such  motives  as  reason  and  religion  will  suggest. 
I  have  a  distant  hope  that  I  may  see  you  this  winter.  I  shall 
probably  find  you  near  us  all.  I  beg  to  be  kindly  remembered 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haldane.     Believe  me  to  be,  my  dear  Sister, 

"  Yours,  ever  most  affectionately, 

*'  Ra.  Abercromby/' 

On  leaving  Stirling  Castle,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  A.  Haldane  at 
first  took  a  house  in  George-square,  Edinburgh,  and  were  led  to 
attend  the  ministry  of  the  excellent  Dr.  Walter  Buchanan,  who, 
as  already  remarked,  had  formerly  been  minister  of  Stirling,  and 
of  whom  it  is  said  by  Mr.  Simeon,  that  he  was  "a  Scotch 

minister,  whom  I  think  it  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  my 

life  ever  to  have  known.''  Tliey  were  also  introduced  about 
the  same  time  to  the  lleverend  David  Black,  the  minister  of 
Lady  Yester's  Church,  who  was  eminently  a  man  of  God  and  a 
promoter  of  all  good  works.  These  good  men  found  him  an 
earnest  inquirer  into  the  things  of  God,  and  were  no  doubt 
useful  in  directing  his  spiritual  studies.  But  his  progress  was 
gradual,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter. 

The  history  of  James  Haldane's  life  has  now  been  conducted 
to  the  end  of  1795.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  he  had  made  a 
visit  of  some  length  to  his  uncle,  on  board  the  Venei-able,  when 


VISITS    THE    NORTH    SEA    FLEET.  73 

the  North  Sea  fleet  was  in  the  Downs.  His  frequent  reference, 
more  than  fifty  years  afterwards^  to  the  incidents  which  then 
occurred,  indicated  the  pleasurable  excitement  he  enjoyed  as  a 
guest  under  the  flag  of  his  distinguished  relative.  It  was  about  the 
time  when  Admiral  Comwallis  made  his  celebrated  and  successful 
retreat  with  only  five  ships,  which  repulsed  and  kept  at  bay 
twelve  French  sail  of  the  line  with  as  many  frigates.  He  used 
to  relate  how  Admiral  Duncan,  on  a  visit  to  Walmer  Castle, 
found  Mr.  Pitt  in  deep  despondency,  considering  the  capture  of 
Comwallis  and  his  little  fleet  inevitable ;  and  how  the  Premier  was 
reassured,  although  still  half-sceptical,  when  his  gallant  visitor 
scouted  his  apprehensions  and  forbade  him  to  think  so  meanly 
of  five  British  men-of-war.  "  What/'  said  Mr.  Pitt,  "  do  you 
think  that,  against  such  odds,  they  have  a  chance ?''  ''A 
chance.  Sir ! "  exclaimed  the  veteran  chief,  "  Frenchmen 
do  not  yet  know  how  to  take  a  British  ship/^  Mr.  Pitt  was 
cheered,  though  incredulous,  and  invited  the  Admiral  to  dine 
with  him  a  day  or  two  afterwards.  On  the  morning  of  that  day 
the  news  of  the  repulse  of  the  French,  and  the  safe  arrival  of  the 
intrepid  Comwallis,  reached  the  Downs,  but,  by  some  mistake, 
the  welcome  intelligence  had  not  been  forwarded  to  Mr.  Pitt. 
On  going  in  the  afternoon  to  dinner,  the  Admiral,  on  entering 
the  reception-room  and  shaking  hands  with  Mr.  Pitt,  exclaimed, 
"  Give  you  joy.  Sir  V'  Mr.  Pitt,  oppressed  with  anxieties,  had 
relapsed  into  his  former  despondency,  and  observed,  '^Joyl 
Admiral — ^what  joy  ?  Nothing  is  yet  known  of  the  fate  of  Com- 
wallis.'' An  explanation  soon  put  Mr.  Pitt  in  possession  of  the 
agreeable  tidings,  that  Frenchmen  did  not  yet  know  the  art  of 
taking  British  ships,  and  British  seamen  did  not  know  when 
they  ought  to  consider  themselves  beaten.  He  declared  that 
the  Admiral  had  taken  a  load  from  ofi*  his  mind,  and  that  he 
never  sat  down  to  dinner  with  a  lighter  heart.  It  was  at  Walmer 
Castle  that  the  celebrated  Marquis  of  Wellesley  used  to  meet 
Lord  Duncan,  at  the  time  when  he  describes  the  Premier's 
admiration  of  the  joyous  and  gallant  bearing  of  the  hero  of 
Camperdown. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  used  also  to  tell  how  it  happened,  about 


74  ANECDOTE    OF   LORD    ST.  VINCENT. 

the  time  of  his  visit  to  the  Venerable^  that  Admiral  Duncan  had 
been  the  means  of  pressing  the  services  of  Sir  John  Jervis  on  the 
notice  of  the  Premier,  and  overcoming  his  prejudices  against  an 
officer  who  had  joined  in  characterizing  the  war  as  ''  imneceasary, 
impohtic,  and  lamentable/'  On  Sir  Charles  Hotham's  recal, 
the  appointment  of  Commander-in-chief  in  the  Mediterranean 
was  first  offered  to  Lord  Duncan.  But  he  was  so  well  satisfied 
of  the  importance  of  the  command  in  the  North  Seas,  that 
he  the  more  easily  allowed  other  considerations  to  weigh  in 
his  determination  to  decline  the  proposed  change.  He  was 
next  consulted  by  Mr.  Pitt,  Lord  Melville,  and  Lord  Spencer, 
as  to  the  fittest  officer  for  that  post,  and  he  told  them  that, 
beyond  all  doubt,  it  was  Sir  John  Jervis.  It  was  objected 
that  he  had  too  much  mixed  himself  up  with  poUtics,  and  too 
strongly  reprobated  the  war,  to  render  it  expedient  to  nomi* 
nate  so  decided  an  opponent  of  the  Government.  But  Lord 
Duncan  still  insisted  that  his  friend's  qualifications  were  para* 
mount  to  all  party  considerations,  and  Mr.  Pitt  was  at  length 
convinced.  To  this  circumstance  Lord  St.  Vincent's  career  of 
distinction  may  pi*obably  be  traced.  This  fact  is  not  generally 
known,  and  is  not  mentioned  in  any  of  the  Lives  of  Lord  St. 
Vincent ;  but  it  rests  on  the  undoubted  evidence  of  Lord 
Duncan's  nephew,  who  was  with  him  about  the  time,  and  heard 
all  the  details  of  these  discussions  after  the  appointment  had 
been  confirmed.  Lord  Duncan  was  himself  so  unostentatious, 
and  so  little  disposed  to  boast,  that  even  his  own  early  services 
at  the  Havannah,  Belleislc,  St.  Vincent,  and  Gibraltar,  would 
have  been  comparatively  unnoticed,  had  it  not  been  that  Lord 
Spencer,  without  a  prompter,  remembered  "  Keppell's  Captain." 
His  Lordship's  choice  was  rewarded  by  the  undaunted  firmness 
which  maintained  the  blockade  of  the  Dutch  fleet  during  the 
mutiny  of  the  Nore,  and  by  the  splendour  of  his  victory  off  Cam- 
perdown,  which  at  once  crushed  the  naval  power  of  repubUcan 
Holland,  and  effectually  warded  off  the  intended  invasion  of 
Ireland. 

When  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  returned  to  Edinburgh,  his  mind 
became  more  and  more  occupied  with  reUgious  inquiry;  and  a 


PROGRESS    OF   THE    CHANGE.  75 

reference  to  his  own  recollections  will  enable  us  to  trace  its 
progress. 

''On  my  return  to  Scotland^  I  continued  to  inquire  about 
religion  more  froim  a  conviction  of  its  importance  than  any  deep 
conviction  of  sin.  I  was^  however^  sensible  I  had  been  a  great 
sinner^  but  my  views  of  Grod's  mercy  were  such  that  I  was  under 
no  great  alarm.  A  Socinian  minister  with  whom  I  met  was  of 
use  to  me  (a  Mr.  Edwards)^  not  from  conversation^  but  because 
his  opinions  brought  the  great  mystery  of  godliness  under  my 
consideration.  When  I  heard  of  the  controversy  respecting  the 
person  of  Christy  it  did  not  seem  to  me  of  veiy  great  importance. 
I  had  what  the  world  calls  charity  for  both  parties,  thinking 
both  were  Christians.  When  the  matter  was  discussed  I  took 
the  side  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed,  but  I  had  hardly  any 
opinion  on  the  subject.  A  conversation  I  heard  between  a 
person  who  was  arguing,  if  not  in  favour  of  Socinianism,  at 
least  taking  from  them  any  degree  of  guilt  or  danger  for  their 
opinions,  and  an  eminently  pious  man,  now  in  glory,  struck  me 
much.  The  latter  was  not  disputing  for  victory,  but  maintain- 
ing that  truth  which  was  sweeter  to  his  soul  than  the  honey- 
comb. Christ  was  precious  to  him,  and  he  justly  considered 
that  those  could  not  be  his  friends  who  degraded  his  character. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  earnestness  with  which  he  said,  '  If  I 
did  not  know  my  Saviour  to  be  God,  I  should  this  night  lie 
down  in  despair;  the  Scriptures  could,  in  this  case,  convey  no 
comfort  to  my  mind.^  The  expression  struck  me  much,  and  led 
me  to  compare  my  views  of  Christ  with  his.  I  compared  the 
Scriptures  which  he  and  others  quoted,  and  the  result  was  a 
conviction  that  Jesus  was  indeed  the  Son  of  the  Uving  Grod.  I 
took  some  opportunities  of  conversing  with  the  person  to  whom 
I  have  alluded,  and,  being  desirous  of  having  my  mind  satisfied 
and  of  submitting  to  the  truth,  I  soon  became  more  estabUshed 
in  this  fundamental  and  most  important  of  all  truths.  Conversa- 
tions I  had  with  two  pious  ministers*  were  also  very  useful  to  me. 
They  saw  I  was  inquiring,  that  I  was  indeed  desirous  to  know  the 
truth,  and  bore  with  much  self-confidence,  which  I  displayed  in 

*  Probably  Dr.  Innes  and  Mr.  Shire£ 


76  PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHANGE. 

argument,  of  which,  at  that  time,  I  was  particularly  fond.  Fuller's 
"  Comparison  of  Calvinism  and  Socinianism"  was  peculiarly  useful 
to  me,  not  so  much  from  the  general  argument,  which  is  admirably 
conducted,  as  that  it  brought  into  my  view  that  text  in  Job 
where  he  expresses  self-loathing  and  abhorrence.  I  saw  that  my 
views  of  sin  must  be  very  inadequate,  and  I  asked  of  God  to 
teach  me  all  He  would  have  me  to  know.  I  shall  here  remark, 
that  the  principal  benefit  I  received  from  reading  other  books 
than  the  Bible  was,  that  they  explained  to  me  more  fully  those 
doctrines  of  which  I  was  before  satisfied,  for  I  was  too  fond  of 
my  own  opinions  to  read  those  books  which  opposed  them.  I 
did,  however,  consider  the  Scripture  as  a  certain  authority.  As 
soon  as  I  found  it  against  any  of  my  opinions,  I  readily  gave 
them  up.  My  thoughts  began  now  to  be  particularly  turned  to 
election,  a  doctrine  which,  indeed,  was  foolishness  unto  me ;  it 
seemed  so  irrational,  that  I  thought  I  should  never  embrace  it. 
A  good  minister,  with  whom  I  frequently  conversed  on  the 
subject,  told  me,  I  should  by  and  by  change  my  opinion.  I 
thought  it  impossible :  and  so  much  attached  was  I  to  my  own 
way  of  thinking,  that  I  could  hardly  suppose  that  sensible,  good 
men,  did  really  believe  the  contrary.  I  always  thought  that  I  had 
the  better  in  argument  on  this  subject.  I  was  well  pleased  to 
enter  upon  it,  and  although  every  conversation  left  me  more 
established  in  my  own  opinion,  yet  they  were  afterwards  of  use. 
Once  in  particular  that  minister  read  to  me  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Ephesians,  and  said,  if  the  doctrine  was  not  clearly  estab- 
lished by  that  passage,  any  meaning  whatever  might  be  a£Sxed 
to  Scripture.  This  passage  made  some  impression  on  my  mind. 
But  however  erroneous  my  views  were,  my  whole  thoughts  were 
engrossed  about  religion.  Having  nothing  particular  to  occupy 
my  attention,  I  meditated  on  these  things  and  gave  myself 
wholly  to  them.  I  hardly  read  any  but  religious  books,  and  it 
was  my  chief  concern  to  know  the  will  of  God.  This,  however, 
afforded  food  for  pride, — I  thought  my  attainments  were  great, 
and  had  much  self-righteousness.  Although  I  professed  that 
my  hope  was  fixed  in  Jesus  Christ,  yet  my  doings  were  not 
wholly  forgotten.     I  gradually,  moreover,  got  clearer  views  of 


DOCTRINE    OP    ELECTION.  77 

the  Gospel ;  and,  in  reading  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  xvii.  4 — 8, 
'  As  many  as  were  ordained  to  eternal  life  believed/  my  whole 
system,  as  to  free  will,  was  overturned.  I  saw  that  being 
ordained  to  eternal  life  was  not  the  consequence  of  faith,  but  that 
the  children  of  God  believed  because  they  were  thus  ordained. 
This  gave  a  considerable  blow  to  my  self-righteousness,  and 
henceforth  I  read  the  Scriptures  more  in  a  childlike  spirit,  for 
hitherto  I  was  often  obliged  to  search  for  some  interpretation  of 
Scripture  which  would  agree  with  my  system.  I  now  saw  more 
of  the  freeness  of  the  grace  of  the  Gospel  and  the  necessity  of 
being  bom  again,  and  was  daily  looking  for  satisfactory  evidence 
of  this  change.  My  desire  was  now  set  upon  frames  and  feelings, 
instead  of  building  on  the  sure  foundation.  I  got  no  comfort 
in  this  way.  Gradually  becoming  more  dissatisfied  with  myself, 
being  convinced  especially  of  the  sin  of  unbelief,  I  wearied 
myself  with  looking  for  some  wonderful  change  to  take  place, — 
some  inward  feeling,  by  which  I  might  know  that  I  was  bom 
again.  The  method  of  resting  simply  on  the  promises  of  God, 
which  are  yea  and  amen  in  Jesus  Christ,  was  too  plain  and 
easy,  and  like  Naaman,  the  Syrian,  instead  of  bathing  in  Jordan 
and  being  clean,  I  would  have  some  great  work  in  my  mind  to 
substitute  in  place  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Lord  gradually  opened 
my  eyes;  He  always  dealt  with  me  in  the  tenderest  manner, 
and  kept  me  from  those  horrors  of  mind  which,  in  my  ignorance 
and  pride,  I  had  often  desired  as  a  proof  of  my  conversion.  The 
dispensations  of  his  providence  towards  me  much  favoured 
the  teaching  which  He  has  vouchsafed  to  afford.  The  con- 
versations of  some  of  the  Lord's  people  with  whom  I  was 
acquainted  were  helpful  to  my  soul ;  and,  in  particular,  I 
may  here  add,  that  the  knowledge  of  Scripture  which  I  acquired 
in  early  life  was  very  useful  to  me  when  my  views  were  directed 
to  the  great  concerns  of  eternity.  Many  things  were  then 
brought  to  my  remembrance  which  I  had  learned  when  young, 
although  they  seemed  wholly  to  have  escaped  while  I  was  living 
in  forgetfulness  of  God.  Instead  of  those  deep  convictions 
which  are  experienced  by  some  with  much  horror  of  mind,  the 
Lord  has  rather  shown  me  the  evil  of  sin  in  the  sufferings  of 


78  DOCTRINE    OF    ELECTION. 

his  dear  Son^  and  in  the  manifestation  of  that  love  which^  whilst 
it  condemns  the  past  ingratitude^  seals  the  pardon  of  the  believing 
sinner.  In  shorty  I  now  desire  to  feel,  and  hope,  in  some  mea- 
sure, that  I  do  feel,  as  a  sinner  who  looks  for  salvation  freely  by 
grace;  who  prefers  this  method  of  salvation  to  every  other, 
because  thereby  Gk>d  is  glorified  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
pride  of  human  glory  stained.  I  desire  daily  to  see  more  of  my 
own  unworthiness,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  may  be  more  precious 
to  my  soul.  I  depend  on  him  for  sanctification  as  well  as  for 
deliverance  from  wrath,  and  am  in  some  measure  (would  it  were 
more  I)  convinced  of  my  own  weakness  and  his  all-sufficiency. 
When  I  have  most  comfort,  then  does  sin  appear  most  hateful ; 
and  I  am  in  some  measure  made  to  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  being 
completely  delivered  from  it  by  seeing,  in  all  his  beauty.  Him 
who  was  dead  and  is  alive,  and  liveth  for  evermore.     Amen.^' 

These  were  the  notes  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane^s  confession  of 
faith  on  the  occasion  of  his  ordination.  He  held  fast  the 
beginning  of  his  confidenci^  stcdfast  to  the  end,  and  with 
unswerving  consistency  maintained  the  same  doctrines  down  to 
the  very  close  of  life. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION— ITS  EFFECTS  ON  ROBERT  HAL- 
DANE  — «  ORASPS  AT  A  SHADOW,  CATCHES  THE  SUB- 
STANCE "—FREEHOLDER'S  MEETINO  AT  STIRLING— CON- 
FERENCES WITH  MINISTERS  NEAR  AIRTHREY— STUDIES 
THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY— PROORESS  OF  THE 
CHANGE— CONVERSATION  WITH  A  PIOUS  STONE-MASON. 

[1794—5.] 

The  ten  years  which  immediately  followed  Robert  Haldane's 
abandonment  of  the  naval  profession^  after  the  peace  of  1783^ 
was  a  period  of  much  activity  and  interest.  But^  like  the  first 
twenty  years  of  his  early  life,  it  was  one  of  peculiar  training  for 
loftier  and  more  enduring  objects.  For  two  years  he  had  chiefly 
devoted  himself  to  a  voluntary  course  of  study  at  Oosport  and 
at  Edinburgh.  He  had  next  made  the  tour  of  Europe,  and 
after  his  marriage,  he  turned,  with  characteristic  intensity,  to 
country  pursuits,  determined  to  master  agriculture,  both  practi- 
cally and  as  a  science,  in  this  respect  setting  an  example  to  his 
neighbours,  and  acquiring  the  reputation  of  being  a  better  far- 
mer than  many,  with  whom  it  had  been  the  business  of  their 
lives.  His  skill  in  landscape-gardening  and  in  planting  was 
exhibited  at  Airthrey,  as  it  was  afterwards  still  more  conspicuous 
at  Auchingray,  where  the  resources  of  art  were  not  so  much 
favoured  by  the  beauties  of  nature. 

But  the  spell  by  which  his  mind  had  been  bound  to  the  world 
and  the  passing  things  of  time  was  now  to  be  broken,  and  the 
same  process  of  spiritual  renewal  which,  during  the  winter  of 
1794,  had  been  at  work  in  the  heart  of  his  younger  brother,  was 
soon  to  operate  on  his  own.     It  is  a  singular  but  a  remarkable 


80  FREKpH    REVOLUTION. 

fact,  which  he  has  himself  left  on  record,  that  he  was  aroused 
from  the  sleep  of  spiritual  death  by  the  excitement  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

That  great  moral  and  political  convulsion  was  not  unforeseen. 
Its  approach  had  been  discerned  in  the  demoralization  of  a  pro- 
fligate Court,  a  corrupt  aristocracy,  an  infidel  priesthood,  and  an 
overburdened  people.  The  social  disruption  of  France  had  been 
foretold  by  Lord  Chesterfield,  and  other  keen  political  observers. 
Yet  it  came  upon  Europe  like  an  earthquake,  casting  down 
thrones,  coronets,  and  altars,  mingling  in  one  heap  of  ruins  the 
trophies  of  feudal  grandeur  and  the  monuments  of  sacerdotal 
tyranny.  Like  most  young  men  of  ardent,  generous,  and  ener- 
getic minds,  Robert  Haldanc  was  roused  as  from  a  lethargy  by 
the  events  passing  around  him.  He  saw,  or  imagined  he  saw, 
through  the  gloom,  the  prospect  of  a  new  and  better  order  of 
things,  when  oppression  and  immorality  would  cease,  and 
Governments  would  be  regulated  by  a  paramount  regard  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  He  admitted  that  good  and  evil  were 
wildly  contending  for  the  mastery,  but  he  was  sanguine  as  to  the 
result,  and  dropped  out  of  his  calculations  the  corruption  of 
human  nature,  and  the  hopelessness  of  any  renovation  apart  from 
the  influence  of  a  Divine  agency.  But  he  was  neither  discon- 
tented himself,  nor  impatient  of  any  real  or  fancied  grievances, 
and  was  therefore  practically  little  disposed  to  disturb  the  order 
of  society  in  his  own  country,  or  to  countenance  levelling  prin- 
ciples, either  in  regard  to  rank  or  property.  He  stood  aloof 
from  all  political  societies,  and  steadily  refused  every  invitation 
to  countenance,  either  by  his  name,  his  presence,  or  his  purse, 
the  meetings  or  the  plans  of  the  "  friends  of  the  people.*'  So 
far  as  property  was  concerned,  he  had  everything  to  lose,  and 
little  to  hope  for,  in  the  event  of  change.  In  regard  to  social  rank, 
he  was  himself  satisfied  with  his  own  position,  and  by  no  means 
ambitious  of  distinction.  Whilst  he  did  not  envy  those  above 
him,  as  little  was  he  disposed  to  countenance  the  encroachments 
of  levellers.  He  valued  ancient  descent  and  old  nobility,  not  as 
things  possessing  any  intrinsic  value  in  themselves,  but  as  links 
in  the  chain  which  help  to  secure  stability  to  the  State,  or,  in 


FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  81 

the  words  of  Bui*ke,  "  protect  it  against  the  levity  of  Courts,  and 
the  greater  levity  of  the  multitude.*' 

His  supposed  democratic  tendencies  were  afterwards  studi* 
ously  exaggerated  and  misrepresented  by  those,  who  wished  to 
cast  discredit  on  his  designs  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity. 
Beyond,  however,  all  doubt,  he  was  for  a  time  somewhat 
dazzled  with  the  delusive  prospect  of  a  new  order  of  things.  It 
is  remarked  by  Mr.  Alison,  in  speaking  of  the  French  Revolu* 
tion :  "  The  young,  the  ardent,  the  philosophical  were  sanguine 
in  their  expectations  of  its  success ;  a  new  era  seemed  to  have 
dawned  upon  the  world,  from  the  rise  of  freedom  in  that  great 
empire;  the  fetters  of  slavery  and  the  bonds  of  superstition 
appeared  to  be  dropping  from  the  hands  of  the  human  race.  It 
was  not  merely  the  factious,  the  restless,  and  the  ambitious  who 
entertained  these  opinions ;  they  were  shared  by  many  of  the 
best  and  wisest  of  men ;  and  in  England  it  might  with  truth  be 
said,  what  an  eloquent  historian  has  observed  of  Europe  in 
general,  that  the  firiends  of  the  French  Revolution  comprised  at 
that  period  the  most  enlightened  and  generous  of  the  com* 
munity.''* 

But  if  the  bold,  the  ardent,  the  enlightened,  the  generous, 
and  the  speculative,  who  had  life  before  them,  looked  with 
pleasurable  interest  on  these  revolutionary  changes,  and 
'^  hoped  even  against  hope''  in  the  midst  of  sanguinary  violence, 
another  and  still  more  influential  portion  of  the  community 
regarded  these  movements  with  immixed  horror.  For  the  most 
part,  those  who  had  passed  through  life  and  had  property 
to  lose,  as  well  as  the  timid  and  the  peaceful,  trembled  lest  the 
political  contagion  should  spread ;  whilst  the  adherents  of  the 
Established  Churches,  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  a 
great  majority  of  the  landed  aristocracy,  were  united  with  the 
holders  of  office  in  deprecating  all  political  discussion. 

Society  was  thus  divided,  and  in  no  part  of  the  empire  did 
the  divisions  rise  to  such  a  pitch  of  violence  as  in  Scotland. 
Had  Mr.  Haldane  been  generally  met  by  men  of  large  and 

•  VoL  L,  p.  321. 

G 


82  POLITICAL   OPINIONS. 

enlightened  minds,  his  ardent  wishes  for  the  amelioration  of 
mankind,  as  expressed  in  private,  would  have  been  more  candidly 
judged,  and  he  would  not  have  been  tempted  occasionally  to 
defend  measures  or  principles  tending  to  excess.  The  most 
eminently  pious  ministers  within  a  wide  circuit  round  Airthrey 
eagerly  sought  his  society,  and  discerned  in  his  impatience  of  **  all 
the  oppressions  done  under  the  sun,^^  and  in  his  repugnance  to 
follow  the  beaten  track,  the  hope  of  a  blessed  change,  when, 
with  a  ripened  understanding  and  a  renewed  heart,  the  same 
generous  impulses  would  direct  his  steps  into  the  paths  of 
Christianized  philanthropy.  They  rightly  judged  that  even  then 
he  was  nearer  the  kingdom  of  God  than  many  of  the  alarmists, 
who  were  most  shocked  at  the  freedom  of  his  sentiments,  and  his 
aversion  to  a  war  with  France,  which,  hke  his  old  commander. 
Lord  St.  Vincent,  he  regarded  as  ''  unnecessary,  impolitic,  and 
lamentable/^  With  secular  men  of  enlarged  views,  whom  he 
valued  and  respected,  there  was  indeed  no  serious  collision  of 
sentiment.  With  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby,  who  belonged  to  Mr. 
Pitt's  party,  his  intercourse  up  to  the  middle  of  1793  had  been 
intimate  and  mutually  satisfactory.  At  a  still  later  period  it  is 
evident,  from  the  letter  already  quoted,  that  he  had  not  lost  the 
confidence  of  that  great  man,  when  he  alluded  to  'Hhc  good 
principles  of  the  family '^  into  which  his  niece  was  about  to 
marry.  There  are  other  circumstances  from  which  it  is  clear 
that  Robert  Ilaldane's  sanguine  hopes  of  the  French  Revolution 
had  not  interrupted  his  intercourse  even  with  some  of  the  chief 
members  of  the  Government.  With  Mr.  Pitt's  bosom  friend, 
Mr.  Secretary  Dundas,  he  continued  to  be  on  very  excellent 
terms,  and  was  a  visitor  at  Dunira  when  party  spirit  had  begun  to 
run  high.  Even  after  his  brother's  return  home,  so  late  as  the 
summer  of  1 794,  the  Duke  of  Montrose,  then  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  the  county,  and  an  active  member  of  Mr.  Pitt's  Government, 
was  himself  a  guest  at  Airthrey.  These  facts  are  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  refute  the  exaggerations  afterwards  industriously  circu- 
lated, concerning  his  extreme  political  opinions,  and  anything  so 
ridiculous  would  not  now  have  been  referred  to,  had  it  not  been 


ANECDOTE — ARDOCH.  83 

for  the  revival,  hereafter  to  be  noticed,  of  old  and  forgotten  mis- 
representations in  the  unsatisfactory  Life  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  by 
his  sons. 

But  Mr.  Haldane  was  fond  of  argument,  and  often  took  a 
kind  of  pleasure  in  startling  the  prejudices  of  narrow-minded 
squires,  for  whom  prospects  of  social  amelioration  had  no  charms. 
Impatient  of  any  semblance  of  sympathy  with  the  changes  in 
progress,  they  were  yet  eager  to  engage  him  in  debate,  and, 
conscious  of  his  superiority,  they  would  invite  some  man  of 
ability  or  skill,  generally  a  lawyer  on  circuit,  such  as  Mr. 
Maconochie,  the  first  Lord  Meadowbank,  or  Mr.  Graham,  of 
Meiklewood,  to  meet  him,  and  act  as  the  champion  of  their  own 
opinions.  It  was  to  one  of  these  occasions  that  he  alluded  on 
his  death-bed,  in  1842,  when  reviewing  his  past  history,  and 
extolling  that  watchful  providence  which  had  preserved  him 
during  his  early  life,  whilst  living  at  a  distance  from  God.  He 
had  been  dining  at  Ardoch,  then  the  residence  of  a  well-known 
Baronet,  some  miles  to  the  north-west  of  Airthrey.  According 
to  the  custom  of  the  times  the  gentlemen  had  sat  long  after  the 
ladies  had  left  the  dinner-table.  Mr.  Haldane  had  argued  much. 
It  was  late,  and  the  night  was  dark.  He  had  intended  to  ride 
across  the  Sheriff  Moor,  but  Mrs.  Haldane,  apprehensive  of  the 
danger,  remained  longer  than  she  would  otherwise  have  done,  to 
convey  him  home  in  her  carriage.  He  had,  however,  ordered 
his  horse,  and  would  not  be  persuaded  to  go  by  the  circuitous 
highway  road  through  Dumblane  and  the  Bridge  of  Allan. 
Heated  with  wine,  and  excited  by  argument,  he  mounted  and 
galloped  off,  crossing  the  open  moor^  and  dashing  through  the 
broken  ground  and  woods  of  Pendrich  and  Airthrey,  regardless 
of  the  imminent  risk  to  which  he  was  exposed.  He  reached 
home  more  speedily,  and  in  safety,  but  it  may  indicate  the 
impression  which  this  recollection  made  upon  the  mind  of  a  man 
not  much  disposed  to  talk  of  dangers,  that  in  the  weakness  and 
exhaustion  of  ebbing  life,  he  mentioned  this  preservation  as  one 
of  the  leading  events  in  his  history,  on  the  review  of  which  he 
was  fiUed  with  mingled  emotions  of  humble  penitence  and  adoring 
gratitude.     He  said,  that  on  this  and  other  occasions,  he  felt 

o  2 


84  THE    CRISIS. 

that  he  must  have  perished  had  he  not  been  held  in  the  grasp  of 
Omnipotence. 

It  will  be  at  once  understood^  from  what  has  been  said  of  his 
political  opinions^  how  easy  it  was,  at  a  time  of  such  party 
violence,  to  exaggerate  and  pervert  them,  especially  after  his 
religious  movements  had  provoked  opposition.  But  his  own 
account  of  the  matter,  published  in  1800,  has  completely 
disposed  of  what  he  himself  termed  the  ^'  gross  misrepresenta- 
tions of  his  conduct  and  views.^^*  The  narrative  is  the  more 
interesting,  as  it,  in  fact,  contains  the  history  of  that  spiritual 
change  of  heart  through  which  he  was  enabled  to  discover  the 
only  true  source  of  happiness,  whether  personal,  social^  or 
political. 

After  stating  that  there  could  be  no  vanity  in  asserting  that 
he  was  amongst  the  foremost  of  those  whose  political  opinions 
were,  at  that  period  of  religious  excitement,  misrepresented,  he 
proceeds : — "  Until  the  commencement  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion I  had  never  particularly  turned  my  attention  to  political 
discussion.  I  had  read  Delolme^s  Treatise  and  Blackstone's 
'  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England,^  and  was  a  sincere 
admirer  of  the  British  Constitution.  I  had  also  perused  with 
much  satisfaction  Smithes  '  Inquiries  into  the  Nature  and 
Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations.'  The  first  books  I  read  upon 
the  subject  of  government,  after  the  change  that  took  place  in 
France,  were  Mr.  Burke's  '  Reflections,'  Mackintosh's  '  Vindici« 
Gallicae,'  and  afterwards  several  of  the  pamphlets  by  Christie, 
Paine,  Barlow,  Priestly,  and  others,  which  appeared  in  such 
great  numbers  about  that  time.  Although  I  did  not  exactly 
agree  with  these  writers,  nor,  indeed,  with  any  that  I  happened 
to  meet  with,  a  scene  of  melioration  and  improvement  in  the 
affairs  of  mankind  seemed  to  open  itself  to  my  mind,  which,  I 
trusted,  would  speedily  take  place  in  the  world,  such  as  the 
imiversal  abolition  of  slavery,  of  war,  and  of  many  other  miseries 
that  mankind  were  exposed  to,  which  appeared  to  me  wholly  to 
result  from  the  false  principles  upon  which  the  ancient  govern- 
ments have  been  constructed.     I  exulted  in  this  prospect  from 

•  "Address  on  Politics."    1800. 


THE    CRISIS.  85 

motives  of  benevolence^  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  without  any 
allowed  mixture  of  selfishness.  I  rejoiced  in  the  experiment 
that  was  making  in  France  of  the  construction  of  a  Government 
at  once  from  its  foimdation  upon  a  regular  plan,  which  Hume, 
in  his  Essays,  speaks  of  as  an  event  so  much  to  be  desired. 

^^  In  every  company  I  delighted  in  discussing  this  favourite 
subject,  and  endeavoured  to  point  out  the  vast  advantages  that  I 
thought  might  be  expected  as  the  result.  At  this  time  I  was 
in  habits  of  intimacy  with  some  very  worthy  clergymen,  residing 
at  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stirling.  They  were  acquainted 
with  a  principle  I  did  not  then  admit,  and  which,  although  a 
fundamental  part  of  the  creeds  of  the  Established  Churches 
both  of  England  and  Scotland,  is  not  generally  admitted, — 
I  mean,  the  total  corruption  of  human  nature.  Reasoning  from 
their  firm  persuasion  of  this  truth,  they  assured  me  that  such 
effects  as  I  expected,  unquestionably  so  desirable  in  themselves, 
could  not  flow  from  any  change  from  government,  and  that  the 
cruelties  in  France,  then  beginning  to  be  exercised,  were  the 
natural  effect  of  certain  circumstances  in  which  the  people  of 
that  country  stood,  and  would,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  take 
place  in  any  country  in  a  similar  situation.  I  widely  differed 
from  them,  and  continued  to  manifest  my  own  opinions,  ascribing 
all,  or  most  of  the  enormities  of  the  French,  solely  to  the  state 
of  degradation  to  which  I  thought  their  minds  had  been  reduced 
during  the  ancient  despotic  Government. 

'^  Numerous  political  Societies,  about  the  same  time,  were 
established  in  England  and  Scotland,  but  of  these  I  expressed 
my  decided  disapprobation,  and  never  went  near  a  single  one  of 
them.  I  always  thought,  that  by  them  the  minds  of  the  people 
were  much  more  likely  to  be  inflamed  than  informed,  and  that 
they  were  calculated  to  produce  confusion  rather  than  reforma- 
tion. Besides,  as  I  saw  so  many  well-informed  men,  who  had 
at  first  approved  of  the  French  Revolution,  beginning  to  set 
themselves  directly  against  any  change  in  this  country,  I  was 
persuaded  it  would  ensure  the  most  dreadful  consequences  were 
any  attempt  to  that  purpose  to  be  made  by  these  Societies  or 
their  leaders.     The  French  were  making  the  experiment  upon 


80  MEETING    AT    STIRLING. 

themselves;  fram  them  I  wished  to  see  its  effects.  I  thought 
that  these  would  he  so  good  as  soon  to  convince  other  nations^ 
and  make  them  willing  to  follow  their  example^  and  I  hoped  that 
this  might  one  day  take  place  without  either  bloodshed  or  loss  of 
property. 

'^  I  am  sure  these  wei*e  distinctly  my  sentiments  at  the  time 
my  mind  was  most  filled  with  poUtical  speculations ;  as  I  recol- 
lect, when  the  Societies  were  set  on  foot,  that  I  wrote  a  letter  to 
a  friend,  expressing  my  strong  disapprobation  of  them,  contain- 
ing also  the  other  opinions  I  have  just  mentioned.  This  letter  he 
showed  to  several  persons  at  the  time,  and,  for  aught  I  know,  it 
may  remain  to  this  day.  I  there  took  pains  fiilly  to  declare 
my  sentiments,  and  kept  a  copy  of  it,  and  of  another  letter,  in 
which  I  expi-essed  my  abhorrence  of  all  secret  cabals  or  open 
violence  against  the  Government,  and  these,  together  with  a 
speech  I  delivered  at  Stirling  in  a  Coimty  Meeting,  which  I  had 
accurately  written,  I  should  have  been  inclined  to  have  inserted 
here,  had  I  not  a  considerable  time  ago  committed  them  all  to 
the  flames,  as  treating  of  a  subject  which  I  had  renounced  for 
ever. 

"  Having  mentioned  that  speech,  it  may  be  proper  to  say 
something  concerning  it,  as  it  made  some  noise  at  the  time,  and 
being  the  only  circumstance  in  my  public  conduct  that  could  be 
taken  hold  of,  has  been  carefully  kept  in  remembrance,  much 
mis-stated,  and  made  a  ground  of  accusation  against  me  to  this 
very  day. 

"  A  meeting  of  the  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Stirling  was 
called  on  the  1st  of  July,  1794,  to  consider  the  propriety  of 
arming  cor])s  of  volunteers  throughout  the  county,  at  which  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Montrose  was  in  the  chair.  I  had  never 
before  in  public  delivered  my  sentiments  respecting  any  politi- 
cal subject ;  but,  when  called  upon  in  my  place,  I  thought  it 
proper  to  come  forward  and  explicitly  to  avow  them.  The  view 
I  took  of  the  question  before  the  meeting  was,  that  all  those  who 
disapproved  of  the  present  war  must,  to  be  consistent,  oppose 
the  measure  of  forming  volunteer  corps,  as  arming  the  men  who 
should   compose  them  would  only  enable  Government  to  send 


SPEECH    AT    STIRLING.  87 

more  of  the  regular  forces  out  of  the  kingdom,  and  so  to 
persist  in  the  war ;  but  would  add  nothing  to  the  internal  security 
of  the  country,  the  professed  object  of  the  measure.  Besides 
that,  as  it  was  said  many  were  disaffected  to  Government,  the 
measure  itself  must  be  dangerous,  by  putting  arms  into  the 
hands  of  such ;  and,  at  any  rate,  that  it  seemed  an  attempt  to 
govern  the  country  by  force,  which,  if  the  majority  of  the 
people  were  disaffected,  would  be  impossible,  if  otherwise  unneces- 
sary. I  then  delivered  my  opinion  upon  what  I  conceived  the 
impohcy  and  unjustness  of  the  war.  I  afterwards  described 
what  I  considered  to  be  the  true  character  of  a  person  properly 
called  a  democrat,  as  a  friend  of  his  country,  a  lover  of  peace, 
and  one  who  described  the  sentiments  of  general  benevolence, 
and  contrasted  it  with  that  of  persons  who  held  opposite  senti- 
ments, who  were  desirous  of  hugging  their  prejudices,  and  of 
adapting  the  maxims  of  Government  belonging  to  the  seven- 
teenth to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  period  so  much 
more  enlightened.  I  next  endeavoured  to  describe  the  bad 
effects  of  prejudice  and  of  imdistinguishing  resistance  to  every- 
thing new,  although  confessedly  far  the  better,  as  exemplified 
in  the  history  of  aU  nations,  and  particularly  in  the  history  of 
the  Reformation.  I  afterwards  took  a  view  of  the  advaOitages 
which  I  was  confident  the  world  would  derive  from  the  princi- 
ples of  freedom  being  better  understood  in  the  universal  peace 
and  security  that  would  consequently  prevail  ;  although  I 
observed  an  attempt  to  strangle  these  principles  in  their  birth, 
by  the  convulsed  grasp  of  the  expiring  monster  despotism,  had 
caused  the  most  dreadful  disturbances  in  Europe.  I  then 
declared  to  the  freeholders,  that  I  thought  they  would  have 
been  much  better  employed  had  they  been  meeting  to  consider 
how  all  abuses  that  were  generally  allowed  to  be  such  might  be 
reformed,  than  in  following  the  example  of  those  Societies,  who 
had  most  improperly  intended  to  arm,  but  who  might  easily  be 
prevented  from  doing  mischief  by  that  power  which  Govern- 
ment already  possessed.  I  added,  that  from  their  situation  in 
life,  they  would  assuredly  have  much  more  influence  with  their 
coimtrymen  in  any  other  way  than  as  armed  men.     And  I  con- 


88  CLERGY    NEAR    AIRTHREY. 

eluded  the  whole  with  a  solemn  declaration  of  my  conviction  of 
the  propriety  and  truth  of  the  sentiments  I  had  stated. 

"  The  above  is  an  accurate  account  of  the  leading  features  of 
what  I  said  that  day,  and  I  am  persuaded  those  who  were  present 
will  bear  witness  to  the  faithfulness  of  this  report.  The  above 
speech  created  to  me  many  enemies,  and  caused  much  misrepre- 
sentation, but  the  consequences  of  it,  I  reckon,  were  eventually 
very  happy.  It  produced,  indeed,  a  considerable  coolness  and 
distance  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  neighbouring  country  gentle- 
men ;  but  this  led  me  into  the  company  of  others,  from  whom  I 
derived  more  advantage. 

"  I  have  mentioned  above  that  I  was  frequently  in  company 
with  several  respectable  clergymen,  who  lived  in  my  neigh- 
bourhood. However  much,  from  knowing  more  of  the  actual 
state  of  human  nature,  they  might  perceive  the  improbability  of 
attaining  universal  peace  and  justice  in  the  world,  and  of  all 
human  affairs  being  conducted  upon  these  principles,  they  never- 
theless thought  me  sincere ;  and  instead  of  withdrawing  from  my 
company,  constantly  attempted  to  lead  my  mind  to  infinitely 
higher  concerns  than  those  I  had  hitherto  pursued. 

"  With  this  view,  they  persevered,  and  often  sat  till  a  late  hour 
at  night,  (when,  perhaps,  they  had  to  rise  early  to  depart  to  their 
parochial  duty,)  conversing  after  the  period  above  alluded  to,  (viz., 
the  meeting  of  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Stirling,)  not  always 
on  political  arrangements,  on  the  government  of  this  world,  as  was 
commonly  supposed,  and  falsely  reported,  although  of  these  we 
also  spake,  but  chiefly  upon  the  concerns  of  our  immortal  souls, 
and  the  things  that  belonged  to  our  everlasting  peace.  The 
effects  have  been  profitable  to  them  and  to  me,  and  such,  I  trust, 
as  they  and  I  shall  mutually  rejoice  in  when  time  shall  be  no 
more. 

^'  Conversing  with  these  gentlemen,  and  reading  a  good  deal 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  I  was  brought  gradually  to  perceive 
in  some  measure  the  glory  of  the  doctrines  held  out  in  Scripture, 
and  the  consistency  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  I  became 
anxious  to  be  better  informed,  and  daily  gave  myself  more  and 
more  to  the  investigation  of  it.     I  happened  to  be  at  a  friended 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHANdE.  89 

house  two  winters,  iu  a  situation  where  I  had  much  leisure  for 
such  inquiries.  I  enjoyed  great  comfort  in  pursuing  them,  and 
think  I  can  truly  say,  that  under  a  deep  sense  of  my  own  ignor- 
ance in  the  things  that  related  to  God,  and  considerable  perplexity^ 
amidst  opposite  opinions  on  the  subject,  I  earnestly  besought 
the  Lord  that  he  would  enable  me  to  distinguish  between  truth 
and  falsehood. 

''  I  know  it  has  been  said  that  at  one  period  I  was  a  Socinian. 
The  report  is  not  true.  A  Socinian  clergyman,  who  accompanied 
a  friend  of  mine  (a  Mr.  Edwards,  whose  brother  was  an  officer  in 
the  Foudroyant,)  upon  a  visit  to  England,  was  some  time  in  the 
year  1793  at  my  house;  we  often  discussed  his  sentiments,  I 
constantly  endeavouring,  with  the  little  knowledge  I  had  upon 
the  subject,  to  maintain  the  Trinitarian  views,  in  which,  in  the 
language  of  the  pastoral  admonition,  I  had  been  '^  bred  up.^^  I 
used  often  to  retail  his  arguments,  partly  to  learn  from  others 
better  informed  than  I  was,  what  could  be  urged  against  them, 
and  also  to  dispute  upon  the  subject  as  a  matter  of  speculative 
inquiry,  without  any  proper  impression  of  its  awful  solemnity  or 
importance.  Indeed,  the  fact  was,  I  neither  understood  the  one 
side  of  the  question  nor  the  other.  But  I  recollect,  when  I  came 
seriously  to  consider  the  matter,  I  was  three  or  four  days  really 
in  doubt  whether  it  much  signified  what  I  believed  concerning 
this  doctrine  :  but  I  did  not  long  continue  uncertain  respecting 
its  importance,  although  it  was  some  time  before  my  mind  was 
settled,  and  I  never  did  profess  to  be  a  Socinian. 

"  After  I  returned  home,  the  same  subjects  chiefly  occupied 
my  attention ;  and  whatever  good  or  harm  the  study  of  politics 
may  have  done  to  others,  they  certainly  led  the  way  to  much  good 
to  me. 

'^  Before  the  French  Revolution,  having  nothing  to  rouse  my 
mind,  I  lived  in  the  country,  almost  wholly  engaged  by  country 
pursuits,  little  concerned  about  the  general  interests  or  happiness 
of  mankind,  but  selfishly  enjoying  the  blessings  which  God,  in 
his  providence,  had  so  bountifully  poured  upon  me.  As  to  reli- 
gion, I  contented  myself  with  that  general  profession  which  is  so 
common  and  so  worthless,  and  that  form  of  godliness  which 


00  CONTRAST. 

completely  denies  its  power.  I  endeavoured  to  be  decent,  nndwhat 
is  ealled  moral,  but  was  ignorant  of  my  lost  state  by  nature,  as  well 
as  of  the  strictness,  purity,  and  extent  of  the  Divine  law.  While  I 
spoke  of  a  Saviour,  I  was  little  acquainted  with  his  character,  the 
value  of  his  sufferings  and  death,  the  need  I  stood  in  of  the 
atoning  efficacy  of  his  pardoning  blood,  or  of  the  imputation  of 
hia  perfect  obedience  and  mcriturious  righteousness,  and  of  the 
sanctifying  influences  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  to  apply  his  salvation 
to  my  soul.  When  politics  began  to  be  talked  of,  I  was  led  to 
consider  everything  anew.  I  eagerly  catched  at  them  as  a  pleasing 
■peculation.  As  a  fleeting  phantom,  they  eluded  my  grasp ;  but 
missing  the  shadow,  I  caught  the  substance — and  while  obliged 
to  abandon  these  a>nfesscd1y  empty  and  unsatisfactory  pursuits, 

1  obtained  in  some  measure  the  solid  consolations  of  the  gospel ; 
so  that  1  may  say,  as  Paul,  concerning  the  Gentiles  of  old,  •  He 
was  found  of  me  who  sought  him  not.' " 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  extracts,  that  Mr.  Haldane's  con- 
version was  neither  sudden  nor  violent.  It  was  the  act  of 
God,  and,  as  such,  mysterious  in  its  origin,  decisive  in  its 
character,  and  effectual  in  its  results.  The  good  seed  had  been 
deeply  implanted  in  bis  own  heart,  and  that  of  his  brother,  by 
the  lo.-ing  piety  of  an  affectionate  and  God-fearing  mother.  To 
her  latest  breath  it  bad  been  watered  by  the  earnest  and  anxious 
prayers  with  which  she  devoted  her  orphan  children  to  the  Lord, 
and,  strong  in  faith,  called  down  upon  their  heads  the  blessing  of 
God  Almighty.  For  a  time  the  impression  made  upon  their 
hearts  by  her  mstruction  and  example  seemed  indelible.  Their 
nightly  prayers  by  their  bed-side  were  followed  by  converaation 
about  their  Sa\-iour,  such  as  their  mother  had  delighted  to 
encourage.  Both  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  heavenly  things,  and 
the  elder  expressed  an  inclination  for  the  ministry.  But  time 
wore  on.  Their  mother  was  no  longer  near  to  warn,  to  admonish, 
to  instruct.  The  world,  with  its  amusements,  its  temptations,  its 
attractions,  seemed  gradually  to  efface  the  impressions  of  early 
piety.  By  degrees  all  profession  of  religion  was  abandoned,  and 
from  an  early  period  of  their  history  till  the  time  when  the  elder 
brother  had  attained  the  age  of  thirty,  and  the  younger  the  age 


THE   TWO    BROTHERS.  91 

of  twenty-five,  there  was  nothing  in  their  religions  character  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  great  majority  of  their  friends  and 
associates,  who  were  living  in  the  discharge  of  what  they  regarded 
as  their  social  duties.  They  were  at  least  as  moral  and  correct 
in  their  deportment  as  their  neighbours,  but  in  other  respects 
without  any  concern  about  Christ  or  eternity. 

But  although  the  incorruptible  seed  was  thus  buried  in  the 
gaieties,  the  pleasures,  the  vanities,  and  the  pursuits  of  the  worfd, 
it  was  not  destroyed.  It  was  still  destined  to  spring  up  through 
the  lifegiving  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  remarkable 
that  this  change  took  place  on  both  brothers,  nearly  at  the 
tame  time,  although  it  was  in  the  younger  first  developed. 
From  the  moment  when  in  January,  1794,  he  began  to  study 
his  Bible  on  board  the  Melville  Castle,  his  mind  had  become 
more  and  more  intensely  interested  with  Divine  things.  When 
he  arrived  at  Airthrey,  he  found  politics,  rather  than  religion, 
the  engrossing  theme  of  conversation.  With  these  subjects  he 
could  no  longer  exclusively  occupy  himself.  A  more  glorious 
object  had  begun  to  engross  his  mind,  and  doubtless  his  change 
of  character  had  its  share  of  influence  on  his  brother,  who  was 
yet  occupied  with  the  world.  Him  he  accompanied  to  the 
Freeholders'  Meeting  in  the  County  Hall  at  Stirling,  and  heard 
him  deliver  that  remarkable  speech  which  was  to  be  so  much 
talked  of,  and  to  produce  such  results.  It  was  chiefly  distin* 
guished  for  the  boldness  with  which  the  speaker  came  forward, 
single-handed,  in  his  place,  in  opposition  to  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant and  principal  landholders,  to  express  with  equal  force 
and  eloquence  sentiments  which  were  admired  by  many  of  the 
lookers-on,  but  which  were  no  doubt  dangerous  in  their  tendency, 
and  eminently  distasteful  to  the  aristocracy  of  the  county.  The 
personal  coldness  which  ensued  was  not  likely  to  elicit  concessions 
from  Mr.  Haldanc,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  quail  before  what 
was  called  the  reign  of  terror  in  Scotland.  But  it  threw  him  more 
into  the  society  of  pious  and  learned  ministers,  such  as  Dr. 
Campbell  of  Kippen,  afterwards  of  Edinburgh,  much  famed  for 
his  solid  piety  and  massive  theology ;  Mr.  Somerville  of  Stirling, 
and  Mr.  Shireff  of  St.  Ninian's,  each  eminent  for  his  masculine 


02  INTERCOURSE   WITH    BR.  INNES,   ETC. 

turn  of  thought  and  decision  of  character ;  and  Dr.  Innes^  chap* 
lain  to  the  Castle,  and  second  minister  of  Stirling,  whose 
agreeable  conversation,  pleasing  manners,  and  attractive  style  of 
preaching,  added  weight  to  the  influence  of  his  consistent  charac* 
ter  and  genuine  Christianity. 

With  these  or  others  he  often  conversed,  as  he  says,  ''  till  a 
late  hour  at  night.''  It  might  rather  be  said  till  an  early  hour 
in  the  morning,  for  it  was  in  the  evening  that  he  always  most 
delighted  to  converse,  and  the  lateness  of  the  hours,  both  at 
night  and  in  the  morning,  was  one  of  the  peculiarities  for  which 
Airthrey  was  in  those  days  celebrated.  His  habits  were  in  some 
degrcM!  the  same  till  the  close  of  his  life ;  and  if  he  had  a  friend 
or  a  visitor  with  whom  he  particularly  desired  conversation,  he 
generally  chose  the  evening,  immediately  after  family  prayers, 
and  seemed  to  lighten  up  with  fresh  vivacity  and  earnestness 
when  others  had  retired  to  rest. 

No  sooner  was  his  mind  directed  to  '^the  concerns  of  his 
immortal  soul,''  than  he  pursued  the  subject  with  characteristic 
intensity.  He  was  not  a  man  to  take  things  for  granted,  or 
to  adopt  superficial  views  of  any  subject  which  interested  his 
mind.  He  began  by  reading  much  and  deeply  on  the  evidences 
of  Christianity,  including  not  only  Butler,  Paley,  Watson,  and 
other  popular  writers,  but  such  learned  repositories  of  informa- 
tion as  the  ponderous  volumes  of  Lardner.  The  fruits  of  his 
studies  were  long  afterwards  given  to  the  public  in  his  work  on  the 
Jjlvidencen  of  Christianity.  But  at  this  time  they  were  greatly 
bliSHsed  to  his  own  soul,  for  they  were  pursued  with  deep 
humility,  and  with  much  prayer  that  the  liord  would  enable  him 
**  to  distinguish  between  truth  and  falsehood."  No  wonder, 
ihtw,  that  he  should  have  proved  another  instance  of  the  Lord's 
gi'uciuus  declaration,  '^  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall 
kuuw  i*t  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God." 

There  wan  a  considerable  similarity  between  the  history  of  his 
b|iMUiiHl  illuiuination  and  that  of  his  younger  brother.  In 
l(i  Uio  V  ('Uatu  was  it  to  be  attributed  to  any  sudden  impulse  or 
\\\\\  Hul  iutluput^*  It  was  not  to  be  traced  to  the  ministry  or  the 
\U^iU\vVUU\^  s^  HUy  one  in  particular.     From  the  conversation  of 


INSTRUCTION    DERIVED    FROM    A    MECHANIC.  93 

several  clergymen  he  derived  light  amidst  the  perplexities 
which  impeded  his  inquiries.  It  was  Dr.  Innes  who  first  induced 
him  to  commence  family  worship  at  Airthrey.  But  he  used  also 
to  say,  that  although  he  traced  his  turning  to  God  instru- 
mentally  to  the  early  instructions  of  his  mother,  and  never  had 
been  entirely  without  some  convictions,  from  the  time  he  was  nine 
years  old,  and  although  he  did  not  attribute  his  conversion  to  any 
other  human  agency,  yet  that,  if  he  were  to  point  out  the  indi- 
vidual from  whom  he  derived  most  spiritual  light  at  the  beginning 
of  his  career,  he  would  mention  a  journeyman  mason,  of  the  name 
of  Klam,  or  Clam,  of  Menstrie.  This  good  man  was  eiuployed 
on  some  of  the  works  at  Airthrey,  and  was,  like  many  of  his 
class,  especially  in  former  times,  not  only  remarkably  intelligent, 
but  well  read  in  his  Bible,  and  in  the  writings  of  the  best  old 
Scotch  Divines.  With  him  Mr.  Haldane  once  walked  several  miles 
through  the  woods  of  Airthrey  to  a  distant  part  of  the  estate 
called  Pendrich,  and  on  the  way  the  conversation  turned  from 
the  subject  of  masonry,  to  the  glory  of  the  great  Architect  of  the 
universe.  The  views  of  Divine  truth,  and  of  faith  in  the  finished 
work  of  Christ,  which  this  humble  but  intelligent  and  well- 
taught  Christian  unfolded,  as  they  went  along,  were  so  plain 
and  scriptural,  and  above  all,  so  much  divested  of  those  balancing 
statements  of  truth  by  which  Mr.  Haldane  had  been  perplexed, 
that  he  saw  the  Gospel  to  be  indeed  glad  tidings,  and  ever  after- 
wards looked  back  with  thankfulness  to  that  memorable  walk, 
in  which  he  began  to  discern  more  clearly  that,  in  the  matter  of 
justification,  faith  must  cast  away  all  reliance  on  the  shifting 
sands  of  firames  or  feelings,  and  fasten  only  upon  the  Bock  of 
Ages.  To  recal  the  name  of  the  almost  forgotten  stone-mason 
of  Menstrie  is  a  pleasing  duty.  It  is  one  which  will  be  found 
in  the  register  of  God,  although  lost  in  the  records  of  man. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EGBERT  HALDANE  PLANS  A  MISSION  TO  BENGAL,  AND 
DETERMINES  TO  SELL  AIBTHREY— HIS  INTENDED  ASSO- 
CIATES, DR.  BOGUE,  DR.  INNES,  AND  MR.  EWING— OTHER 
PREPARATIONS— BENARES— VISITS  DR.  BOGUE— APPLIES 
FOR  CONSENT  TO  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY— LETTERS 
TO  MR.  SECRETARY  DUNDAS— ERRONEOUS  ACCOUNT  IN 
THE  LIFE  OF  MR.  WILBERFORCE— DISCLAIMS  POLITICS- 
INTERVIEWS  WITH  MEMBERS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT- 
MR.  WILBERFORCE— BISJIOP  PORTEUS'  APPROVAL— RE- 
FUSAL OF  THE  COURT  OF  DIRECTORS— FURTHER  APPLL 
CATIONS— MEETINGS  AT  MR.  NEWTON'S— LETTER  TO  MR. 
CAMPBELL- FINAL  ABANDONMENT  OF  THE  DESIGN. 

[1795—8.] 

The  current  of  the  narrative  has  now  conducted  us  to  the 
middle  of  1795.  In  regard  to  each  of  the  two  brothers,  the 
grand  crisis  of  his  life  was  decided,  and  a  change  had  come  over 
both,  the  results  of  which  stretch  into  eternity.  No  longer 
engrossed  with  the  passing  vanities  of  this  transitory  world,  its 
pleasures,  its  gains,  or  its  glories,  all  their  energies  had  become 
concentrated  on  a  new  and  absorbing  object.  Each  of  them, 
by  the  rich  mercy  of  God,  had  now  passed  "  from  death  unto 
life,''  and  from  the  bondage  of  Satan  into  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Each  was  in  Him  ''a  new  creature.''  ''Old  things 
had  passed  away."  The  strength  of  their  natural  character  was 
now  to  be  developed  in  relation  to  nobler  and  more  enduring 
ends. 

Between  the  brothers  there  was  much  similarity  in  point 
of  talent  and  disposition,  but  there  were  also  strong  shades 
of  difference.     Both  were  bold,  ardent,  and  energetic;  but  in 


MISSION    TO    BENGAL.  95 

the  elder  there  was  a  greater  infasion  of  habitual  caution.  In 
both  there  was  a  deep^  natural  spring  of  genuine  benevolence ; 
but  in  the  younger  brother  it  was  more  apparent^  and  his  affec- 
tionate friendship  was  in  its  generosity  and  disregard  of  self^  in 
his  earlier  years^  prone  even  to  overleap  the  strict  bounds  of 
prudence.  This  had  often  been  remarked  by  their  schoolfellows ; 
for  whilst  both  were  darings  James  was  most  ready  to  carry  his 
object  by  a  sudden  dash,  whilst  Robert  was  more  wary  and 
thoughtful.  Yet  such  are  the  contradictions  that  meet  us  in  the 
analysis  of  character,  that  it  sometimes  happened  in  the  course 
of  their  lives  that  Robert  Haldane  seemed  to  act  upon  impulse, 
when  James  hesitated  and  considered.  This  was  in  some  mea- 
sure the  case  with  the  scheme  for  a  foreign  mission,  which  Mr. 
Haldane  adopted  before  his  brother  had  yet  made  up  his  mind 
as  to  any  plan  of  active  usefulness. 

It  was  at  the  period  when,  to  use  his  owa  words,  he  had 
"  obtained  in  some  measure  the  consolations  of  the  Gospel,'^  that 
his  attention  was  called  to  the  importance  of  more  decidedly 
attempting  to  promote  that  "  kingdom,''  for  whose  coming  we 
are  taught  to  pray.  Dr.  Innes  has  recorded  the  fact,  that 
^^  having  received,  when  in  Stirling,  the  first  number  of  the 
periodical  accounts  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  India,''  he  sent  it 
to  Mr.  Haldane,  then  living  at  Airthrey.  He  was  exceedingly 
struck  with  this  memorial  of  the  first  of  those  modem  Missions 
to  the  heathen,  which  shed  a  ray  of  light  over  the  moral  dark- 
ness of  a  century  then  closing  upon  Europe  amidst  political 
and  social  convulsion.  He  was  deeply  impressed  with  the 
grandeur  of  the  enterprise,  and  with  the  purity  of  the  motives 
which  had  induced  Dr.  Carey  to  quit  his  native  land  to  make 
known  the  Gospel  in  foreign  parts.  His  mind,  enlightened  by 
a  spark  of  heavenly  fire,  took  a  right  estimate  of  the  man  whom 
the  Marquis  of  Wellesley  afterwards  promoted  to  a  Professor- 
ship in  the  College  of  Fort- William,  but  whom  Sydney  Smith, 
in  his  spiritual  blindness,  could  ridicide  as  a  ^^consecrated 
cobbler."  The  Serampore  Mission  made  a  deep  and  indelible 
impression  on  Mr.  Haldanc's  mind ;  but  Dr.  Innes  is  mistaken 


96  MISSION    TO    B£NGAL. 

in  supposing  that  it  was  now  for  the  first  time,  that  he  entered 
on  the  investigation  of  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  faith. 
Mr.  Ilaldane^s  own  words  are  conclusive  on  this  point,  if  there 
were  no  other  record  on  the  subject :  '^  Some  time  after  this 
(namely,  after  he  had  obtained  the  solid  consolations  of  the 
Oospel),  when  I  trust  that  I  had  been  led  to  choose  the  good 
part  which  cannot  be  taken  ftx)m  any  one,  and  to  adopt  the 
views  of  religion  I  now  hold,  I  first  heard  of  the  Baptist  Mission- 
ary Society,  and  their  Mission  to  Bengal/^  But  the  amiable 
and  excellent  Dr.  Innes^  recollections  are  quite  accurat-e,  when 
he  goes  on  to  state  the  manner  in  which  his  friend  became 
impressed  mth  a  sense  of  the  necessity  of  devoting  himself — his 
life,  his  talents,  his  fortune — to  the  cause  of  God.  *'  Chris- 
tianity,'' he  said,  ^'  is  everything  or  nothing.  If  it  be  true,  it 
warrants  and  commands  every  sacrifice  to  promote  its  influence. 
If  it  be  not,  then  let  us  lay  aside  the  hypocrisy  of  professing  to 
believe  it.''  "  It  immediately  struck  me,"  says  Mr.  Haldane,  in 
his  own  narrative,  "  that  I  was  spending  my  time  in  the  country 
to  little  profit,  whilst,  from  the  command  of  property  which, 
through  the  goodness  of  God,  I  possessed,  I  might  be  some- 
where extensively  useful."  In  another  publication  he  says,  that 
after  his  attention  had  been  called  to  the  salvation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  ^'I  had  seen  the  accounts  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in 
Bengal,  which  pointed  out  both  the  condition  of  the  natives  as 
destitute  of  the  Gospel,  and  also  the  wide,  promising  field  then 
opened  for  the  exertions  of  Christians.  A  strong  desire  occupied 
my  mind  to  engage  in  the  honourable  service.  The  object  was 
of  such  magnitu  le,  that,  compared  with  it,  the  affairs  of  time 
appeared  to  sink  into  nothing,  and  no  sacrifice  seemed  too  great 
in  order  to  its  attainment." 

Still,  although  pondering  this  great  design,  iie  came  to  no 
sudden  determination.  For  nearly  six  months  he  considered 
the  matter  deliberately,  and  having  proposed  it  to  his  wife,  who 
had  also  been  led  to  '^  choose  the  better  part,"  and  in  whose 
hereditary  prudence  he  placed  much  reliance,  he  obtained  her 
qordial  consent.     About  the  end  of  1795,  the  Ijondon  Mis- 


LONDON    MISSIONARY    SOCIETY.  97 

sionary  Society  was  instituted  by  several  eminent  Christians^ 
some  of  them  members  of  the  Church  of  England^  some  Presby- 
terians^ and  some  Independents.  Amongst  these  was  his  old 
friend,  David  Bogue,  of  (xosport,  whose  thrilling  appeal  on 
behalf  of  the  Heathen  had  before  this  time  roused  a  missionary 
spirit  throughout  the  country.  Mr.  Haldane  was  amongst  the 
first  in  Scotland  to  enrol  himself  as  a  member  of  the  Society, 
and  in  a  brief  summary  of  the  chief  incidents  of  his  life,  which 
he  himself  drew  up  in  1839,  there  is  the  following  memo- 
randum : — 

"  1796.  January. — Subscribed  50/.  to  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society.  Attended  it  (General  Meeting)  in  May.  In 
winter,  in  George's-street,  North-side.^' 

It  may  be  added,  that  his  brother  also  marked  his  adhesion 
to  the  good  cause  by  another  donation  of  the  same  amount. 

About  the  time  that  the  London  Missionary  Society  was 
exciting  the  attention  of  Scotland,  Dr.  Innes,  whose  ministry  at 
Stirling  attracted  much  attention,  was  a  frequent  guest  at 
Airthrey,  and  his  mind  was  much  occupied  with  the  cause  of 
Missions.  To  him,  therefore,  after  conversing  on  the  subject, 
Mr.  Haldane  proposed  that  they  should  ^^go  to  Bengal  and 
spend  the  remainder  of  their  lives  in  endeavouring  to  commu- 
nicate the  precious  truths  of  the  Grospel  to  the  Hindoos  who 
were  living  under  the  British  Government.'*  "To  render  the 
Mission  as  efficient  as  possible,  I  wished,''  says  Mr.  H.,  "to 
t-ake  others  with  me,  others  in  whose  devotedness  to  the  service 
of  Grod  I  had  confidence,  and  who,  by  their  knowledge  and 
previous  habits  at  home,  might  be  useful  in  the  imdertaking. 
Mr.  Innes,  with  whom  I  had  then  frequent  intercourse,  appeared 
to  be  well  qualified  for  the  work,  and  I  had  long  been  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Bogue,  of  Gosport,  who  also  seemed  qualified  for  it, 
whilst  the  warm  recommendations  of  Mr.  Ewing  by  (his  brother- 
in-law)  Mr.  Innes,  directed  my  attention  to  him  as  a  third 
associate.  After  Mr.  Innes  agreed  to  form  one  of  the  Mission, 
I  went  to  England  on  purpose  to  see  Mr.  Bogue.  When 
formerly  in  habits  of  intimacy  with  him,  I  had  been  unac- 

H 


98  PROPOSAL   TO    DR.  BOOUE. 

quainted  with  the  Gospel^  and  although,  from  recollection,  I 
believed  his  sentiments  respecting  it  corresponded  with  mine,  I 
thought  it  was  necessary,  in  so  important  a  matter,  fully  to 
ascertain  that  this  was  the  case.  I  accordingly  went  to  London, 
and  saw  him  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Missionary  Society,  and 
afterwards  spent  some  time  at  his  house  at  Gosport.  .  .  . 
I  never  gave  Mr.  Bogue  a  hint  of  the  business  till  having  been 
some  time  with  him.  I  was  satisfied  with  his  qualifications  for 
the  work,  and  it  was  late  one  night  (22d  May,  1796),  when  he 
and  I  were  sitting  together,  after  the  rest  of  the  family  had 
retired,  that  I  opened  to  him  my  design,  and  without  either 
hesitation  or  delay,  he  gave  his  consent  to  accompany  mc,  and 
expressed  his  fullest  approbation  of  the  plan.^^ 

The  plan  was  grand  and  comprehensive,  and,  by  the  sale  of 
Airthrey,  ample  funds  were  to  be  provided  by  Mr.  Haldane. 
The  venerable  name  of  David  Bogue,  then  in  his  forty-seventh 
year,  was  in  itself  a  tower  of  strength,  and  would  have  added 
weight  to  any  Christian  enterprise.  A  man  of  Johnsonian 
character,  capacious  intellect,  unflinching  courage,*  commanding 
stature,  and  dignified  appearance,  he  added  the  reputation  of  a 
scholar  and  a  philosopher  to  that  of  an  experienced  Christian  and 
a  great  theologian.  Mr.  Innes,  although  twenty  years  younger, 
was  respected  and  beloved  by  all  who  were  capable  of  appre- 
ciating his  devoted  piety,  his  consistent  practice,  and  his 
attractive  preaching.  His  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Greville  Ewiug, 
also  under  thirty,  was  not  yet  ordained  to  a  particular  chaise, 
but  was  assistant  minister  to  the  excellent  Dr.  Jones,  of  Lady 
Glenorchy^s  Church,  and,  at  a  time  of  great  spiritual  deadness, 
was  in  high  repute  for  his  ardent  zeal  in  the  cause  of  truth,  as 
well  as  for  his  literary  tastes  and  his  critical  acquaintance  with 
the  Scriptures.     Each  was  a  regularly  educated  minister,  the 

•  Dr.  Bennett,  in  his  Life,  mentioas  that  he  (Dr.  Bogue)  had  not  much 
of  natural  courage.  Mr.  Haldane  often  remarked  that  Dr.  Bennett  was 
greatly  mistaken,  and  mentioned  instances  which  he  had  witnessed  of 
Dr.  Bogue's  courage,  particularly  on  one  occasion,  when  they  were 
travelling  at  night,  and  met  with  some  interruption  on  the  road. 


PRINTING    ESTABLISHMENT.  99 

one  ordained^  the  other  licensed  by  the  Church  of  Scotland^  and 
both  willing  to  devote  their  lives  and  talents  to  the  Indian 
Mission. 

Bat  they  were  not  to  have  gone  alone.  Mr.  John  Ritchie,  a 
highly  respectable  and  pious  printer  in  Edinburgh,  was  to  have 
superintended  a  well-equipped  printing  establishment,  whilst 
others  were  to  have  gone  out  as  catechists,  city  missionaries,  or 
schoolmasters.  In  short,  no  expense  was  to  have  been  spared 
in  furnishing  all  that  was  needed  to  make  the  Mission  useful, 
whether  as  the  means  of  publishing  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  tracts,  educating  native  teachers,  or  instructing 
native  children.  For  every  one  concerned  Mr.  Haldane  was  to 
supply  the  necessary  outfit  and  passage  money,  and  also  to 
provide  an  independent  competence  for  those  whose  co-operation 
involved  the  loss  of  their  means  of  subsistence.  For  each  of 
his  three  ministerial  coadjutors  the  sum  of  3,500/.  was  to  have 
been  appropriated,  as  compensation  for  the  sacrifice  of  their 
incomes  or  prospects  in  a  Church  which  did  not  promise  great 
worldly  emolument,  and  of  which  Lord  Melville  once  said,  that 
it  was  ''  foimded  on  the  rock  of  poverty.^^  In  addition  to  this 
provision  and  the  first  outfit,  and  to  secure  the  Mission  from  the 
consequences  of  his  own  death,  a  further  sum  of  25,000/.  or 
upwards  was  to  have  been  invested  in  the  names  of  trustees. 

Benares  was  the  spot  on  which  they  were  to  unfurl  the 
standard  of  the  cross, — ^Benare^,  the  metropoUs  of  Oriental 
Paganism,  the  holiest  of  the  holy  cities  of  the  Hindoos, — 
Benares,  with  its  glorious  temples  and  gorgeous  shrines,  dedi- 
cated to  the  countless  idols,  worshipped  beneath  the  burning 
«m,  which  sparkles  in  ite  crystal  fountains,  and  gilds  the 
glittering  domes  and  minarets  of  its  benighted  population. 
It  was  a  bold  selection,  characteristic  of  the  founder  of  the 
Mission;  but  although  the  time  was  not  yet  come  for  such 
an  aggression  on  the  empire  of  the  prince  of  darkness, — 
although  a  massacre  which  happened  a  few  years  afterwards 
might  have  immolated  these  missionaries, — although  nearly 
thirty  years  later.  Bishop  Heber,  in  practical  contradiction  of 
the  noble  spirit  which  breathes  through  his  Missionary  hymn, 

H  2 


100  BENARES. 

pronounced  a  Mission  to  Benares  "Utopian,'' — yet  have  we 
lived  to  see  that  Pagan  city  occupied  by  Christian  missionaries, 
who  can  tell  of  converts  to  the  Gospel,  rebuking  the  doubts  ol 
the  accomplished  Prelate,  and  fully  justifying  the  determination 
of  Robert  Haldane. 

The  sacrifice  of  talents,  of  property,  and  of  self,  was  to  have 
been  unreserved.  Mr.  Haldane  was  to  sell  his  beautiful  estate 
of  Airthrey,  much  of  which  was  ornamental,  and  productive  of 
expense  rather  than  of  income,  whilst  India  was  to  have  been 
the  scene  of  his  future  labours  and  earthly  existence. 

But  man  proposeth,  God  disposeth.  To  embark  on  such  a 
mission  without  the  consent  of  the  East  India  Company  and  the 
(jovemment,  was  an  act  of  imprudence  not  likely  to  be  com- 
mitted by  a  man  of  foresight  and  caution.  Mr.  Haldane  went 
to  London  in  May,  1796,  partly  to  consult  Dr.  Bogue  and 
solicit  the  needful  pei*mission,  and  partly  to  attend  the  first 
General  Meeting  of  the  Missionary  Society. 


Mr.  Haldane  remained  in  England  during  the  summer,  and 
in  the  following  November  Mrs.  Haldane,  with  their  only  child, 
a  girl  then  under  ten  years  of  age,  joined  her  husband,  having 
posted  to  London,  under  the  escort  of  Mr.  Ewing,  who  had 
been  sent  for  to  meet  Dr.  Bogue  in  London. 

Dr.  Bogue's  diary  for  May  22, 1796,  contains  this  entry :  "  Mr. 
Haldane  spoke  to  me  about  going  on  a  mission  to  Hindostan.'' 
From  the  meetings  in  London  he  accompanied  his  old  friend  to 
Gosport,  but  for  some  time  cautiously  abstained  from  mentioning 
his  own  plans.  The  feelings  with  which  he  once  more  visited 
that  warUke  seaport  were  very  difierent  from  those  by  which  he 
had  been  actuated  on  former  occasions,  when  full  of  naval  zeal 
he  had  sailed  from  the  same  harbour  in  pursuit  of  victory,  in  the 
Monarch  or  in  the  Foudroyant,  with  Duncan  or  Jervis  for  his 
captains,  and  Barrington  or  Howe  for  his  admirals.  An  anecdote 
is  told  of  him,  connected  with  an  old  Scotch  lady,  from  whom  he 
had  before  received  much  kindness,  and  whose  husband  long 
filled  a  naval  station  at  Portsmouth.     It  is  only  worth  referring 


ANECDOTE.  101 

to  as  calculated  to  illustrate  what  was  the  natural  gaiety  of  his 
character.  He  called  on  her  one  evening  soon  after  his  arrival  at 
Gosport  in  1796^  and  was  most  kindly  welcomed.    Desirous  to  be 

useful  to  his  old  acquaintance^  he  asked  Mrs. ,  before  he  rose 

to  depart^  whether  she  would  allow  him  to  conduct  family  worship. 
The  old  lady  herself  had  a  great  deal  of  humour ;  she  had  been 
accustomed  to  Mr.  Haldane  from  the  time  he  was  a  boy^  and  knew 
the  playfulness  of  his  disposition^  and  how  much  he  deUghted  in 
good-humoured^  practical  jokes.  Ignorant  of  the  change  which 
had  taken  place  in  his  feelings  and  pursuits^  she  imagined  when 
she  now  heard  him  propose  to  conduct  family  worship  that  he 
was  in  jest^  and  gravely  rebuked  what  she  justly  deemed  the 
impropriety  of  trifling  with  sacred  subjects.  ''  Family  worship  V* 
she  exclaimed^  in  broad  Scotch  accents ;  ''  none  of  your  jokes^  Mr. 
''  Haldane ;  that^s  o'er  serious  a  subject.''  Mr.  Haldane  with 
some  difiiculty  convinced  the  good  lady  of  her  mistake^  and  that 
he  was  in  earnest.  Great  was  her  astonishment.  Those  who 
only  knew  Mr.  Haldane  from  the  gravity  of  his  writings  and 
public  character,  could  have  no  idea  of  the  buoyancy  of  his  spirit^ 
and  of  his  natural  love  of  what  was  playful  and  jocose.  At  a 
late  period  of  his  life,  many  were  the  amusing  anecdotes  which 
his  venerable  aunt,  Ijady  Duncan,  used  to  tell  of  his  own  and  his 
brother's  youthful  days  at  Gosport ;  and  he  himself  would  some- 
times smile  at  the  recital  of  some  of  the  jokes,  of  which  he  was 
reminded,  quietly  adding  some  new  point  of  interest  which  had 
been  forgotten. 

The  great  objection  to  the  evangelization  of  India,  was  to  be 
found  in  the  fears  and  the  prejudices  of  the  East  India  Company. 
That  powerful  commercial  body  had  long  ruled  over  India,  with- 
out seeming  to  imagine  that  their  mission  extended  beyond  the 
material  arrangements  necessary  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth, 
and  the  dispensation  of  patronage.  At  that  period  they  had 
subjected  themselves  to  the  indignant  eloquence  of  Burke,  when, 
in  his  speech  on  the  India  Bill,  he  exclaimed,  "  With  us  no 
pride  erects  stately  monuments  which  repair  the  mischiefs  which 
pride  has  produced,  and  which  adorn  a  country  out  of  its  own 
spoils.      England  has  erected  no  churches,   no  hospitals,   no 


102    MR.  wilberforck's  plans  defeated. 

palaces^  no  schools.  England  has  built  no  bridges^  made  no 
high  roads^  cut  no  navigations,  dug  out  no  reservoirs.  Every 
other  conqueror,  of  every  other  description,  has  left  some  monu- 
ment, either  of  state  or  beneficence,  behind  him.  Were  we  to 
be  driven  out  of  India  this  day,  nothing  would  remain  to  tell  that 
it  had  been  possessed  during  the  inglorious  period  of  our  domi- 
nion by  anything  better  than  the  ourang-outang,  or  the  tiger.^' 

Mr.  Pitt's  Board  of  Control  had  introduced  the  commence- 
ment of  a  better  system,  so  far  as  concerned  civilization,  but 
against  every  attempt  to  christianize  the  people  there  had  been 
arrayed  a  dismal  front  of  ghastly  opposition.  In  1793,  when  a 
new  charter  was  granted,  Mr.  Wilberforce  had  succeeded  in  per- 
suading the  House  of  Commons,  in  general  terms,  to  pledge 
themselves  to  the  duty  of  ''  promoting,  by  all  just  and  lawful 
means,  the  reUgious  improvement  of  the  natives.'^  Two  days 
afterwards,  he  ventured  on  specific  resolutions  for  establishing 
schoolmasters  and  chaplains  throughout  India^  and  he  again 
succeeded.  But  the  Court  of  Directors  ''  met  and  strongly 
reprobated  my  clauses,^'  and  the  result  is  told  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Oisbome : —  "  The  East  India  Directors  and  proprietors  have 
triumphed.  All  my  clauses  were  last  night  struck  out  in  the 
third  reading  of  the  bill  (with  Dundas'  consent !  I  This  is  honour !) 
and  our  territories  in  Hindostan,twentymiUions  of  people  included, 
are  left  in  the  undisturbed  and  peaceable  possession,  and  committed 
to  the  providential  protection  of  Brama.''    (Life,  Vol.  ii.,  267.^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  for  Mr.  Haldane  to  have  gone  to 
India,  as  some  advised,  without  the  consent  of  the  Company,  was 
a  proposal  which  would  have  been  at  variance  with  the  wise  fore- 
sight which  always  marked  his  character,  and  was  discerned  in 
the  successful  management  of  his  own  worldly  afiairs.  The 
result  might  have  been  anticipated ;  he  was  not  disposed  thus  to 
peril  his  property,  his  time,  or  his  character,  on  such  a  foolish 
errand.  It  was  one  thing  for  a  few  obscure  but  noble-hearted 
men,  like  him  who  was  sneered  at  as  ''  the  consecrated  cobbler  '* 
to  steal  into  a  Danish  settlement  at  Serampore,  and  begin  those 
translations  of  the  Bible  which  have  already  shaken  the  super- 
stition of  India  to  its  foundations.     It  was  quite  another  for  a 


MR.  haldane's  prudence.       103 

man  of  position  to  devote  a  fortune  to  an  object^  which  the  House 
of  Commons  acknowledged  as  a  duty,  which  they  had  not  dared 
to  perform.  Was  it  likely  that  the  spirit  which  crushed  the 
humane  efibrts  of  the  friend  of  Pitt,  and  tempted  Lord  Melville 
into  a  breach  of  promise,  would  have  yielded  to  Mr.  Haldane,  had 
he  chosen  to  set  at  defiance  the  India  House  and  Board  of 
Control  ? 

With  a  prudence  which  marked  through  life  all  his  boldest 
measures,  Mr.  Haldane  resolved  to  go  to  India  if  he  could  obtain 
the  consent  of  its  Government ;  but  if  that  consent  were  withheld, 
not  to  go  at  all.  To  Mr.  Dundas  (Lord  Melville),  then  at  the 
head  of  the  affairs  of  India,  being  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  as  well  as  Chief  Secretary  of  State,  he  had  been  known 
from  his  childhood.  He  addressed  him  boldly,  and  with  candour, 
eiqilaining  to  him  all  his  past  or  present  views,  political  and  reli- 
gious, as  he  afterwards  did  to  the  public  in  his  address  on  politics. 
Mr.  Wilberforce  thought  that  more  of  reserve,  and  what 
might  be  deemed  finesse,  would  have  been  most  prudent ;  but 
this  was  not  the  character  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  mind,  and  had  Mr. 
Wilberforce  been  aware  of  Lord  Melville's  ample  means  of 
knowing  every  thing  concerning  the  intending  missionary,  he 
would  have  himself  admitted  that  in  honesty  and  frankness 
consisted  the  best  policy. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Bight  Honourable  Mr.  Secretary 
Dundas,  dated  Sept.  21,  1796,  he  solicits  an  interview,  and  at 
once  tells  the  wily  statesman  that  he  is  prepared  to  give  him 
the  fullest  explanations  of  his  political  sentiments.  '^I  mean 
not,''  he  says,  "  to  retract  anything  I  have  ever  said,  or  deny 
what  I  now  hold ;  but  if,  in  consequence  of  the  foUowing  com- 
munication, you  should  be  desirous, — ^as,  indeed,  you  will  be 
entitled — to  know  what  my  views  are,  I  am  happy  I  have  it  in 
my  power  completely  to  satisfy  you  by  answering  any  questions 
you  may  please  to  propose  to  me  on  the  subject."  He  adds, 
''  that,  even  if  I  be  deemed  mistaken,  my  stake  in  the  country 
might  be  regarded  as  a  guarantee  for  the  sincerity  of  my 
attachment  to  the  present  order  of  things."  He  then  tells  the 
Minister  that  he  had  never  obtruded  his  opinions,  whatever  they 


104  LETTERS    TO    MR.  DUNDA8. 

were,  on  the  public,  "  except  once,  when  he  considered  himself 
called  upon  in  his  place/'  as  one  of  the  freeholders  of  the 
county, — at  that  time  a  very  select  body,  consisting  of  the 
principal  landed  proprietors,  whose  numbers,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  state,  did  not  exceed  sixty.  "Whatever  fear  may  be 
expressed,  with  regard  to  the  political  sentiments  of  any  of  us, 
as  making  it  dangerous  to  send  such  persons  to  India,  will  not 
apply  here.  As  citizens  of  this  country  we  conceive  that  we 
have  a  right,  and  we  esteem  it  a  duty,  to  speak  freely  our 
sentiments  about  Government.  As  missionaries  abroad  we  have 
no  such  business.  Our  mouths,  on  that  subject,  will  be  sealed 
for  ever,  when  we  devote  ourselves  to  preach  only  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  what  it  contains  in  a  foreign  land.  On  all 
men  it  enjoins  peaceable  and  quiet  lives,  which  we  shall 
uniformly  inculcate.  Indeed,  I  trust  we  shall  be  found  useful 
in  no  common  degree  (should  God  grant  us  success)  in  promot- 
ing the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  country  and  the  stability  of 
the  Government,  which  we  believe  to  be  the  best,  in  India.  We 
are  fully  convinced  that  nothing  will  tend  to  bind  India  so 
closely  to  England  as  the  introduction  of  the  Gospel  among  the 
natives.  (While  the  heathen  slaves  in  the  West  Indies  have 
united  in  insurrection,  the  converted  Africans  have  continued 
peaceable  and  faithful, — such  is  the  natural  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity on  its  votaries.)  And,  at  the  same  time,  we  are  confident 
that  nothing  will  provoke  God  to  deprive  England  of  the  Empire 
in  the  East  and  the  benefits  resulting  from  the  possession  of  it, 
so  much  as  neglecting  to  send  the  Gospel  to  them,  and  espe- 
cially refusing  to  allow  it  to  be  sent,  when  you  are  humbly 
entreated  to  grant  permission.  *  *  *  Our  business  and  our 
aim  is  to  propagate  the  Gospel  and  save  the  souls  of  the  miser- 
able heathen,  and  we  should  think  ourselves  culpable  in  the 
highest  degree  were  the  rulers,  or  those  who  are  entrusted  with 
the  direction  of  commerce,  ever  to  have  any  just  cause  of  com- 
plaint of  us.  Surely  it  can  never  be  thought  that  we  have  any 
sinister  views  in  this  business,  or  any  other  than  what  we  hold 
out.  To  it  we  dedicate  our  all ;  we  leave  very  many  comforts  in 
this  country  (for  I  assure  you  that  it  is  not  discontent  that 


LETTERS    TO    MR.  DUNDAS.  105 

carries  us  away),  and  we  risk — nay,  almost  certainly  view,  bad 
health  and  many  inconveniences  and  disagreeable  circumstances 
that  natives  of  the  opposite  side  of  the  globe  must  necessarily 
encounter.  Indeed,  considering  everything,  if  we  do  not  go 
with  pure  views  and  from  good  motives,  in  the  language  of  the 
apostle,  I  have  no  hesitation  to  say,  'We  must  be  of  all  men 
most  miserable.^  '* 

In  another  letter,  dated  London,  September  30th,  1796,  it  is 
further  said,  '^  Many  thousands  have  gone  to  India  to  attain  a 
decent  competency  or  splendid  affluence;  we  go  with  a  direct 
view,  not  to  enrich  ourselves,  but  to  save  the  souls  of  riien. 
And,  surely,  Sir,  it  is  no  unreasonable  request  that  at  least  we 
may  be  permitted  to  go  out  quietly  and  enjoy  the  protection  of 
the  Government  of  India  while  we  demean  ourselves  well.  If 
we  do  not  act  there  as  we  propose,  the  Government  can  at  any 
time  send  us  home ;  we  shall  be  sufficiently  in  their  power.  I 
am  persuaded,  however,  they  would  never  hear  of  us,  but  as 
inculcating  quietness  and  pcace.^' 

In  the  above  letters  Mr.  Haldane,  with  characteristic  man- 
Uness,  avowed  his  previous  political  opinions,  and,  without 
professing  to  retract  them,  only  protested  against  those  exag- 
gerations which  had  falsely  represented  him  as  a  democratical 
revolutionist,  eager  to  overturn  every  monarchical  Grovemment. 
His  own  explanations,  which  have  been  just  quoted,  sufficiently 
refute  this  calumny.  On  his  state  of  mind  in  regard  to  politics, 
in  1796,  he  says  himself,  in  his  ''Address  on  Politics,^'  pub- 
hshedinlSOO:— 

"  I  had  not  seen  at  that  time,  indeed,  as  I  have  since,  that  it 
was  my  privilege  to  abstain  from  all  pohtical  interference  in  this 
country ;  nor  was  I  so  deeply  and  practically  convinced  of  the 
corruption  of  human  nature,  as  I  trust  I  have  since  been,  so  as 
to  expect  less  from  it,  under  any  political  arrangement.  Yet,  as 
a  missionary,  I  had  determined  to  renounce  the  subject,  thinking 
that,  at  least- in  that  situation,  I  might  with  a  good  conscience 
give  it  up  altogether.''  "  This,''  he  emphatically  adds, — "  this 
was  expressly  settled  and  agreed  upon  as  an  essential  condition 
to  be  observed  by  all  of  us  who  joined  in  the  intended  Mission.'^ 


100  LIFE   OF   MR.  WILBERFORCE. 

In  reply  to  this  letter  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control 
very  politely  invited  him  to  his  house,  personally  to  explain  his 
views  and  intentions  in  private.  He  had,  in  fact,  several  inter- 
views, at  one  of  which  Mr.  Pitt  came  into  the  room  before  their 
conference  was  ended.  Mr.  Pitt  no  doubt  regarded  the  scheme 
as  a  well-meant  Utopian  ebulUtion  of  youthful  zeal.  In  the 
"  Life  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,''  his  sons,  from  want  of  information, 
have  given  a  very  erroneous  and  partial  account  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
designs  for  an  Indian  Mission  and  the  part  their  father  took  in 
the  matter.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  they 
have  themselves  in  so  many  instances  misunderstood  the 
character  and  ignored  the  objects  of  their  illustrious  parent, 
that  it  would  have  been  singular  had  they  been  more  successful 
in  the  case  of  a  stranger.  But,  in  the  preface  to  a  subsequent 
publication,  they  have  expressed  their  regret  in  terms  which 
must  silence  censure.  ''In  particular,''  they  observe,  ''they 
feel  that,  for  want  of  full  information,  they  have  not  done 
adequate  justice  to  the  designs  of  Mr.  Haldane  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Mission  in  the  East  Indies.''  So  far  as  concerns 
their  own  motives  or  conduct  in  the  affair,  this  acknowledgment 
is  ample,  but  it  is  not  an  antidote  to  the  misrepresentations  for 
which  it  is  an  apology. 

The  allusions  to  these  designs  are  brief  and  unsatisfactory. 
First  comes  a  detached  extract  from  their  father's  diary : — 
*'  8th  October,  1796. — Very  busy  seeing  Pitt  and  Dundas  about 
abolition  convention  plan  and  East  India  Missions.  Pleased 
with  Dundas's  candour."  Then  comes  the  following  sen- 
tences:— 

''  Having  failed  three  years  before  in  his  endeavours  to  obtain 
a  national  provision  for  christianizing  India,  he  was  eager  to 
forward  those  individual  efforts  which,  though  a  poor  substitute 
Air  kii  proposal,  were  all  that  could  at  present  be  attempted. 
Mt>,  Haldane  and  some  other  Scotch  gentlemen  were  at  this 
(IliM*  ili*Hirous  of  engaging  in  such  a  Mission,  and  he  exerted 
IliltiHi^ir  t4i  obtain  Mr.  Dundas's  assent  to  the  undertaking." 
Tlinti  followN  the  following  extraordinary  sentence : — "  In  this  he 
^muid  prolmhtjf  have  succeeded  if  their  extreme  political  opinions 


DIARY    OF    MR.  WILBERFORCE.  107 

had  not  alarmed  the  Grovemment."  If  Mr.  Wilberforce,  as  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  England^  failed  in  his  modest  efforts 
three  years  before  to  establish  chaplains  for  our  own  countrymen 
and  schoolmasters  in  India^  it  was  not  likely  that  he  should  now 
succeed  on  behalf  of  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
whose  politics  had  been  opposed  to  the  Government.  But  the 
narrative  of  the  biographers  is  continued  by  an  extract  from  his 
diary  of  earUer  date  than  the  first  which  they  quoted.  It  runs 
thus : — '^  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  all  perfect  democrats,  beUeving 
that  a  new  order  of  things  is  dawning,  &c.  Haldane  very  open. 
I  told  him  I  thought  that  he,  by  imprudence,  had  injured  the 
cause  with  Dundas.^'  This  entry,  dated  4th  October,  if  accu- 
rately copied,  is  glaringly  unjust.  Even  if  it  were  conceded  as 
fully  as  it  is  disproved,  that  Mr.  Haldane  was  a  democrat  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  term,  Mr.  Wilberforce  had  at  this  time 
never  seen  Dr.  Innes  or  Mr.  Ewing.  Dr.  Innes,  in  fact,  never 
came  to  London  about  the  matter,  and  Mr.  Ewing  not  till 
November.  Now,  in  regard  to  both  these  two  gentlemen,  the 
tongue  of  calumny  never  found  any  ground  to  charge  them  with 
interfering  in  politics.  Indeed,  after  commenting  on  his  letters 
to  Mr.  Secretary  Dundas,  it  is  remarked  by  Mr.  Haldane,  that 
the  expressioifs,  " '  as  citizens,  &c.,  we  deem  it  our  duty,  &c.,' 
did  not  apply  to  my  two  associates  in  Scotland,  who,  as  minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel  at  home,  always  thought  it  their  duty  to  act 
in  the  same  manner,  in  every  respect,  as  they  would  have  done 
if  missionaries  abroad,  and  as  having  nothing  to  do  with 
politics.'^  It  may  be  added,  that  so  much  was  this  the  case, 
that  Dr.  Innes  was  appointed  to  the  chaplaincy  of  the  Castle 
instead  of  the  senior  minister  at  Stirling,  the  excellent  Mr. 
Somerville,  because  some  exception  was  taken  to  the  politics  of 
the  latter,  in  consequence  of  an  unguarded  and  partly  jocular 
speech  made  at  his  own  table,  which  had  been  reported  and 
misrepresented,  after  the  manner  of  these  evil  times,  by  the  wife 
of  an  officer,  who  was  his  guest. 

That  Mr.  Haldane  had  at  first  taken  a  favourable  view  of  the 
French  Revolution  has  been  already  seen,  but  his  sentiments 
were  never  publicly  expressed  on  any  occasion,  except  in  his 


108  HIS    VIEWS    OF    CIVIL    OBEDIENCE. 

place  as  a  freeholder  at  the  Stirling  meetings  and  he  had  at  all 
times  carefully  eschewed  connexion  with  disaffected  or  violent 
Reformers.  His  own  words  are  conclusive : — "  My  principles^ 
at  all  times,  were  too  well  known  for  any  one  to  solicit  my 
attendance  in  the  self-created  political  societies.  I  never  had 
any  private  intimation  of  what  was  going  on  among  them. 
At  that  time  I  often  publicly  declared,  had  I  ever  known  of  any- 
thing dangerous  to  Government,  even  if  I  had  lived  in  Turkey, 
where  they  have  one  of  the  worst  governments,  I  should  have 
accounted  it  my  duty  immediately  to  reveal  it.  The  only 
solicitation  of  this  kind  ever  made  to  me  was  a  request,  by  letter, 
to  subscribe  money  for  those  persons  (Hardy,  Home  Tooke, 
and  Thelwall)  who  had  been  tried  in  England  for  sedition^ 
and  acquitted.  Although  acquitted,  /  highly  disapproved  their 
conduct.  I  wrote  an  answer  to  the  person  soliciting  me,  to 
the  effect  that  he  had  wholly  misunderstood  what  my  political 
sentiments  had  always  been,  otherwise  he  would  not  have  made 
such  a  proposal  to  me.'^  ....  "From  these  extracts,'' 
continues  Mr.  Haldane,  "it  may  be  seen  what  my  views  at 
that  time  were.  Indeed,  offering  to  go  to  Bengal,  was  cer- 
tainly declaring  in  language  sufficiently  strong,  that  it  was  not 
politics  I  had  in  view,  when  I  wished  to  place  myself,  my  family 
and  property  entirely  under  the  power  of  a  Government  which  is 
80  strong  as  that  in  India.'' 

Such  was  the  refutation  which  Mr.  Haldane  published  of 
the  calumnies  by  which  his  private  opinions  were  misrepre- 
sented during  the  heat  of  the  French  Revolution,  Mr.  Wil- 
berforce  probably  little  imagined,  that,  after  more  than  forty 
years  had  elapsed,  the  same  calumnies  would  reappear  under 
cover  of  his  time-honoured  name,  by  means  of  fragments  of  his 
private  diary,  perhaps,  as  in  some  other  cases,  inaccurately  copied, 
and  by  loose  memoranda  of  conversation,  inconsistent  both 
with  Mr.  Ilaldane's  sentiments,  acts,  and  opinions,  as  well  as 
those  of  his  colleagues.  "Much,"  say  his  biographers,  "as 
he  disliked  their  views,  and  earnestly  as  he  argued  against  their 
revolutionary  principles  in  a  long  talk  about  government,  he 
yet,  on  every  ground,  regretted  the  decision  of  Mr.  Dundaa." 


LIFE    OF    MR.    WILBERFORCE.  109 

''I  could  not  persuade  him^  though^  as  I  told  him^  it  is  on 
yoar  own  grounds  the  best  thing  you  can  do.  In  Scotland 
such  a  man  is  sure  to  create  a  ferment.  Send  him,  therefore, 
to  the  back  settlements,  to  let  off  his  pistol  in  vacuo.'' 

Well  may  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  his  brother,  the  Arch- 
deacon, admit  that,  "  for  want  of  full  information,  they  have  not 
done  full  justice  to  the  designs  of  Mr.  Haldane.^'  The  most 
prejudiced  reader  has  before  him  sufficient  means  to  enable 
him  to  detect  the  misrepresentations,  no  doubt  unintentional, 
of  which  they  have  been  guilty.  To  transpose  short  isolated 
fragments  from  a  diary  without  regard  to  the  order  of  time,  to 
take  one  fragment  of  the  entry  on  the  8th  of  October,  and  then, 
after  some  interpolated  and  inaccurate  statements  of  their  own, 
to  serve  up  another  isolated  fragment  from  an  earlier  entry  on  the 
4th  of  October,  and,  finally,  to  wind  up  these  unsatisfactory 
mutilated  excerpts  with  a  melange  of  disparaging  conversational 
recollections,  reflecting  on  the  chief  of  a  mission  which  their 
father,  more  than  forty  years  before,  strove  to  forward,  is  a 
method  by  which  any  design,  however  noble,  might,  together 
with  its  author,  its  origin,  and  its  objects,  be  easily  overwhelmed 
with  obloquy  and  suspicion. 

To  suppose  that  Mr.  Wilberforce  laboured  in  common  with 
Mr.  Charles  Grant  and  Mr.  Pitt's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Eliot, 
to  send  men  of  *' revolutionary  piinciples '^  as  missionaries  to 
India,  is  a  libel  on  their  memory,  while  it  throws  an  air  of 
ridicule  over  the  whole  of  the  imputation.  Certain  it  is,  that 
Mr.  Haldane's  intercourse  with  Mr.  Wilberforce  produced,  on 
the  mind  of  the  former,  a  far  different  impression  from  what 
his  biographers  would  lead  us  to  imagine,  and  we  shall  now 
give  his  own  account  of  his  first  interview  with  the  illustrious 
abolitionist. 

When  Mr.  Haldane  had  secured  the  co-operation  of  his 
friend  Dr.  Bogue,  he  next  proceeded  to  seek  the  best  means  of 
operating  on  the  Directors  and  the  Government.  He  solicited 
the  influence  and  support  of  the  leaders  both  of  the  religious 
community  and  the  political  world.  Mr.  Wilberforce  was  by 
no  means  the  first  nor  the  principal  auxiliary,  whose  aid  he 
sought.      He  was  himself  personally  acquainted  with  several 


110  INTERVIEWS    WITH    MEMBERS    OF   THE   GOVERNMENT. 

members  of  the  Government^  including  not  only  Mr.  Secretary 
Dundas  and  the  Duke  of  Montrose^  but  the  Lord  Chancellor 
Rosslyn^  who  was  a  family  connexion^  and  whose  brother-in- 
law^  Lord  Alva^  had  been  a  trustee  of  the  estate  of  Airthrey, 
and  taken  an  active  part  in  the  management  of  his  young 
relative's  concerns.  He  was  received  with  kindness  and  hospi- 
tality by  Mr.  Pitt's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Eliot,  the  father  of  the 
first  Earl  of  St.  Germains,  whose  eai'ly  death  was  a  loss  both 
to  the  State  and  to  the  Christian  community.  He  experienced 
much  courtesy  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  was  treated 
with  more  than  courtesy  by  Dr.  Porteus,  the  Bishop  of  London. 
Mr.  Erskine,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor,  also  showed  great  kind- 
ness, although  the  value  of  his  admiration  for  the  humanity  of  the 
enterprise,  was  somewhat  lessened  by  the  inappropriate  appeal 
to  his  Maker's  name  as  the  guarantee  of  his  support.  It  was 
not  till  four  months  after  his  arrival  in  Loudon  that  he  saw 
Mr.  Wilberforce,  who  was  during  that  time  at  Buxton,  nor  did 
a  meeting  with  him  take  place  until  after  Mr.  Haldane  had 
written  to  Mr.  Secretary  Dundas,  and  fully  conversed  with  that 
distinguished  member  of  the  Government.  When  introduced, 
along  with  Dr.  Bogue,  for  the  first  time,  on  the  4th  of  October, 
1796,  to  Mr.  Wilberforce,  the  latter  apologized  for  not  rising, 
as  his  feet  were  wrapped  in  flannels,  and  he  was  suffering  under 
a  fit  of  the  gout.  He  strongly  and  cordially  approved  of  the 
plan,  and  became  so  much  animated  and  elated  as  Mr.  Haldane 
unfolded  his  designs,  that,  forgetting  his  gout  in  his  admiration 
of  the  grandeur  of  the  design,  the  philanthropist  kindling  into 
positive  enthusiasm,  jumped  up,  and,  to  the  entertainment  of 
his  guests,  skipped  about  the  room  entirely  free  from  pain. 
When  he  came  to  talk  over  the  difficulties  that  impeded  their 
plan,  and  heard  of  the  frank  and  open  manner  in  which  Mr. 
Haldane  had  written  and  talked  to  Mr.  Dundas,  Mr.  Wilber- 
force, whose  turn  of  mind  was  more  inclined  to  diplomacy, 
expressed  his  doubts  whether  greater  reserve  might  not  have 
been  more  prudent;  and  this  is  probably  the  meaning  of  the 
little  disjointed  extract,  "Haldane  very  open.  I  told  him  I 
thought  that  he,  by  imprudence,  had  injured  the  cause  with 
Dundas.''     But  Mr.  Haldane  maintained  the  superior  wisdom 


INTERVIEWS    WITH    MR.    WILBERPOECE.  Ill 

of  straightforward^  out-spoken  honesty  and  frankness  in  such  a 
matter^  and  urged  that  suspicions  are  always  excited  by  that 
unsuccessful  finesse  which^  in  after-life^  often  brought  on  Mr. 
Wilbcrforce  the  taunts  of  worldly  politicians^  such  as  Mr.  Can- 
nings who  compared  him  to  a  waterman  looking  one  way  and 
rowing  the  other.  They  were  also  led  to  talk  on  politics.  No 
doubt  they  differed  in  opinion  from  Mr.  Wilbcrforce,  more 
especially  with  regard  to  the  war,  and  as  yet  he  entertained  a 
lingering  hope  as  to  the  grand  political  experiment,  of  which 
l^rance  was  the  scene.  But  nothing  took  place  to  damp  the 
pleasure  with  which  Mr.  Haldane  always  spoke  of  this  inter- 
view, and  of  his  subsequent  and  repeated  social  intercourse  with 
Mr.  Wilbcrforce,  and  certainly  nothing  ever  occurred  to  sanction 
the  cold  and  disparaging  tone  of  the  Biography,  unless  the 
monstrous  supposition  be  assumed,  that  Mr.  Wilbcrforce  was 
himself  insincere  in  his  professions.  Mr.  Haldane^s  own  remark 
upon  the  Biography  was  this,  that  far  from  having  to  complain 
of  any  sharpness  in  debate  with  Mr.  Wilbcrforce,  he  had  only 
been  surprised  at  the  marked  deference  with  which  the  senti- 
ments of  one  who  had  neither  the  same  advantages  of  age 
and  Parliamentary  position,  had  been  treated  both  by  Mr. 
Wilbcrforce,  Mr.  Eliot,  and  the  rest.  There  are  other  extracts 
from  the  Diary,  which  cumulatively  prove  how  warm  and 
true  an  interest  Mr.  Wilbcrforce  took  in  the  East  India  Mis- 
sions :  e.g.,  "  23d  Dec.  Breakfasted  early,  with  Dundas  and 
Eliot,  on  Mission  business;  Dundas  complying,  when  Grant 
and  David  Scott  also — sat  long.''  Again :  "  26th.  Grant, 
Eliot,  and  Babington,  at  dinner.  Consultation  on  East  India 
Missions,  and  discussing  all  evening.''  Once  more:  "18th 
January,  1797.  To  town  and  back,  to  dine  at  Henry 
Thornton's,  where  Simeon  and  Grant,  to  talk  over  Mission 
scheme." 

Is  it  possible  to  believe  that  all  the  interest  in  Mr.  Haldane's 
Mission  scheme  expressed  by  Mr.  Wilbcrforce,  was  nothing 
better  than  shallow  pretence,  and  that  his  communing  with 
Grant,  Eliot,  Thornton,  and  the  rest,  was  to  issue  in  nothing 
more  than  the  expression  of  vagueopinion, — that,  on  Mr.Dundas's 
own  principles,  it  was  better  to  ''send  him  to  the  back  settle- 


112    OPPOSITION  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  CONTROL. 

ment^  to  let  off  his  pistol  in  vacito?"  Mr.  Newton  writes, 
''Assure  Mr.  Haldane  I  love,  honour,  and  pray  for  them  ail" 
Mr.  Wilberforce  manifested  a  kindred  feeling  then,  and  several 
years  afterwards.  It  may  easily  be  seen  how  Mr.  Wilberforce 
said  in  free  conversation,  something  which,  torn  from  its 
connexion,  or  in  itself  misunderstood,  could  thus  be  easily 
perverted.  But  both  Mr.  Wilberforce  and  Mr.  Eliot,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  Grovemment  and  Mr.  Haldane's  chief 
supporter,  knew  what  his  biographers  overlook,  that  it  was  not 
in  reality  politics  that  "alarmed  the  Government.^'  Politics 
did  not  stand  in  the  way  of  Mr.  Wilberforce's  own  scheme, 
and  yet  it  too  had  signally  failed.  But  politics  furnished  a 
good  excuse.  It  was  vain  to  tell  Mr.  Dundas  that  Mr.  Hal- 
dane was  a  young  man,  that  he  had  never  publicly  engaged  in 
politics;  that  he  had  now  renounced  them  for  ever,  and  was 
occupied  with  nobler  objects.  The  shrewd,  worldly-minded 
Secretary  of  State  had  no  sympathy  with  the  things  of  heaven. 
He  had  no  sympathy  with  Missions  to  the  heathen  abroad,  or 
Missions  to  the  unconverted  at  home.  He  was  himself  a  family 
connexion  of  Mr.  Haldane's,  the  cousin  of  Mr.  Haldane's  grand- 
&ther,  and  imcle  by  marriage  to  Lord  Duncan.  He  had  known 
Robert  Haldane  from  his  boyhood ;  and  whilst  he  disliked  the 
scheme  in  itself,  he  also  contended  that  Robert  Haldane  was  no 
weak  and  simple  enthusiast,  but  a  man  of  shrewdness  and  good 
sense,  a  cool  reasoner,  of  acute  and  vigorous  intellect,  backed  by 
high  courage  and  untiring  energy.  He  knew  also  one  of  Mr. 
Haldane's  associates,  as  a  minister  of  no  ordinary  character, 
to  whom  he  himself  had  been  induced,  on  the  solicitation  of 
his  niece,  when  residing  at  Gosport,  to  offer  a  living,  which,  on 
Dr.  Bogue's  refusal,  he  conferred  on  the  only  baronet  of  the 
Scottish  Church,  the  late  Sir  Henry  Moncricff,  so  long  the 
leader  of  the  Evangelical  party.  It  is  very  likely  that  the  wily 
Secretary,  of  whose  duplicity  Mr.  Wilberforce  so  often  and 
bitterly  complains,  did  on  this  occasion  also  penetrate  the 
philanthropist's  reserve,  and  tell  him  more  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
character  than  he  knew  before.  It  was  also  probable,  that  Mr. 
Wilberforce,  trying  to  parry  the  force  of  the  Secretary's  objec- 
tions, observed,  that  a  man  such  as  Mr.  Dundas  described  Mr. 


BISHOP    PORTEUS'    APPROVAL.  113 

Haldane,  would  surely  be  more  dangerous  in  Scotland  than 
under  a  despotic  and  powerful  government  like  that  of  India. 
He  might  have  playfully  added^  If  you  reckon  a  man  of  such 
qualities  dangerous  in  these  exciting  times^  would  it  not  be 
safer  on  your  own  principles  to  send  him  to  the  back 
settlements  ?  The  esteem  and  respect  which  Mr.  Wilberforce 
expressed  towards  him,  not  only  at  that  period  but  near  the 
close  of  life,  must  be  regarded  as  hollow,  slippery,  and  insincere, 
before  we  can  believe  that  the  conversational  memoranda  of  the 
biographers  convey  a  true  impression  of  Mr.  Wilberforce's 
sentiments.  How  little  they  understood  their  father's  impres- 
sions on  this  subject,  may  be  gathered,  from  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  of  one  of  his  friends,  the  late  Dr.  Porteus,  Bishop 
of  London.  His  Lordship,  in  writing  from  London  House  to 
Hannah  More,  on  the  16th  of  January,  1797,  says : — 

"  What  think  you  of  the  noble  sacrifice  Lord  Comwallis  has  made,  of 
domestic  ease  and  happiness,  and  of  every  blessing  the  world  can  give,  to 
the  interests  of  his  country  ?  This  is  genuine  patriotism  indeed !  None 
but  he  himself  could  quiet  the  military  commotions  in  India,  and  he  him- 
self made  the  offer  of  his  services.  I  hardly  ever  heard  of  such  an  instance 
of  self-denial.  He  is  past  sixty,  and  has  nothing  to  wish  or  hope  for  from 
Government.  Yet,  on  recollection,  there  is  another  instance  of  heroism 
with  respect  to  the  same  country  not  less  honourable  to  the  actors  in  it 
than  this.  I  lately  saw  three  Scotchmen  (Mr.  Haldane,  Dr.  Bogue,  and 
Mr.  Ewing),  who  are  all  going  to  India  without  support,  and  without 
protection,  to  make  converts  to  Christianity.  When  we  hear  of  these, 
and  some  other  instances  of  disinterested  feeling  and  benevolence  that  I 
could  mention,  who  will  dare  say  that  there  is  no  religion  or  virtue  in  the 
world?"* 

It  was  but  a  few  days  before  the  date  of  this  letter  that  Mr. 
Haldane  received  from  the  East  India  Directors  the  following 
official  answer, refusing  the  permission  which  had  been  solicited  :— 

"  Gentlemen, — ^The  Court  of  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company 
have  had  under  consideration  your  letter  of  the  29th  ultimo,  requesting 
permission  to  proceed  to  India,  with  your  families,  and  reside  in  the 
Company's  territories,  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  the  natives  of  India 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion ;  and  I  have  received  the 
Court's  commands  to  acquaint  you,  that  however  convinced  they  may  be  of 

*  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Hannah  More,  by  Mr.  Roberts,  Sd  voL 


114  RENEWED    EFFORTS. 

the  sincerity  of  your  motives,  and  the  seal  with  which  you  appear  to  be 
actuated,  in  sacrificing  your  personal  convenience  to  the  religious  and 
moral  purposes  described  in  your  letter,  yet  the  Court  have  weighty  and 
substantial  reasons  which  induce  them  to  decline  a  compliance  with  your 
request — I  am,  Gentlemen, 

"  Your  most  obedient  humble  Servant, 

"  William  Ramsay,  See. 

"  To  Robert  Haldane,  Esq. 

"  The  JRev,  David  Bogiie. 

"  The  JRev.  OreviUe  Etoingr 

But  although  thus  baffled  in  their  first  attempt^  they  did  not 

regard  the  matter  as  settled.     The  following  letter,  from  Dr. 

Bogue  to  a  clergyman  at  Bristol,   exhibits  his  views  of  the 

Mission,  and  proves  that  it  was  neither  lightly  taken  up  nor 

lightly  abandoned : — 

'*  The  plan  of  sending  out  young  men  unaccustomed  to  the  task  of 
religious  instruction  never  appeared  to  me  calculated  to  produce  the  end 
we  had  in  view.  I  always  thought  it  the  duty  of  more  experienced  men 
to  lead  the  way,  and  offer  themselves  for  the  service  of  the  heathen ;  but, 
like  you,  I  thought  myself  too  old  for  the  office  of  a  missionary.  But 
about  eight  months  ago,  I  received  an  invitation  from  my  friend,  Mr. 
Haldane,  to  accompany  him  to  Bengal,  to  assist  him,  along  virith  two 
others,  in  carrying  into  execution  a  plan  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen, 
which  he  had  formed  about  a  year  before.  After  weighing  the  subject 
maturely,  I  accepted  his  call,  and  declared  my  readiness  to  go :  the  two 
others  we  had  in  view,  Mr.  Ewing  and  Mr.  Inncs  (whom  some  of  your 
Bristol  people  know),  have  likewise  engaged  to  go  with  us.  What  you 
mention  as  to  age,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  climate  agreeing  with  me, 
is  just.  But  these  things  must  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church.  I  am  a  necessar}'  link  of  the  chain.  As  wc  arc  to  live  in  the 
close  union  of  brothers,  it  would  not  do  unless  we  knew  each  other,  and 
from  what  we  know,  could  place  some  dependence  on  suitableness  of  dis- 
position, &c.  Though  a  more  suitable  and  a  younger  person  could  be 
foimd,  he  wants  the  qualification  of  old  friendship  and  acquaintance  which 
I  possess." 

A  few  months  afterwards,  a  long  and  very  powerful  memorial 
was  drawn  up  and  presented  to  the  Board,  urging  them,  by  every 
motive  of  poUcy  and  of  duty,  to  review  their  decision.  It  is 
signed, — Robert  Haldane,  David  Bogue,  William  Innes,  and 
Oreville  Ewing.  It  appeals  to  all  the  principles  most  likely  to 
operate  on  the  human  mind, — to  their  justice,  their  interests. 


SECOND    REFUSAL.  115 

their  humanity^  their  love  of  literature^  their  philanthropy^  their 
religion^  their  hopes  and  fears  for  this  world  and  the  next.  The 
advantages  to  be  gained  from  a  permission^  the  shame  consequent 
on  a  refusal^  are  all  powerfully  set  forth. 

But  the  warning  as  well  as  persuasive  voice  of  this  memorial 
was  as  ineffectual  as  the  first.  The  "  extent  of  their  petition/' 
with  their  "  plan  and  their  designs/'  are  set  forth  in  the  follow- 
ing words : — 

"  If  we  obtain  leave  from  your  Honourable  Court,  we  propose  to  go  out 
to  Bengal,  with  our  families ;  to  take  a  few  persons  with  us  as  catechists, 
and  to  settle  in  a  part  of  the  country  which  may  be  found  most  convenient, 
both  on  account  of  a  healthful  situation,  and  for  furnishing  opportunities 
of  communicating  instruction  to  the  natives.  When  we  have  made  our- 
selves masters  of  the  language,  we  design  to  employ  our  time  in  conveying 
the  knowledge  of  Christianity  to  the  Hindoos  and  Mahommcdans,  by 
translating  the  Sacred  Scriptures  for  their  use,  by  conversation,  and  by 
erecting  schools  to  be  kept  by  the  catechists  for  teaching  the  children  the 
first  principles  of  religion.  Such  is  our  object,  and  we  have  sufficient 
funds  for  its  support. 

'*  The  favour  we  ask  of  you.  Gentlemen,  is  leave  to  go  out  to  Bengal, 
and  protection  there,  while  we  demean  ourselves  as  peaceable  subjects  of 
the  Government,  and  good  members  of  the  community." 

But  this  leave  was  denied.  "  It  was,''  says  Dr.  Bennett,  in 
his  Life  of  Dr.  Bogue,  "  It  was  said  at  the  time  that  one  of  the 
Directors  declared  he  would  rather  see  a  band  of  devils  in  India 
than  a  band  of  missionaries."  Whatever  may  be  alleged  of  the 
impiety  of  this  speech,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  its  sincerity. 
"  The  things  which  the  Gentiles  sacrifice,"  said  the  inspired 
apostle,  "they  sacrifice  to  devils  and  not  to  God/'  and  the 
interest  of  Paganism  was  warmly  espoused  by  men  who  would 
have  deemed  themselves  insulted  if  they  had  been  denied  the 
Christian  name.  The  controversy  which  soon  after  arose  on  this 
subject,  proved  that  nothing  truly  Christian  could  obtain  the 
sanction  of  the  majority  of  those  who  then  ruled  the  affairs  of 
India.  In  pamphlets  and  periodicals,  the  most  embittered  hos- 
tility to  the  propagation  of  Christianity  was  openly  avowed  by 
some  of  the  civil  and  military  agents  of  the  British  East  India 
Company.     But  it  was  all  perfectly  natural,  for  not  only  were 

i2 


116    OBSTACLES  TO  MISSIONS  APTKEWARDS  SURMOUNTED. 

many  of  those  who  fought  so  zealously  for  Juggernaut  and  the 
Suttees  against  Christ  and  his  Cross  a  disgrace  to  the  Christian 
name  which  they  affected  to  bear^  but  a  leader  in  their  ranks 
actually  wiped  off  the  very  name  as  a  foul  blot  from  his  dis- 
honoured brow,  and  at  an  immense  price  purchased  the  privilege 
of  becoming  a  worshipper  of  Bramah. 

Happily,  we  have  hved  to  see  the  day  when  these  restrictions 
on  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  have  been  swept  away;  and 
great  as  is  the  glory  which  belongs  to  the  name  of  Wilberforce 
for  his  labours  in  the  cause  of  Africa,  it  may  be  said  to  have  been 
eclipsed  by  the  results  of  his  zeal  for  Asia.  The  battle  fought  at 
the  renewal  of  the  charter  in  1812  was  fiercely  contested,  and 
even  Warren  Hastings  came  forward,  in  his  old  age,  to  lend  the 
lustre  of  his  genius  to  the  enemies  of  Christianity.  In  spite  of 
his  transcendent  talents,  his  moral  character  was  low,  and  his 
career  of  selfish  ambition  unhappy.  As  contrasted  with  that  of 
Wilberforce,  we  are  reminded  of  the  declaration  of  the  Almighty, 
"  Him  that  honoureth  me  I  will  honour,  but  he  that  despiseth 
me  shall  be  lightly  esteemed.^'  The  progress  of  Christianity  in 
India  since  1812  has  been  more  than  commensurate  to  all  the 
cost  bestowed  upon  it,  and  has  done  much  to  wipe  away  the 
reproach  of  Edmund  Burke,  when  he  contrasted  the  conquests  of 
England  with  those  of  Tamerlane.  Amongst  those  who  have 
since  governed  India,  the  name  of  Lord  William  Bentinck  ought 
never  to  be  forgotten.  He  assumed  his  office  under  great  disad- 
vantages, and  more  especially  as  his  appointment  was  the  act  of 
Mr.  Canning,  in  opposition  to  the  wish  of  the  Court  of  Directors. 
He  was  compelled  to  carry  out  some  of  the  most  unpopular 
measures,  which  had  been  evaded  by  his  predecessors,  such  as 
the  reduction  of  the  army  allowances,  and  he  was  left  to  bear  the 
odium  it  entailed,  as  if  the  act  had  been  his  own.  But  in 
the  face  of  every  difficulty,  the  influence  of  Christian  principle 
was  always  paramount  in  the  Government  House  at  Calcutta 
whilst  occupied  by  Lord  and  Lady  William  Bentinck.  With 
one  stroke  of  his  pen,  he  abolished  the  inhuman  practice  of 
Suttees,  and  left  an  example  to  future  rulers,  demonstrating 
the  folly  of  those  who  imagine  that  there  can  be  danger  in 


ME.  Campbell's  letter  to  countess  of  leven.  117 

forbidding  the  violation  of  the  plainest  statutes  of  the 
Almighty.  The  success  which  attended  this  measure  will  for 
ever  rebuke  the  enmity  of  his  detractors^  and  immortalize  the 
name  of  Lord  William  Bentinck.  He  went  out  to  India^  as  he 
told  Sir  Fowell  Buxton  before  he  sailed^  resolved  to  abolish 
Suttees ;  and  without  swerving  from  his  purpose^  it  was  carried 
into  effect^  in  spite  of  all  the  sinister  predictions  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Gospel. 

Before  taking  leave  of  the  India  Mission^  it  would  be  improper 
to  omit  the  fact^  that  Mr.  John  Campbell  was  one  of  those  whom 
Mr.  Haldane  desired  to  take  with  him  as  a  catechist.    In  writing 
to  the  Countess  of  Leven,  Mr.  Campbell  says :  '^  I  have  never 
hinted,  but  to  Mr.  Newton,  what  I  now  mention.     Mr.  Haldane 
and  his   associates  in   the  intended   Mission  to  Bengal   have 
applied  to  me  to  accompany  them  on  their  humane  enterprise. 
.  .  .     After  thinking  upon  it  for  a  few  nights  and  days,  I  told 
Mr.  H.  that  my  mind  was  reconciled  to  go,  but  that  I  had 
voluntarily  promised  Mr.  Newton  not  to  engage  in  any  Mission 
without  apprizing  him.     •    .    .     Should  I  go,  I  shall  use  all 
means  to  prevent  my  home  plans  from  falling  to  the  ground.    I 
am  not  in  the  least  dissatisfied  with  my  present  station,  trade,  or 
success.     None  have  less  cause  to  murmur.'^     The  Countess,  as 
well  as  Mr.  Newton,  opposed  the  design,  as  taking  away  a  most 
valuable  hbourer  out  of  a  field  of  usefulness  at  home  for  an  un- 
certain benefit  abroad.     Mr.  Newton  wrote  :  "  I  have  no  doubt 
but  Satan  would  be  glad  to  see  you  shipped  off  to  India,  or  any- 
where, so  that  he  might  be  rid  of  you,  for  you  stand  in  his  way 
where  you  are.*'     This  answer  neither  satisfied  Mr.  Campbell 
nor  Mr.  Haldane ;  and  at  the  desire  of  the  latter,  the  qi^stion 
was  referred  to  the  deliberate  and  devotional  judgment  of  the 
Eclectic  Society,  or,  as  Mr.  Campbell  was  wont  to  call  it,  the 
"  Newtonian  tea  party,'^  which  then  met  around  Mr.  Newton^g 
chair,  and  was  afterwards  connected  with  St.  John^s  Chapel, 
Bedford-row.     The  appeal  brought  down  an  answer,  too  long  for 
insertion  here,  which  Mr.  Philip  has,  however,  preserved  in  his 
Life  of  Mr.  Campbell,  because  he  thinks  "  it  throws  light  upon 
the  spirit  of  that  holy  but  not  heroic  circle.^' 


118  MEETINGS    AT    REV.    J.    NEWTON's. 

It  seems  that  there  were  fifteen  present  at  the  Eclectic  meetings 
that  all  were  unanimous  in  admiring  the  generosity  and  disinte- 
restedness of  Mr.  Haldane's  oflFer  and  design^  but  that  none  of 
them  approved  of  the  plan  for  carrying  it  into  eflFect.  They 
considered  that  the  difficulties  in  the  way  should  be  regarded 
as  a  providential  intimation  against  it^  and  that  an  attempt  to 
overcome  those  difficulties  by  endeavouring  to  make  the  mission^ 
"  a  common  cause  with  all  serious  people,  was  more  likely  to 
excite  public  disturbance  than  to  prevail  on  the  Company." 

Mr.  Newton  and  his  friends  seemed  also  to  think  that  iu 
determining  on  a  mission  to  the  heathen,  it  was  not  proper  to 
fix  on  Bengal,  or  to  name  a  particular  city,  which  he  then  sup- 
posed to  be  Patna.  The  answer  is  obvious.  The  neglected  state 
of  the  millions  of  India  was  the  object  which  had  stirred  up  Mr. 
Haldane,  and  he  did  not  insist  on  going  to  a  particular  city^ 
excepting  so  far  as  it  was  useful  to  name  some  spot  for  the  satis- 
faction of  the  Company,  and  finally,  whilst  he  was  prepared  to 
succumb  to  difficulties,  if  found  to  be  insuperable,  he  did  not 
think  it  right,  slothfuUy  to  take  it  for  granted  without  a  struggle 
that  the  lion  in  the  way  could  not  be  chained,  or  the  obstacles 
surmounted.  Had  Mr.  Wilberforce  and  his  friends  yielded  to 
the  argument  derived  from  difficulties  at  the  outset  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  it  would  have  been  strangled  in  its  cradle, 
and  never  accomplished  the  great  work  by  which  it  has  been  dis- 
tinguished. 

With  such  arguments  Mr.  Ilaldane  was  not  satisfied.  His 
powers  of  influencing  the  wills  of  others  was  great,  and  the 
following  appeal  which  he  addressed  to  Mr.  Campbell  for  a  time 
made  the  good  man^s  mind  ''  like  a  windmill"  : — 

'^If  you  think,  from  what  your  friends  have  said,  that  you 
ought  to  stay  at  home,  I  certainly  have  no  title  to  desire  you  to 
go  to  India.  At  the  same  time,  I  must  say,  that  this  is  the  most 
important  step  you  ever  took  in  your  life.  The  argument  of  your 
friends  cuts  deep  the  other  way.  They  advise  you  not  to  go, 
because,  they  say,  there  are  so  many  able  friends  at  the  head  of 
the  mission.  Surely  they  have  not  considered  that  you,  and 
another  Christian  imder  your  direction,  would  have  the  entire 


ME.    HALDANE's   letter   TO    MR.  CAMPBELL.       119 

oversight  of  an  Indian  city  I  The  men  at  the  head  of  the  mission 
can  assist  but  little.  Almost  the  whole  will  depend  upon  the 
person  they  send.  We  think  you  eminently  qualified  for  such  a 
station.  The  Lord  has  much  people  in  Edinburgh  to  carry  on 
all  your  plans.  An  imprudent  missionary  in  Bengal  might  ii^ure 
the  cause  of  Christianity  for  an  age.  An  individual  leaving 
Edinburgh  could  not  afiect  it  materially.  I  say  all  this,  because 
you  told  me  that  you  were  easily  impressed  with  a  thing  at  first. 
Be  not  therefore  led  away  by  the  advice  of  your  friends  at  once ; 
weigh  the  matter  well  yourself,  with  prayer  to  God,  and  a  single 
eye  to  His  glory.  Call  no  man  on  earth  father,  but  decide  for 
yourself  this  most  eventful  question  that  ever  did,  or  probably 
ever  will  come  before  you.'* 

No  wonder  that  Mr.  Campbell  was  shaken  by  this  powerful  and 
disinterested  appeal;  but  the  advice  of  Mr.  Newton  and  Lady 
Leven  prevailed,  and  the  simplicity  of  his  motives  were  fuDy 
appreciated  by  Mr.  Haldane,  who  soon  afterwards  foimd  other  work 
for  Mr.  Campbell  to  superintend  at  home.  His  biographer  adds 
— '^  But  how  he  managed  to  do  it  all,  I  cannot  explain ;  for  at 
this  time  he  was  extending  his  business,  and  multiplying  his  cor- 
respondents at  home  and  abroad,  and  originating  Sabbath  schools, 
by  letters  and  tracts  all  over  Scotland.  Soldiers  and  sailors 
wrote  to  him  for  advice ;  the  needy  and  greedy  for  money ;  the 
unclaimed  outcasts  for  prayers  and  counsel ;  dark  villages  for 
itinerants,  and  chapel-builders  for  help;  besides  the  hundreds, 
who  ordered  their  Missionary  Magazines,  books,  and  Scott's 
Commentary,  and  paid  their  accounts  through  him.  Mr.  Newton 
knew  all  this,  and  would  not  hear  of  any  other  mission  for  him. 
Mr.  Haldane  saw  much  of  this,  and  as  naturally  thought  him 
just  the  man  for  a  city  in  Bengal.^' 

The  honoured  circle  of  good  men  who  crowded  round  the 
venerable  John  Newton  had  been  so  long  obliged  to  succumb 
before  adverse  influence,  that  in  such  matters  they  were  timid 
rather  than  heroic.  They  were  conscious  that  they  were  but  a 
minority,  and  they  shrunk  from  difficulties  with  which  a  bolder 
spirit  fearlessly  grappled.  Still,  there  is  no  doubt  that  their 
conclusions  were  just,  although  their  reasons  were  such  as  would 


120  THE   DESIGN    ABANDONED    IN    1798. 

have  crushed  any  attempt  to  do  good  when  obstacles  interposed. 
It  seems  that  Mr.  Ewing  also  retired  from  the  undertakings  a 
considerable  time  before  Mr.  Haldane  and  Dr.  Bogue  abandoned 
the  noble  struggle.  Towards  the  end  of  1798,  Dr.  Bogue  having 
been  invited  by  the  late  Mr.  Hardcastle  to  undertake  the  charge 
of  the  students  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  thus  writes — 
''  Mr.  Haldane  is  now  with  me,  and  we  are  preparing  for 
a  repeated  application  to  the  East  India  Company,  relative  to  the 
mission  to  Bengal.  While  that  remains  undecided,  I  cannot 
with  propriety  think  of  another.'^     In   a  previous  commimi- 

cation,  he  says, — 

Oo9porty  April  27,  1798. 

"  Your  kind  letter,  relative  to  our  India  business,  I  received,  and  imme- 
diately communicated  the  contents  to  Mr.  Haldane,  reconmiending  him  to 
postpone  application  to  the  Company  till  they  had  leisure  to  attend  to  it, 
and  till  Mr.  Grant  had  delivered  in  his  remarks  on  the  business.  The 
proposal  met  with  his  approbation,  and  he  expressed  himself  willing  to 
wait  for  a  considerable  time.  I  have  some  hopes  that  he  will  be  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Missionary  Society,  when  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  of 
consulting  personally  on  the  business.  Perhaps  the  state  of  public  afiairs 
may  prevent  the  rulers  both  of  England  and  India  from  attending  to 
such  things  at  present.  Events  succeed  each  other  so  rapidly,  as  to  leave 
us  at  utter  uncertainty  even  to  conjecture  what  God  is  going  to  do." 

In  Mr.  Haldane's  address  already  cited,  we  have  the  final 
account  of  the  termination  of  the  whole  scheme. 

"For  some  time  after  this  (1797,)  I  did  not  lay  aside  my 
endeavours  to  go  out  to  Bengal,  and  in  the  mean  while  was 
busied  in  selling  my  estate,  that  there  might  be  no  delay  on  my 
part,  if  obstructions  from  without  should  be  removed.  I  accord- 
ingly at  length  found  a  purchaser,  and  with  great  satisfaction 
left  a  place,  in  the  beautifying  and  improving  of  which  my  mind 
had  once  been  much  engrossed.  In  that  transaction  I  sincerely 
rejoice  to  this  hour,  although  disappointed  in  getting  out  to  India. 
I  gave  up  a  place  and  a  situation,  which  continually  presented 
objects  calculated  to  excite  and  gratify  '  the  lust  of  the  eye  and 
the  pride  of  life.'  Instead  of  being  engaged  in  such  poor  mat- 
ters, my  time  is  now  more  at  my  command;  and  I  find  my 
power  of  applying  property  usefully,  very  considerably  increased. 


DR.  bogue's  testimony.  121 

I  can  truly  say^  I  experience  the  accomplishment  of  the  gracious 
promise^  that  leaving  house  and  lands  (although  in  a  very 
restricted  sense^)  as  1  trusty  for  the  Gospel's  sake  alone^  and  what 
I  esteemed  my  duty^  I  have  received  manifold^  though^  as  it  is 
added^  'with  persecutions.'  ....  For  my  own  part^  I  am 
satisfied  in  having  made  the  attempt^  although  it  appeared  by  the 
event  clearly  the  will  of  God  that  we  should  not  go  out.  I  have 
not  a  doubt  that  this  was  ordered  for  good^  and  our  being  pre- 
vented, whether  from  unworthiness,  or  from  whatever  other  cause 
which  we  know  not  now,  we  shall  know  hereafter.  I  could  not, 
however,  help  particularly  observing  the  massacre  of  the  Euro- 
peans that  lately  took  place  at  Benares,  where  it  is  probable  we 
should  have  been,  had  we  obtained  our  desire.  With  the  apostle, 
then,  I  would  here  thankfully  exclaim,  '  0  the  depth  of  the 
riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  how  unsearch- 
able are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  finding  out. ' '' 

Such  was  the  termination  of  a  scheme, — of  which  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  commend  and  admire  the  motives,  and  of  which  even 
the  failure  was  calculated  to  excite  additional  interest  on  behalf 
of  millions  of  our  fellow-subjects,  thus  excluded  from  the  soimd 
of  the  Gospel  by  the  self-interested  policy  of  their  commercial 
rulers.  From  this  period  Dr.  Bogue  co-operated  with  Mr.  Hal- 
dane  in  several  important  plans ;  and  although  in  some  things 
they  did  not  always  see  "  eye  to  eye,''  yet  their  mutual  friend- 
ship and  esteem  remained  unshaken  and  unabated  to  the  last.  In 
the  year  1821,  during  his  last  visit  to  England,  Mr.  Haldane, 
after  his  return  from  the  Continent,  visited  Dr.  Bogue  at  Gosport^ 
on  purpose  to  converse  with  him  on  the  great  subjects  connected 
with  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  concerning  which  they  were  both  so 
deeply  interested ;  and  one  of  the  very  last  letters,  written  by  the 
venerable  Pastor  of  Gosport,  a  few  days  before  his  death  in  Oct«^ 
1825,  was  addressed  to  his  old  friend,  with  whom,  for  the  sake  of 
Christ,  he  had  once  designed  to  spend  his  life  in  India.  It  was 
a  letter  introducing  one  of  his  pupils,  to  whom,  in  the  note  with 
which  the  introduction  is  accompanied,  he  says,  '^  Robert  Hal- 
dane's  country  residence  is  between  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh. 
There  is  scarcely  such  a  man  in  the  world.  You  will  find  his 
counsels  very  usefrd.^ 


>9 


CHAPTER  VI. 

INTRODUCTION  TO  MR.  CAMPBELL  AND  MR.  AIKMAN-  STATE 
OF  RELIGION  IN  SCOTLAND  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  EIGHT- 
EENTH  CENTURY  —  J  AMES  HALDANE'S  TOUR  WITH  THE 
REV.  CHARLES  SIMEON  — ^^SIT  TO  REV.  A.  STEWART  OF 
MOULIN— IMPORTANT  RESULTS— ACCIDENT  TO  MR.  SIMEON 
—RETURN  TO  EDINBURGH— LETTER  OF  MR.  SIMEON- 
DEATH  OF  COLONEL  DUNCAN  OFLUNDIE— MR.  J.  HALDANE'S 
FIRST  PLANS  OF  USEFULNESS— DISTRIBUTION  OF  TRACTS 
—SABBATH  SCHOOLS— LAY  PREACHING  AT  GILMERTON— 
TOUR  TO  THE  WEST  OF  SCOTLAND  —  SIXTY  SABBATH- 
SCHOOLS  FOUNDED  —  PREACHING  AT  GILMERTON —DR. 
CHARLES  STUART  — MISS  AIKMAN'S  LETTER  —  APPROVAL 
OF  MR.  SIMEON. 

[1795—7.] 

When  Captain  James  Ilaldane  quitted  the  Alclville  Castle^  he 
would  have  been  greatly  startled  had  he  been  then  informed  that 
he  was  to  become  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  So  far  as  he  had 
any  fixed  plan^  it  was  to  become  a  landed  proprietor^  retire  to  the 
country^  and  lead  a  quiet^  useful^  unambitious  life.  At  one  time 
he  was  in  treaty  for  the  estate  of  Gamkirk^  near  Glasgow^  which 
was  some  years  later  sold  for  several  times  the  amount  for  which 
it  could  then  have  been  purchased,  had  his  wife  approved  of  the 
locality.  Subsequently  he  had^  with  her  consent,  almost  con- 
cluded a  nearly  equally  advantageous  treaty  for  the  estate  of 
Chesterhall,  about  ten  miles  to  the  south  of  Edinburgh,  a  place 
which  has  been  since  purchased  by  the  Earl  of  Stair,  who  has 
pulled  down  the  house  and  included  a  large  portion  of  the  lands 
within  the  splendid  domains  of  Oxcnford  Castle.  But  circumstances 
interfered,  and  he  was  prevented  from  completing  an  an*angement 


MR.    JOHN    CAMPBELL.  123 

which  might  have  hampered  his  future  plans  of  usefulness.  A 
life  of  leisure  was  never  to  be  his,  and  when  he  sketched  out  the 
prospect  of  settling  as  a  country  gentleman,  he  neither  knew 
himself  nor  the  mission  he  was  destined  to  fulfil.  But  whilst 
residing  in  Edinburgh,  and  associating  with  such  men  as  Dr. 
Walter  Buchanan,  Mr.  Black,  Dr.  Erskine,  and  others,  he  soon 
became  interested  in  their  Christian  objects,  and  still  more  in 
those  of  certain  active  and  devoted  laymen  whom  he  met  in  their 
society. 

Amongst  the  latter,  the  foremost  place  is  due  to  Mr.  John 
Aikman  and  Mr.  John  Campbell,  two  men  who  were  afterwards 
his  own  coadjutors  in  the  Gospel,  and  whose  holy  zeal  and  inde- 
fatigable labours  were  continued,  although  in  different  spheres^ 
to  the  termination  of  their  lives.  It  was  with  Mr.  Campbell 
that  the  two  brothers  first  became  acquainted;  and  in  a  letter 
from  Banff,  dated  28th  July,  1797,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  bears  this 
honourable  testimony  to  the  spiritual  benefit  received  from  Mr. 
John  Campbell.  "  There  is  no  one,'^  he  says,  "  more  interested 
in  our  success  than  yourself,  and  none,  I  am  persuaded,  who 
remembers  us  more  at  a  throne  of  grace.  Therefore,  be  assured 
that  when  we  are  long  in  writing  to  you,  it  is  not  owing  to  for- 
getfulness.  For  I  believe  you  are  in  each  of  our  hearts.  You 
ought  to  be  on  mine,  for  there  is  no  one  whose  preaching,  con- 
versation, or  writings  have  been  so  useful  to  me  as  the  hours  we 
have  spent  together.^'  The  man  to  whom  this  testimony  is 
borne  is  entitled  to  peculiar  notice  in  this  Memoir,  and  his  name 
has  been  already  introduced  in  connexion  with  the  Indian  Mis- 
sion. Mr.  Campbell  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  a  good  education 
at  the  High  School,  but  he  was  designed  for  trade,  and  had  a 
large  ironmonger's  shop  then  overlooking  the  Grassmarket  of 
Edinbui^h,  a  spot  which  reminds  the  classical  traveller  of  the 
ancient  Roman  Fonim.  He  was  a  little  man,  active,  with  an 
intelligent,  benevolent  countenance,  and  a  quick  dark  eye,  of  a 
very  practical  turn,  and  a  mind  far  superior  to  his  position. 
Without  pretending  to  commanding  talent  or  much  learning,  he 
had  a  large  stock  of  strong  common  sense  and  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  combined  with  impulsive  zeal,  and  a  heart  over- 


124  MR.    JOHN    CAMPBELL. 

flowing  with  love  to  God  and  man.  Earnest,  single-hearted, 
prayerful,  and  devoted  to  his  Heavenly  Master,  this  indefatigable 
and  laborious  man  was  enabled  to  achieve  more  for  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  and  the  welfare  of  his  fellow-creatures,  than  many  other 
Christians  of  far  loftier  station  and  more  commanding  abilities. 
To  him  belonged  preeminently  the  character  of  a  man  of  God,  a 
simple  yet  sublime  title,  and  one  which  still  lingers  in  the  East, 
even  in  countries  where  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah  has  long  since 
disappeared.  He  was  in  Edinburgh  the  living  model  of  a  City 
Missionary,  a  district  visitor,  a  Scripture  reader,  a  tract  distribu- 
tor, a  Sabbath-school  teacher,  and  a  Sabbath-school  founder,  long 
before  Christians  had  learned  to  unite  themselves  together  m 
societies  to  promote  these  objects.  His  warehouse  was  then  the 
only  repository  in  Edinburgh  for  religious  tracts  and  periodicals, 
and  became  a  sort  of  house  of  call,  or  point  of  reunion,  for  all 
who  took  an  interest  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Campbell  was  afterwards  to  become  a  preacher,  an  author, 
a  minister,  and  a  missionary  traveller,  in  the  unexplored  interior 
of  Africa.  But  at  the  time  of  which  we  speak,  he  was  occupy- 
ing a  post  far  more  laborious,  and,  perhaps,  as  useful.  His 
biographer,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Philip,  has  given  a  striking  and 
onexaggerated  account  of  his  labours  at  Edinburgh,  when  he 
says,  that  '^  besides  the  care  of  his  business,  and  of  the  sick  and 
orphans,  he  carried  on  a  correspondence,  enough  of  itself  to 
waste  the  health  of  any  man  who  had  only  the  night  at  his 
command  for  writing.  The  number  of  his  letters  was  incredible ; 
and  then  they  are  all  upon  exciting  subjects,  and  many  of  them 
to  persons  whose  rank  or  talents  called  for  deliberation.^^  Once 
in  every  week  he  wrote  to  the  venerable  Countess  of  Leven  and 
Melville,  the  friend  of  Whitfield,  and  the  associate  of  the  cele- 
brated Countess  of  Huntingdon.  Mr.  Campbell  was  her 
almoner,  and  whilst  her  purse  enabled  him  to  cheer  many  a 
lonely  pilgrim  in  Edinburgh,  "  his  reports  of  dying  Christians 
and  of  reclaimed  wanderers,  and  of  Evangelical  movements, 
cheered  her  Ladyship  in  Melville  House. '^  With  the  vene- 
rable John  Newton,  the  friend  of  Cowper,  he  maintained  a  close 
personal  intimacy  for  nearly  twenty  years,  whilst  with  Thomas 


MR.  Campbell's  correspondents.  125 

Scott^  the  commentator^  Charles^  of  Bala,  Andrew  Fuller^  and 
Abraham  Booths  he  regularly  corresponded^  as  well  as  with 
many  eminent  laymen  in  London,  such  as  Macaulay,  Hard- 
castle,  Grant,  and  Wilberforce.  His  friendship  and  information 
were  rendered  valuable  by  his  knowledge  of  all  the  public  move- 
ments of  truth  and  philanthropy  in  Scotland.  '^  He  had  thus,'' 
continues  his  biographer,  ^^  to  watch  the  public  mind  in  Edin- 
bui^h,  and  to  considt  with  all  who  led  it,  and  to  mingle  in  all 
the  deUberations  and  efforts  by  which  new  objects  were  brought 
before  it.  And  then  he  transcribed,  for  private  circulation, 
copies  of  whatever  English  or  foreign  letters  he  received,  which 
were  likely  to  multiply  or  confirm  the  friends  of  Evangelization, 
besides  answering  many  a  long  letter  from  the  tried  or  tempted 
on  Christian  experience/'  After  this  description,  it  may  be 
understood  how  it  was  that  the  good  Countess  of  Leven,  in 
writing  to  Mr.  Grant,  the  father  of  Lord  Glenelg,  playfully 
styled  him  "  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world." 

At  the  period  at  which  this  narrative  has  arrived  Mr.  Camp- 
bell was  rejoicing  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel  with  an  assured 
confidence,  which  till  then  he  had  not  before  experienced, 
but  which  never  left  him  to  the  end  of  his  protracted  and 
chequered  course.  For  many  years  he  had  known  and  believed 
the  truth,  but  his  views  of  Christ  had  been  rather  sought  in  the 
reflection  of  the  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  heart 
than  in  the  finished  righteousness  of  Christ,  and  he  had  neither 
peace  nor  joy  in  believing.  It  was  a  subjective  rather  than  an 
objective  faith.  Doubts,  fears,  and  actual  backslidings,  had 
often  shaken  his  hope,  and  driven  him  almost  to  despair,  even 
at  the  time  he  was  esteemed  by  other  Christians  and  regarded 
as  a  pattern.  At  last,  to  use  his  own  earnest  words  in  a  letter 
published  by  Mr.  Newton,  "  The  cloud  which  covered  the 
mercy-seat  fled  away, — Jesus  appeared  as  he  is !  My  eyes 
were  not  turned,  inward,  but  outward.  The  Gospel  was  the 
glass  in  which  I  beheld  him.  In  the  time  of  my  affliction,  the 
doctrine  of  election  appeared  irritating  and  confounding ;  now 
it  appears  truly  glorious  and  truly  humbling.  ...  I  now 
stand  upon  a  shore  of  comparative  rest.     Believing,  I  rejoice. 


126  MR.  JOHN    CAMPBELL. 

When  in  search  of  comfort,  I  resort  to  the  testimony  of  God; 
this  is  the  field  which  contains  the  pearl  of  great  price.  Frames 
and  feelings  are,  like  other  created  comforts,  passing  away. 
What  unutterable  source  of  consolation  is  it  that  the  foundation 
of  our  faith  and  hope  is  ever  immutably  the  same ! — the  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  as  acceptable  and  pleasing  to  the  Father  as  ever  it  was  I 
To  this  sacrifice  I  desire  evq^  to  direct  my  eye,  especially  at  the 
first  approach  of  any  gloom  or  mental  change.^^ 

One  more  extract  from  this  striking  document  which  so 
delighted  Mr.  Newton  must  suffice. 

"  After  my  deliverance,'^  continues  Mr.  Campbell,  "  my 
ideas  of  many  things  were  much  altered,  especially  about  faith. 
I  perceive  that  this  principle  in  the  mind  arises  from  no  exertion 
in  the  man,  but  the  constraint  of  evidence  from  without.  The 
Spirit  takes  the  things  of  Christ,  and  discovers  their  reality  and 
glory  in  such  a  manner  to  the  mind  of  man,  that  it  is  not  in 
his  power  to  refuse  his  belief.  It  is  no  mighty  matter,  nor  is  it 
any  way  meritorious,  to  believe  the  sun  is  shining  when  our 
eyes  are  dazzled  with  its  beams.  The  internal  evidences  of  the 
truth  of  revelation  had  ten  thousand  times  more  effect  upon  my 
mind  than  all  its  external  evidence.  There  is  a  divineness,  a 
glory,  and  excellence  in  the  Scriptures,  perceived  by  enlightened 
minds,  which  they  cannot  so  describe  as  to  make  it  intelligible 
to  an  imregenerate  person.  Formerly  the  major  part  of  my 
thoughts  centred  either  upon  the  darkness  I  felt  or  the  light  I 
enjoyed.  Now  they  are  mainly  directed  to  Jesus,  what  he  hath 
done,  suffered,  and  promised.'' 

It  was  when  Mr.  Campbell  was  thus  exulting  in  the  first  joys 
of  his  spiritual  emancipation  that  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  became 
acquainted  with  him,  and  after  reading  these  extracts,  it  is  more 
easy  to  understand  how  his  experience  was  then  made  useful  to 
the  young  disciple  by  exhibiting  those  refreshing  views  of  the 
Gospel  as  glad  tidings,  proclaiming  freedom  from  the  con- 
demnation of  the  law,  and  showing  that  our  hopes  are  to  be 
fixed  only  on  the  work  which  Christ  has  finished,  although  our 
conduct  is  to  be  regulated  by  what  God  has  commanded.  Mr. 
Campbell  used  in  after-life  to  speak  with  pleasure  of  those  com- 


INTRODUCTION    TO    MR.  AIKMAN.  127 

munings  with  his  new  friend^  and  then  modestly  to  add,  ''  But 
very  soon  he  got  the  start  of  me,  and  left  me  far  behind/' 

It  was  in  Mr.  Campbell's  shop  that  Mr.  James  Haldane  was 
also  first  introduced  to  Mr.  John  Aikman.  Mr.  Campbell,  with 
that  good-humoured  cordiality  and  attractive  drollery  which 
formed  one  of  his  characteristics,  and  to  which  he  was  indebted 
for  much  of  his  popularity,  addressed  Mr.  J.  Haldane  some- 
what to  this  efiect :  *'  You,  Sir,  are  from  the  East  Indies,  and 
my  friend  here  is  from  the  West.  You  belong  to  the  same 
prayer-meeting,  and  should  be  united.^'  The  introduction  was 
mutually  agreeable,  and  the  commencement  of  a  Christian 
friendship  which  no  circumstances  ever  interrupted. 

Mr.  Aikman  was  a  man  of  good  talents  and  education,  who 
was  fond  of  reading,  and  so  well  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
modem  languages,  that  in  after  years  he  was  able  to  preach  in 
French  to  the  prisoners  of  war  at  Fennycuick,  near  Edinburgh. 
He  had  been  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ  by  reading 
Newton's  *^  Cardiphonia ;  or.  Utterance  of  the  Heart,''  which 
he  purchased  at  a  book-stall  in  London,  under  the  supposition 
that  it  was  a  novel,  and  would  do  for  a  circulating  library  he 
was  then  establishing  in  Jamaica.  He  relinquished  a  lucrative 
business  in  that  island  from  reluctance  to  be  associated  with 
traffic  on  the  Lord's-day ;  and  having  arranged  with  his  partner, 
returned  to  Scotland  with  a  moderate  competence.  At  the 
time  of  which  we  are  now  speaking  he  was  studying  at  the 
College,  and  attending  the  Divinity  lectures,  with  a  view  to  the 
ministry.  He  had  neither  the  energy  nor  the  physical  strength 
of  his  new  friend,  and  his  health  had  suffered  from  residence  in 
a  tropical  climate.  But  added  to  very  agreeable  social  qualities, 
and  general  information,  there  was  in  him  that  warmth  of  piety, 
that  constraining  love  to  Christ,  that  earnest  zeal  to  advance  his 
kingdom,  which  prompted  him  to  efforts  even  beyond  his  power, 
and  soon  won  the  heart  of  James  Haldane. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  descant  on  the  low  and  melancholy 
state  of  religion  at  that  time  in  Scotland.  But  some  reference 
to  it  is  necessary  to  this  narrative.  It  has  been  called  ^^the 
midnight  of  the  Church  of  Scotland;"  and  although  here  and 


128  LOW    STATE    OF    RELIGION    IN    SCOTLAND. 

there  might  be  seen  a  burning  and  a  shining  lights  as  in  Stirling 
and  its  neighbourhood^  yet  it  served  only  to  make  the  gloom 
more  visible.  It  was  a  darkness  that  might  be  felt^  and  the 
infidehty  of  David  Hume^  Adam  Smith;  and  their  coadjutors^ 
first  infecting  the  Universities  and  seats  of  learnings  had 
gradually  insinuated  its  poison  into  the  ministrations  of  the 
Church.  Some  had  altogether  thrown  off  the  mask^  like  the 
eminent  and  scientific  Professor  Flayfair^  under  whose  ministry 
James  Haldane  himself  had  sat  as  a  boy  when  living  at  Lundie 
House.  He  would  sometimes  smile  at  the  recollection  of  the  bow 
from  the  pulpit,  which,  according  to  the  ancient  usage  of  feudal 
times,  was  then  directed  at  the  close  of  the  service  to  the  pew  of 
the  chief  heritor  in  the  parish  church,  even  when  the  youthful 
occupier  happened  to  sit  alone.  Others,  with  more  of  incon- 
sistency, exhibited  the  same  infidelity  as  the  amiable  Professor 
Playfair,  whilst  they  still  ate  the  bread  of  orthodoxy,  and  in 
practice  trampled  on  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  the  Church. 
Dr.  M^Gill,  of  Ayr,  had  published  a  Socinian  work,  of  which  the 
Bev.  John  Newton  declared  tjiat  it  alarmed  him  "  more  than  all 
the  volumes  of  Priestly;^'  yet  even  he  was  absolved  by  the 
Assembly.  Dr.  Robertson,  the  friend  of  Hume  and  Adam 
Smith,  was  not  without  reason  more  than  half  suspected,  whilst 
Dr.  Blair's  moral  sermons  had  shown  how,  in  Scotland  as  well 
as  in  England,  the  professed  ministers  of  Christ  could  become, 
in  the  words  of  Bishop  Horsley,  httle  better  than  "  the  apes  of 
Epictetus.'^ 

The  following  extract  may  serve  to  show  a  state  of  things 
which  modem  historians  sometimes  try  to  ignore,  although  it 
proves  the  need  that  existed  for  a  voice  to  rouse  the  people  from 
the  sleep  of  death.  It  is  taken  from  the  "  Autobiography  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton,  of  Strathblane,"  the  father  of  the  well- 
known  and  esteemed  minister  of  the  Scotch  Church,  Regent- 
square,  London : — 

"  Principal  Hill  and  Dr.  Finlayson/*  says  Dr.  Hamilton,  "  ruled  the 
Assemblies,  and  the  parishes  were  occupied  by  the  pupils  of  such  divines 
as  Simpson,  Leechman,  Baillie,  and  Wight  Many  of  them  were  genuine 
Socinians.    Many  of  them  were  ignorant  of  theology  as  a  system,  and 


DR.  Hamilton's  testimony.  129 

utterly  careless  about  the  merits  of  any  creed  or  confession.  They  seemed 
miserable  in  the  discharge  of  every  ministerial  duty.  They  eagerly  seized 
on  the  services  of  any  stray  preacher  who  came  within  their  reach.  When 
they  preached,  their  sermons  generally  turned  on  honesty,  good  neigh- 
bourhood, and  kindness.  To  deliver  a  Gospel  sermon  or  preach  to  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  dying  sinners,  was  as  completely  beyond  their 
power  as  to  speak  in  the  language  of  angels.  And  while  their  discourses 
were  destitute  of  everything  which  a  dying  sinner  needs,  they  were  at  the 
same  time  the  most  feeble,  empty,  and  insipid  things  that  ever  disgraced 
the  venerated  name  of  sermons.  The  coldness  and  indifference  of  the 
minister,  while  they  proclaimed  his  own  aversion  to  his  employment, 
were  seldom  lost  on  the  people.  The  congregations  rarely  amounted  to  a 
tenth  of  the  parishioners,  and  the  one-half  of  this  small  number  were 
generally,  during  the  half-hour's  soporific  harangue,  fast  asleep.  They 
were  free  from  h^^pocrisy.  They  had  no  more  religion  in  private  than  in 
public.  They  were  loud  and  obstreperous  in  declaiming  against  enthu- 
siasm and  fanaticism,  faith  and  religious  zeal.  Their  family  worship  was 
often  confined  to  the  Sabbath,  or,  if  observed  through  the  week,  rarely 
extended  to  more  than  a  prayer  of  five  or  three  minutes.  But  though 
frightfully  impatient  of  everything  which  bore  the  semblance  of  serious- 
ness and  sober  reflection,  the  elevation  of  brow,  the  expansion  of  feature, 
the  glistening  of  the  eye,  the  fluency  and  warmth  of  speech  at  convivial 
parties,  showed  that  their  heart  and  soul  were  there,  and  that  the  pleasures 
of  the  table  and  the  hilarity  of  the  light-hearted  and  gay,  constituted 
their  paradise  and  furnished  them  with  the  perfection  of  their  joy." 

This  is  the  testimony^  not  of  a  foe  to  the  Church  of  Scotland^ 
but  of  a  friend ;  of  a  faithful  minister^  who  lived  and  died  in  its 
communion.  If  we  were  disposed  to  add  further  corroborative 
evidence  to  the  truth  of  his  melancholy  picture^  it  would  be 
found  in  the  graphic  sketch  which  has  been  drawn  of  the 
dominant  party  by  the  brilliant  pen  of  Mr.  Ilugh  Millar^  in  his 
masterly  review  of  the  almost  Infidel  debate  in  'the  General 
Assembly^  on  the  subject  of  Christian  Missions.  It  furnishes^ 
as  he  remarks^  a  better  illustration  of  the  true  character  of 
Moderatism  than  the  reader  will  be  able  to  find  for  himself 
almost  anywhere  else.  Dr.  John  Erskine^  of  Edinburgh^  was 
for  many  years  the  revered  leader  of  the  evangehcal  party  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland^  and  is  thus  described  by  Bishop  Hurd^ — 
"  Erskine^  next  to  Warburton,  is  the  deepest  divine  I  have  yet 
known/'     But  Mr.  Millar's  noble  portrait  of  this  venerable  man 

K 


130  DR.    ERSKINE. 

might  have  acquired  some  fresh  touches  of  interest  had  the 
report  from  which  he  draws  his  materials  enabled  him  to  state 
the  precise  point  in  the  speech  of  the  minister  of  Gladsmuir 
which  called  forth  the  crushing  reply  of  Dr.  Erskine. 

The  overture  under  debate  and  the  Resolution  so  vehemently 
opposed  amounted  to  this^  '*  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to 
carry  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  world/^  After  describing  the 
character  of  Dr.  Erskine  and  some  others^  Mr.  Millar  thus 
proceeds : — "  ^  The  bruit  goeth  shrewdly/  said  De  Bracy  to  his 
companion  in  arms^  the  Templar^  ^  that  the  most  holy  order  of 
the  Temple  of  Zion  nurseth  not  a  few  Infidels  within  its  bosom.' 
Hume^  intending  on  one  occasion  to  be  very  complimentary^ 
said  nearly  the  same  thing  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Was 
the  compliment  deserved  ?  And  if  so^  what  peculiar  aspect  did 
the  Infidelity  of  the  Scottish  clergy  assume  ?  Was  it  gentle- 
manly and  philosophic^  like  that  of  Ilume  himself?  or  highly 
seasoned  with  wit^  like  that  of  Voltaire  ?  or  dignified  and 
pompous^  like  that  of  Gibbon  ?  or  romantic  and  chivalrous^  like 
that  of  Lord  Herbert,  of  Cherbury?  or  stupid  in  ruffianism, 
like  that  of  Paine  ?  or  redolent  of  nonsense,  like  that  of  Robert 
Owen  ?  or  was  it  not  rather  of  mark  enough  to  have  a  character 
of  its  own, — an  InfidcUty  that  purported  to  be  Antichristian  on 
Bible  authority, — ^that,  at  least,  when  it  robed  itself  in  the 
habiliments  of  unbelief,  took  the  liberty  of  lacing  them  with 
Scripture  edgings?  May  I  crave  the  attention  of  the  reader, 
instead  of  directly  answering  any  of  these  queries,  to  the  facts 
and  reasonings  employed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hamilton,  of  Glads- 
muir." 

Copious  'extracts  are  then  given  from  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Hamilton,  who  was  rewarded  for  his  services  with  the  office  of 
Moderator !  He  argued,  with  a  glozing  of  a£fectation  of 
reverence  for  the  Word  of  God,  "  that  the  gracious  declarations 
of  Scripture  ought  to  Uberate  from  groundless  anxiety  the 
minds  of  those  who  stated  in  such  moving  language  the  condi- 
tion of  the  heathen.^'  He  went  further,  and  ventured  even  to 
borrow  the  Infidehty  of  Rousseau,  and  more  than  insinuated  that, 
in  communicating  Christianity  to  the  Indian  or  Otaheitan,  we 


DR.    ERSKINE.  131 

should  only  introduce  the  vices  of  European  nations^  whilst  the 
influence  of  our  religion  would  not  refine  his  morals  or  ensure 
his  happiness.  Mf.  Hamilton  concluded^  ^^Upon  the  whole^ 
whilst  we  pray  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  and  patiently 
await  its  period^  let  us  unite  in  resolutely  rejecting  these  over- 
tures." But  there  was  one  point  which  this  "  Moderate  "  had 
especially  laboured^  and  it  was  to  show  the  absurdity  of  making 
revelation  precede  civilization.  "  Men/'  he  said,  "  must  be 
polished  and  refined  in  their  manners  before  they  can  be 
properly  enlightened  in  religious  truths.^'  And,  as  he  drew  to 
the  close  of  his  flowery  harangue,  he  demanded,  with  an  air  of 
triumph,  where  did  we  find  the  great  Apostle  of  the  (Jentiles  ? 
Was  it  amongst  barbarians,  such  as  those  to  whom  it  was  now 
proposed  to  carry  the  Gospel?  or  was  it  not  rather  in  the 
polished  cities  of  Corinth,  of  Athens,  and  of  Rome  ?  It  was 
when  this  orator  sat  down  that  Dr.  Erskine  rose,  with  a  dignity 
worthy  of  the  descendant  of  Lord  Cardross, — a  dignity  to  which 
his  character,  his  learning,  and  his  age,  added  weight, — and,  in 
a  calm,  firm,  energetic  tone,  uttered  those  crushing  words  which 
thrilled  through  the  Assembly, — ''  Moderator,  rax  me  that 
Bible''  (Beach  me  that  Bible).  There  was  something  before 
which  even  his  opponents  quailed  in  the  appeal  thus  made  to 
the  silent  witness  for  God's  truth,  which  still  lay  upon  the 
table.  The  Bible  was  handed  to  him,  and  the  Assembly  seemed 
awed  and  electrified,  and  a  death-like  silence  reigned  whilst  the 
aged  man  of  Qod  turned  up  the  sacred  volume  and  read,  in  a 
distinct  and  audible  voice,  the  account  of  Paul's  reception  at 
Melita,  when  "  the  barbarous  people  showed  us  no  httle  kind- 
ness." "  Do  you  think,"  said  Dr.  Erskine,  ''  that  when  Paul 
wrought  his  miracles  at  Malta,  and  was  supposed  to  be  a  god, 
he  did  not  also  preach  Christ  to  the  barbarians,  and  explain  who 
it  was  through  whose  Name  such  power  was  given  unto  men  ?  " 
The  rest  of  his  speech  was  equally  effective ;  but  if  the  Mode- 
rates felt  abashed  by  the  discomfiture  of  their  champion,  they 
consoled  themselves  with  the  strength  of  the  majority,  by 
which  they  rejected  the  appeal  on  behalf  of  Missions  to  the 
Heathen. 

K  2 


132  DEBATE   ON    MISSIONS. 

It  may  be  imagined  with  what  feelings  this  debate  was 
listened  to,  by  him  from  whose  lips  these  reminiscences  were 
derived.  But  there  was  one  favourite  argument  of  the  Mode- 
rates which  sunk  into  his  hearty  and  to  which  his  future  life 
returned  a  conclusive  answer.  They  tauntingly  asked^  why  not 
look  at  home  ?  Why  send  missionaries  to  foreign  parts,  when 
there  is  so  much  ignorance,  unbelief,  and  immorality,  at  your 
own  doors?  He  felt  the  force  of  the  appeal;  and  when  he 
afterwards  himself  carried  the  Gospel  into  the  parishes  of 
Inveresk,  or  Gladsmuir,  or  Messelburgh,  or  preached  at  the 
Cross  o(  Ayr,  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  M'Gill  himself,  or  in  the 
College  Close  of  Aberdeen,  or  in  the  town  of  Thurso,  he  could 
not  forget  the  exhortations  of  the  Moderate  ministers  in  the 
General  Assembly,  when  they  resisted  foreign  missions  by 
insincerely  talking  of  the  necessities  of  their  own  people. 

Other,  although  less  public  proofs,  of  the  degraded  state  of 
the  dominant  party  in  the  Church  might  be  mentioned,  particu- 
larly a  Presbytery  dinner  to  which  Mr.  J.  H.  was  invited  in 
Edinburgh,  upon  a  special  occasion,  and  to  which  he  had  gone, 
hoping  for  useful,  perhaps  spiritual,  or,  at  least,  rational  con- 
versation on  those  topics  in  which  he  was  now  chiefly  interested. 
Instead  of  this  the  company  were  treated  to  Bacchanalian  songs^ 
the  folly  of  which  was  aggravated  into  something  approaching 
to  wickedness  by  an  admixture  of  ridiculous,  if  not  profane, 
allusions  to  their  own  sacred  calling  and  functions.  The  burden 
of  one  song  was  the  prescription  of  "  a  bumper  of  Nottingham 
ale,^^  in  the  pulpit  at  the  different  stages  of  a  Presbyterian 
discourse.  If,  in  the  hey-day  of  youth  and  folly,  while  God 
was  not  in  all  his  thoughts,  he  had  been  disposed  to  turn  away 
from  the  convivial  excesses  of  his  associates  at  sea,  how  was  he 
^likely  now  to  appreciate  such  approaches  to  the  same  intem- 
perance, in  connexion  with  eternal  realities,  amongst  the  pro- 
fessed heralds  of  the  Cross,  whose  duty  it  was  to  warn  men  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  ? 

Shortly  after  the  debate  on  Missions  and  the  exhibition  of 
what  Bishop  Warburton,  in  writing  to  Dr.  Erskine,  termed^ 
f ^  Paganized  Christianity,^^  the  visit  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon^ 


MR.  Simeon's  visit.  183 

of  Cambridge^  communicated  to  Mr.  Haldane  another  and  holier 
impnlse.  At  the  close  of  the  Assembly  of  1796,  Mr.  Simeon, 
invited  by  Dr.  Walter  Buchanan^  arrived  in  Edinburgh.  It  was 
his  wish  to  make  a  short  tour  of  pleasure  in  the  Highlands^  and 
it  was  arranged  that  he  should  meet  Mr.  James  Haldane  at 
Airthrey,  and  proceed  by  Balgonie,  Melville  House,  Perth, 
Dunkeld,  Blair  Athol,  to  Glasgow.  He  went  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Innes,  in  Stirling,  and,  as  it  was 
the  sacramental  week,  he  attended  the  preparatory  services  on 
the  Saturday,  and  himself  communicated  on  the  Lord's-day. 
At  Airthrey  he  found  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Haldane  expecting 
him,  their  brother  being  himself  in  London,  privately  and 
quietly  engaged  about  his  Indian  Mission.  Mr.  Simeon's  visit 
to  Airthrey,  although  only  for  a  few  days,  was  not  without 
firuit,  as  it  was  marked  by  the  blessing  which  it  brought  to  a 
young  lady,  to  whom,  after  listening  to  her  music,  he  spoke  on 
the  importance  of  consecrating  this  and  every  other  gift  to  the 
glory  of  God. 

It  was  on  that  occasion  that  Mr.  Simeon  took  part,  for  the 
first  time,  in  the  Scotch  Church,  as  a  communicant  at  the 
Lord's-table,  thus  marking  the  Catholic  spirit  by  which  he  was 
animated ;  but,  after  all,  only  following  the  example  of  the  great 
Archbishop  Usher  and  other  distinguished  ornaments  of  the 
English  Church.  The  celebrated  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan  men- 
tions in  his  diary,  that  he  spent  his  last  Lord's-day  in  England, 
with  Dr.  Bogue,  at  Gosport,  and  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
with  his  Church  at  Gosport.  Mr.  Simeon  was,  however, 
fatigued  by  the  extreme  and  injudicious  length  of  the  services ; 
and,  in  his  journal,  bitterly  complains  of  the  preparatory  service 
on  Saturday,  which  lasted  four  hours  and  a-half.  The  first 
preacher,  Mr.  Robertson,  discoursed  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter. 
He  was  followed  by  Dr.  Campbell,  whose  ^'  sermon  was  admir- 
able," but  lasted  an  hour  and  a-half.  "  Had  I,"  says  Mr. 
Simeon,  "  been  fresh  and  lively,  I  should  greatly  have  enjoyed 
this  excellent  sermon,  but  I  had  no  ears  to  hear;  the  length  of 
the  service  wearied  me  exceedingly.  Nor  was  I  singular:  the 
whole  congregation  were  much  like  myself;  many  were  asleep, 


134  A    SCOTTISH    SACRAMENT. 

and  all  the  rest  had  a  stupid^  unmeaning  stare^  that  evidenced 
them  to  be  altogether  unmoved  by  the  precious  things  that  were 
spoken.  After  Mr.  C.  had  finished,  Mr.  Shireff,  the  minister  of 
St.  Ninian's,  went  up  and  (as  they  call  it)  gave  directions 
respecting  the  time  and  manner  of  administering  the  sacrament 
next  day.  To  this  he  added  a  word  of  exhortation.^'  In  talking 
of  it  at  Airthrey,  Mr.  Simeon  said,  that  Dr.  Campbell's  and 
Mr.  ShireflPs  sermon  and  exhortation  seemed  as  if  turtle  and 
venison  had  been  served  after  he  had  dined  well  on  roast-beef 
and  plum-pudding.     Mr.  Simeon's  journal  proceeds : — 

'^  Sunday,  19/A. — Went  with  Messrs.  Innes  and  Campbell  to 
St.  Ninian's.  Mr.  Shireff  began  the  service,  and  preached  a 
useful  sermon  from  Hebrews  x.  10.  After  preaching  above  an 
hour,  besides  prayer  and  singing,  he  left  the  pulpit,  and  went 
to  the  head  of  the  tables.  There  he  gave  an  exhortation  respect- 
ing the  sacrament,  which  tx)  me  was  more  excellent  than  his 
sermon.  *  *  *  I  conununicated  at  the  second  table,  where 
Mr.  Campbell  exhorted.  His  exhortation  was  exceedingly  pre- 
cious to  my  soul.  I  was  quite  dissolved  in  tears.  I  made  a 
full,  free,  and  unreserved  surrender  of  myself  to  Grod.  Oh,  that 
I  may  ever  bear  in  mind  His  kindness  to  me,  and  my  obligations 
to  Him  I  After  communicating  I  left  them,  and  saw,  as  I  came 
into  the  church-yard,  one  preaching  there  in  a  tent.  I  walked 
home  (three  miles  to  Airthrey)  alone  by  choice,  and  met  num- 
bers coming  to  the  sacrament,  which,  as  I  understood,  lasted 
till  about  eight  in  the  evening.  They  had  about  a  thousand 
communicants,  a  fresh  exhortation  to  each  table,  and  a  sermon 
to  conclude.  They  who  could  stay  there  from  beginning  to  end, 
with  any  profit  to  their  souls,  must  be  made  of  difierent  mate- 
rials from  me." 

It  had  been  determined  that  the  tourists  should  proceed  on 
horseback,  and  Mr.  Simeon,  in  an  entry  in  his  journal,  soon  after 
his  arrival  in  Edinburgh,  exclaims :  "  Everything  that  I  could 
wish,  and  much  more  than  I  could  have  expected,  has  taken  place. 
On  Thursday,  Sir  John  Stirling  oflfered  me  his  own  mare  for  my 
northern  tour,  and  this  day  Mr.  (James)  Haldane  has  offered  to 
accompany  me."   It  seems,  however,  that  Sir  John  Stirling's  offer. 


LORD  BALGONIE  AND  LORD  LEVEN.       135 

fen*  some  reason,  was  ultimately  declined,  for  he  bought  a  horse  at 
Stirling,  which,  from  its  colour,  was  playfully  named  Dun  Scotus^ 
but  which  did  no  great  credit  to  his  country,  as  appears  from 
one  of  his  letters,  written  some  months  after  his  return  to  Cam- 
bridge. "  Dun  Scotus,''  he  says,  "  fell  lame  seventy  miles  from 
home,  but  brought  me  home  safely.  I  kept  him  two  months, 
with  a  farrier  to  attend  him  most  of  the  time,  and  then  sold 
him  for  nine  guineas,  so  that  I  was  not  any  great  gainer  by 
him/'  Mr.  J.  Haldane  was  better  mounted,  and  attended  by 
one  of  his  brother's  servants,  carrying  the  saddle-bags  of  both 
the  travellers,  after  the  fashion  of  the  times:  thus  equipped, 
they  left  Airthrey  on  the  20th  June.  They  proceeded  down  the 
valley  of  the  Forth,  by  the  road  which  beautifully  winds  along 
the  southern  base  of  the  Ochil  hills,  by  Alloa  and  Dollar,  to 
Balgonie,  in  Fife,  where  they  were  hospitably  received  by  Ix>rd 
Balgonie  and  his  Lady,  the  daughter  of  that  Mr.  Thornton 
''  about  whose  head,"  as  the  great  Scottish  missionary.  Dr.  Duff, 
has  eloquently  said,  ^^  the  poet  Cowper  has  woven  a  garland  of 
imperishable  renown."  On  the  following  day.  Lord  Balgonie 
himself  rode  with  them  to  Melville  House,  the  scat  of  his  father, 
the  Earl  of  Leven  and  Melville,  under  whose  roof  they  found 
"  something  infinitely  better  than  mere  worldly  pomp  and  gran- 
deur." They  then  proceeded  by  St.  Andrew's  across  the  Tay  to 
St.  Madoe's,  and  thence  to  Perth  and  Dunkeld.  From  this 
beautiful  place,  which  Mr.  Robert  Haldane  used,  in  the  words  of 
the  Psalmist,  to  call  "  the  city  of  the  wood,"  they  proceeded  on 
the  Saturday  to  Blair  Athol,  returning  the  same  evening  to 
Moulin,  where  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stewart,  afterwards  of  Dingwall, 
and  then  of  Edinburgh,  at  that  time  ministered.  The  results  of 
this  visit  were  very  memorable.  Mr.  Stewart  had  been  previ- 
ously earnest  about  his  work  from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  in  himself 
coldly  orthodox;  and  like  Luther,  before  he  knew  the  glad 
tidings  of  the  Gospel  of  justification  by  the  finished  work  of 
Christ,  groaning  under  a  spirit  of  bondage  and  of  fear.  They 
reached  Moulin  on  the  Saturday  morning  preparatory  to  the 
Sacrament,  and  remained  over  the  first  service,  which  was  by  no 
means  edifying.     The  next  service  was  to  be  in  Gaelic,  and  on 


136  ME.  STEWART,    OF    MOULIN. 

this  account  they  proceeded  to  Blair.  At  Blair  there  was  no 
room  in  the  Inn,  so  that  they  were  glad  to  avail  themselves  of 
Mr.  Stewart^s  kindness,  and  return  in  the  evening  to  his  hos- 
pitable manse.  It  was  the  occasion  of  revival  to  Mr.  Stewart^s 
soul ;  rather,  as  he  himself  says,  "  It  was  no  revival ;  I  never 
was  alive  till  then.^'  But  his  own  letter  to  Mr.  Black,  written 
immediately  afterwards,  will  best  tell  its  interesting  tale. 

'*  What  thanks  do  I  not  owe  you  for  having  directed  my  two  late 
visitorB  to  call  at  my  cottage,  as  I  have  thus  had  the  honour  and  blessing 
of  entertaining  angels  unexpectedly.  Messengers  of  grace  I  must  reckon 
them,  as  their  visit  has  been  thus  far  blessed  to  me,  more  than  any  out- 
ward dispensation  of  Providence  that  I  have  met  with.  They  were  so 
kind  as  to  put  up  with  such  accommodation  as  we  could  afford  them,  though 
our  house  was  a  good  deal  out  of  order  on  account  of  Mrs.  Stewart's  ill- 
ness, and  spent  two  nights  with  us.  I^Ir.  Simeon  gave  us  his  friendly 
assistance  on  occasion  of  dispensing  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  frankly 
preached  two  discourses  on  the  Sabbath,  besides  serving  a  table  in 
English.  This  was  the  whole  of  the  English  service  for  that  day.  His 
sermons,  and  the  conversation  and  prayers,  I  have  no  doubt,  of  both 
gentlemen,  have  indeed  been  eminently  blessed  to  me.  Since  I  first 
entered  on  my  sacred  office,  I  have  not  felt  such  a  lively  season  as  the  last 
week  has  been.  I  had  some  private  conversation,  too,  with  my  kind 
friend,  Mr.  Haldane,  which  proved  not  a  little  edifying  to  me.  I  shall 
not  fail  to  return  his  visit  when  I  go  next  to  Edinburgh.  "When  I  have 
such  friends  as  him  and  you  to  see,  with  the  prospect  of  being  introduced 
perhaps  to  Dr.  Buchanan,  possibly  to  Dr.  Davidson  and  C,  I  shall  think 
it  will  be  incumbent  on  me  to  make  my  visits  to  Edinburgh  more  frequent 
than  they  have  been  hitherto.  And  I  am  sure  I  shall  have  vastly  more 
enjoyment  in  collecting  spiritual  knowledge,  and  deriving  vigour  and 
animation  from  the  Fountain  of  life,  through  the  conversation  and  counsel 
of  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  than  ever  I  found,  or  can  find,  in  the  conver- 
sations of  all  the  HtteraiioT  metaphysicians  that  your  University  contains." 

In  another  letter,  addressed  to  Mr.  Simeon,  and  dated  Novem- 
ber 25,  1796,  Mr.  Stewart  begins  :  "Ever  since  the  few  happy 
hours  in  which  I  was  blessed  with  your  company,  I  have  daily 
thought,  with  pleasure  and  gratitude,  of  the  Lord^s  loving-kind- 
ness to  me,  in  sending  two  of  his  chosen  servants,  so  imexpectedly 
and  so  seasonably,  to  speak  to  me  the  words  of  life.'' 

In  another  letter,  he  speaks  of  the  impression  produced  by 
''the  short  interview'*  in  Mr.  Simeon's  bed-room.     This  alludes 


EEVIVAL   AT   MOULIN.  137 

to  the  muiner  in  which  his  pious  guest  wished  '^  good  night'^  to 
his  kind  host,  when  the  latter  conducted  him  to  his  apartment. 
In  doing  so>  Mr.  Simeon  briefly  expressed  his  prayer  that  Mr. 
Stewart  might  be  fitted  for  the  important  and  responsible  charge 
which  he  held  as  a  minister  of  Christ.  But  the  words  were  with 
power,  and  Mr.  Stewart,  under  the  influence  of  emotions  pro- 
duced by  that  memorable  ^'  good  night/'  having  next  gone  to 
Mr.  James  Haldane,  and  also  conducted  him  to  his  room,  they 
sat  down  together,  and  talked  much  and  long  concerning  that 
Gospel  which  had  been  so  recently  revealed  in  all  its  glory  and 
its  grace  to  Mr.  Simeon's  fellow-traveller.  The  next  morning 
was  the  Sacramental  Sabbath,  and  Mr.  Simeon  himself  not  only 
communicated,  but  served  one  of  the  tables.  The  novelty  of  his 
position  as  an  English  clergyman  made  him,  however,  rather 
nervous,  and  occasioned  some  slight  blunders. 

In  Mr.  Simeon's  interesting  letter  to  Mr.  Stewart,  published 
in  his  Life  by  Rev.  W.  Cams,  there  are  one  or  two  little  matters 
of  detail  which  are  inaccurate,  but  which  are  only  worthy  of 
notice  as  showing  how  difficult  it  is  to  secure  minute  certainty 
in  the  relation  of  facts.  The  reason  of  their  leaving  Moulin 
upon  the  Saturday  was  their  ignorance  of  GaeUc,  and  the  reason 
of  their  return  was  simply  the  want  of  accommodation  at  Blair. 
Still,  in  any  case,  the  circumstances  were  such  as  fully  to  warrant 
Mr.  Simeon  in  saying,  "  It  has  often  brought  to  my  mind  that 
expression  of  the  evangelist,  ^  He  must  needs  go  through 
Samaria.'  ...  It  is  our  privilege  to  expect  those  invisible 
interpositions,  if  we  commit  our  way  to  Him ;  and  every  instance 
that  comes  to  our  notice  should  encourage  us  to  acknowledge 
Him  in  all  our  ways." 

It  is  only  proper  to  add,  that  Mr.  Stewart's  conversion  was 
followed  by  a  remarkable  revival  in  his  parish  and  neighbour- 
hood, and  that  he  gave  so  much  countenance  to  itinerant 
preaching  that  his  biographer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Sievewright,  from 
fear  of  giving  offence,  actually  deemed  it  prudent,  more  than 
twenty  years  afterward,  to  veil  Mr.  James  Haldane's  name  under 
the  initial  H.,  although  the  biographer  was  recording  letters  in 


138  ACCIDENT   TO    MB.   SIMEON. 

which  Mr.  Stewart  himself  expressly  names  him  as  a  '^  messenger 
of  grace''  to  his  soul. 

On  the  following  Monday  they  proceeded  to  Taymouth,  a 
place  with  which  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  was  well  acquainted^  having 
in  his  youth  resided  there  as  a  guest  at  the  Castle^  and  gathered 
many  interesting  and  fresh  reminiscences  of  the  pious  Vis- 
countess Glenorchy,  whose  husband  did  not  live  to  attain  the 
Earldom.  Whilst  halting  their  horses  at  Killiecrankic,  to  view 
that  magnificent  and  rocky  defile^  where^  amidst  shouts  of 
victory,  the  Viscount  Dundee  passed  from  the  battle-field  to  the 
tribunal  of  God,  Mr.  Simeon's  horse  was  seized  with  a  fit  and 
came  to  the  ground,  throwing  his  rider  nearly  to  the  edge  of 
the  precipice.  On  recovering  himself,  and  after  a  time  remount- 
ing, instead  of  being  ruffled  by  the  occurrence,  he  spoke  in  the 
most  striking  and  beautiful  manner  of  the  sudden  transition  he 
had  nearly  experienced.  They  had  been  speaking  a  little  while 
before  of  the  things  of  heaven,  and  he  remarked  how  wonderfid 
it  woidd  have  been  to  have  been  transported  in  a  moment, 
beyond  the  boimds  of  time  and  space,  to  that  place  of  which 
they  had  been  discoursing,  and  so  leaving  this  world  of  trouble 
and  sin,  to  have  joined  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the 
first-bom,  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven. 

From  Taymouth  they  rode  to  Inverary,  and  thence  to  Arro- 
quhar  and  Luss,  whence,  after  three  hours'  walking,  they  reached 
the  summit  of  the  lofty  Benlomond.  "There,"  says  Mr. 
Simeon,  '^amidst  mountain  scenery,  inexpressibly  majestic,  we 
went  to  prayer  together,  and  dedicated  ourselves  afresh  to 
God."  Nineteen  years  later,  Mr.  Simeon,  for  the  third  time, 
visited  Scotland,  and  once  more  he  ascended  Benlomond, 
although  not  ^ith  Mr.  Haldane,  and  with  feelings  of  sacred 
and  solemn  delight,  recalled  the  fond  recollection  of  that  act 
of  dedication  in  which  his  companion  and  himself,  the  one  in 
his  twenty-eighth,  and  the  other  in  his  thirty-eighth  year,  had 
devoted  themselves  to  the  service  of  the  Lord. 

On  the  following  Lord's-day,  Mr.  Simeon  preached  twice  at 
Glasgow ;  and,  after  visiting  Mr.  Dale's  establishment,  at  New 


MR.  Simeon's  return  to  Cambridge.        139 

Lanark  and  other  places,  particularly  the  residence  of  Sir  John 
Stirling^  they  arrived  at  Edinburgh  on  the  following  Saturday, 
"crowned  with  loving-kindness  and  mercy/'  and  in  time  for 
the  sacrament  in  the  Canongate,  at  which  he  was  next  day  a 
communicant.  He  preached  in  the  evening  at  Lady  Glenorchy's 
church,  to  three  thousand  people.  He  adds,  ^'Mr.  Haldanc 
gave  me  a  parting  prayer.^'  Next  day  he  says :  "After  sermon 
this  morning,  my  dear  friend,  Mr.  Haldane,  left  me,  after 
having  been  my  companion  three  weeks.  We  were  mutually 
affected  ^ith  fervent  love  to  each  other,  and  with  thankfulness 
that  we  had  been  permitted  so  to  meet  together.'' 

Mr.  Simeon  arrived  at  Cambridge  on  the  30th  of  July,  but 
not  without  incurring  the  risk  of  another  fall  with  Dun  Scotus, 
such  as  he  experienced  at  Killiecrankie.  He  was  fond  of  riding 
on  horseback,  but  in  these  days  of  railways,  it  is  curious  to 
look  back  to  the  customs  of  a  period,  little  more  than  half  a 
century  ago,  when  a  clergyman  and  a  college-fellow  reckoned 
the  purchase  of  a  horse  at  Stirling,  to  be  the  most  satisfactory 
method  not  only  of  accomplishing  a  Highland  tour,  but  of 
returning  from  Edinburgh  to  Cambridge. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to 
his  friend : — 

"  King*8  ColL,  Cambridge, 

Aug.  IVh,  1796. 

"  My  dearest  Fbiend  and  Brother, — Though  I  have  been  arrived  at 
home  no  less  than  ten  days,  I  am  far  from  having  got  through  all  the  business 
which  so  long  an  absence  has  entailed  upon  me :  I  cannot,  however,  any 
longer  delay  the  just  expressions  of  my  gratitude  to  you,  lest  I  should  appear 
to  be  unmindful  of  the  many  obligations  which  you  have  conferred  upon  me, 
and  of  the  happiness  I  enjoyed  in  your  company  and  conversation.  I  was 
called  away  from  Edinburgh  somewhat  sooner  than  I  had  fixed  for  my  depar- 
ture from  it ;  and  excepting  one  more  such  little  accident  as  I  experienced 
in  your  presence,  near  Moulin,  I  was  brought  in  safety  and  comfort  to  the 
end  of  my  journey.  But  I  greatly  missed  my  fellow-traveller.  Now 
and  then  my  mind  was  enabled  to  soar  a  little ;  but  having  no  oppor- 
tunity of  communicating  its  ideas,  it  grew  torpid  and  dull.  It  was  soon 
wearied  in  its  flights,  and  distracted  in  its  meditations.  Even  natural 
curiosity  dozed,  for  want  of  some  friend  to  whom  one  might  express  one's 
sense  of  the  surrounding  objects ;  nor  did  I  find  any  occasional  relief  from 


140  LETTER   FROM    MR.    SIMEON. 

oonversation  with  any  pious  person,  for,  except  a  Methodist  preacher, 
whom  I  overtook  on  my  road,  about  five  miles  south  of  Dunbar,  I  did 
not  see  so  much  as  one  person  that  feared  God  between  Edinburgh  and 
Leeds. 

"  And  now  what  have  I  to  do,  but  to  devote  myself  more  than  ever 
unto  Ood  ?  Surely  this,  my  dear  Brother,  should  be  the  effect  which  the 
Divine  mercies  should  produce.  I  trust  they  have  wrought  thus  on  you, 
and  I  hope  they  will  on  me. 

"  I  rejoiced  greatly  to  see  the  amiable  and  spiritual  dispositions  of  your 
dear  partner,  and  ardently  do  I  wish,  for  your  sake,  for  her  sake,  for  your 
fiimily's  sake,  that  she  may  increase  in  the  knowledge  of  her  God  and 
Saviour.  Bid  her  take  coiuuge,  and  press  forward  with  more  and  more 
alacrity.  She  will  have  much  to  conflict  with,  no  doubt:  but  she  will 
find  it  an  inexpressible  advantage,  that  she  has  an  husband  that  will  go 
hand  in  hand  with  her,  as  a  fellow-heir  of  the  grace  of  life.  Pray  present 
my  very  affectionate  respects  to  her,  and  tell  her  that  my  heart's  desire 
and  prayer  to  God,  on  her  behalf,  is,  that  she  may  come  forth  into  the 
full  light  and  liberty  of  the  Gospel,  enjoying  a  spirit  of  adoption,  and  an 
earnest  of  her  eternal  inheritance. 

*'  I  cannot  conclude  without  begging  you  to  accept  my  warmest  acknow- 
ledgments for  the  kind  attention  which  you  showed  me,  during  the  whole 
of  our  continuance  together.  I  trust  that  He  who  will  not  suffer  a  cup  of 
cold  water  to  go  unrewarded,  will  one  day  recompense  to  you  all  the  love 
which  you  showed  towards  the  most  unworthy  of  all  his  prophets,  and  I 
earnestly  pray  that  He  may  be  your  Companion  and  Guide  through  life, 
and  after  death  your  everlasting  portion. 

"  To  hear  of  your  welfare,  and  especially  to  hear  of  it  from  yourself, 
will  be  a  rich  gratification  to 

"  Your  very  affectionate  and  most  indebted  friend, 

"  C.  Simeon. 
**  James  Haldanef  Esq,^  Airthrey,  SirlingJ* 


Soon  after  the  termination  of  the  tour  with  Mr.  Simeon,  the 
two  brothers  were  called  to  mourn  the  loss  of  their  elder  uncle 
and  guardian,  who  died  of  gout,  at  Lundie  House,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  August.  He  was  a  man  of  a  very  noble,  gallant,  and 
energetic  character,  whose  services  were  so  highly  prized  by  the 
Grovemment,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  he  obtained  leave  to 
retire  from  the  army.  His  name  still  lingers  in  America,  in 
connexion  with  the  campaigns  in  Canada,  as  appears  from  the  fact, 


DEATH   OF   COLONEL   DUNCAN.  141 

that  it  is  prominently  introduced  in  one  of  the  historical  romances 
of  Cooper,  the  American  novelist.  It  has  often  been  said  of 
Colonel  Duncan,  that  had  opportunity  offered,  he  would,  in  all 
probabiUty,  have  been  as  distinguished  on  land  as  was  his 
brother  at  sea.  To  both  of  his  nephews  he  well  performed  the 
part  of  a  kinsman.  In  the  management  of  the  elder  brother's 
property  he  showed  peculiar  judgment,  and  the  estates  of 
Lochton  and  Keithock,  which  he  purchased  for  him  out  of  their 
fiither's  personalty  and  the  savings  of  the  minority,  more  than 
doubled  in  value.  An  anecdote,  in  connexion  with  a  riot,  which 
took  place  at  Dundee,  was  often  told  by  his  nephews,  as  strongly 
indicative  of  his  courage  and  military  strategy.  The  mob  had 
come  out  to  bum  down  certain  mills,  which  were  unpopular. 
The  civil  power  was  quite  unable  to  restrain  their  fury,  and 
there  were  no  soldiers  at  hand.  The  Colonel,  in  whose  neigh- 
bourhood the  mills  were  situated,  mounted  his  horse,  and  skirt- 
ing the  line  of  the  mob,  rode  briskly  along,  calling  out  as  he 
passed  his  brother  magistrates,  in  a  determined  tone,  to  offer  no 
obstruction  to  the  advance  of  the  mob,  but  to  allow  the  soldiers 
to  get  between  them  and  Dundee.  The  word  passed  through 
the  crowd,  that  soldiers  had  arrived,  and  the  Colonel  was  gone 
to  intercept  a  retreat.  A  panic  arose,  and  the  rush  to  regain 
Dundee  soon  left  in  tranquillity  the  scene  of  their  intended 
devastation.  In  his  county  he  was  one  of  its  most  influential 
aristocracy,  and  very  shortly  before  his  death  turned  the  election 
in  favour  of  the  late  Sir  James  Carnegie,  of  Southesk,  in  his 
contest  with  Sir  David  Scott.  Having  no  issue.  Colonel  Duncan 
was  succeeded  by  his  younger  and  only  brother,  then  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  North  Seas. 


From  Mr.  Simeon's  letters  and  the  account  of  his  tour,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  conclude,  that  his  companion's  progress  in  the 
Divine  life  had  been  both  rapid  and  decisive.  With  him 
Christianity  had  become  all  in  all,  and  his  whole  soul  absorbed 
in  the  love  of  Christ,  went  forth  in  an  ardent  desire  to  promote 


142  DISTRIBUTION    OF   TRACTS. 

his  glory.  For  some  time  he  had  been  a  constant  attendant  at  a 
meeting,  held  at  the  Rev.  David  Black^s  house  in  North  Rich- 
mond-street, where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made  by  a  few  earnest 
Christians,  influenced  by  a  desire  for  spreading  the  Gospel,  and 
promoting  the  glory  of  their  Lord  and  Master.  One  of  these 
prayer-meetings  was  held  on  Friday  evening,  and  another  on  the 
LordVday  morning.  The  former  is  described,  in  November, 
1795,  as  ^'now  increased,  and  conducted  on  such  a  plan  as  not 
to  interfere  with  the  duties  of  the  family  or  the  closet.  They 
assemble  at  seven  o^clock  on  Sabbath  mornings,  and  continue 
about  an  hour  and  a  half,  during  which  time  three  or  four 
members  usually  pray,  after  having  sung  part  of  a  psalm,  and 
read  a  portion  of  Scripture.'' 

The  Edinburgh  Tract  Society,  which  preceded  the  great 
Society  in  London  by  several  years,  had  been  formed,  chiefly 
through  the  active  zeal  of  the  indefatigable  Mr.  John  Campbell. 
But  the  first  public  distribution  of  tracts  in  Scotland  seems  to 
have  been  made  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon,  who,  during  his 
tour,  scattered  both  in  the  streets  and  highways,  ''  The  Friendly 
Advice.''  Different  opinions  will  be  formed  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
this  practice.  Much  depends  on  time  and  circumstances.  But 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  during  the  early  part  of  his  career,  James 
Haldane  witnessed  much  good  fruit,  as  the  result  of  following 
the  example  of  his  Cambridge  friend.  The  venerable  Countess 
of  Leven,  who  looked  with  alternate  doubts  and  satisfaction  on 
lay  preaching,  gave  her  unqualified  approbation  to  this  novelty, 
and  offered  Mr.  Campbell  ten  or  twenty  pounds,  to  be  laid  out 
in  tracts.  She  pleasantly  reproves  her  faithful  correspondent, 
for  not  reporting  more  concerning  Mr.  Simeon's  tour,  and  asks, 
"  Is  it  accident  or  design  ?  why,  especially  as  your  friend  Cap- 
tain Haldane  was  his  travelling  companion  ?  "  He  replies  with 
his  wonted  drollery,  ^^  I  am  satisfied  to  be  nailed  to  the  G)rass 
Market,  till  Providence  draw  the  nail.  When  Captain  Haldane 
was  talking  of  the  tour,  I  told  him  I  envied  him:  but  in  a  minute 
I  saw  my  blunder,  and  checked  myself." 

About  the  same  time  Mr.  Campbell  began  to  institute  Sabbath- 
schools  in  Edinburgh  and  its  neighbourhood.     To  promote  this 


SABBATH    SCHOOLS.  143 

object  a  new  Sabbath-school  Society  was  in  1797  formed  in 
Edinburgh,  independent  of  clerical  superintendence,  which  had 
for  its  object  the  establishment  of  Sabbath-schools  in  destitute 
localities.  Connected  with  each  teacher  there  was  to  be  a  com- 
mittee, who  were  to  aid  him  in  the  devotional  exercises,  and  one 
of  them  was  in  rotation  to  deliver  a  short  address  to  the  children, 
parents,  and  any  poor  destitute  persons  that  could  be  induced  to 
attend.  One  of  these  schools  was  set  up  by  Mr.  Campbell  at 
Loanhead,  a  collier  village  with  a  neglected  population.  Mr. 
James  Haldane  rode  out  with  him  to  witness  its  commencement, 
bat  such  was  his  reluctance  to  make  himself  conspicuous,  that  he 
could  not  be  prevailed  on  to  address  a  few  words  to  the  assembly 
of  parents  and  children  who  crowded  the  Cameronian  Meeting- 
house which  had  been  lent  for  the  benevolent  object.  On  the 
following  Lord's-day  evening,  this  was  done  by  Mr.  Aikman, 
and  Mr.  Campbell  adds,  '^  Oh !  how  many  precious  addresses  pro- 
ceeded from  the  silken  or  silver  lips  of  that  man  of  God  during 
the  following  forty  years."  Hitherto  his  plans  had  been  confined 
to  Edinburgh.  Mr.  James  Ilaldane  began  to  think  that  he  might 
himself  do  something  to  extend  Sabbath-schools  in  the  north  of 
Scotland,  although  without  any  idea  of  preaching.  But  before, 
making  this  attempt,  which  would  have  been  incompatible  with 
Mr.  Campbell's  occupations,  he  agreed  to  accompany  that  good 
man  on  a  tour  for  a  week  to  the  west  of  Scotland.  The 
following  is  the  account  of  it  extracted  from  Mr.  CampbelFs 
auto-biography — 

"  We  set  off  on  Monday  morning,  taking  some  thousands  of  tracts  with 
us,  in  a  one-horse  chaise,  distributing  tracts  to  rich  and  poor  as  we  pro- 
ceeded. We  obtained  a  meeting  in  (ilasgow  from  a  few  friends  of  the 
cause  of  Ood,  who  were  recommended  to  us  as  active  and  zealous.  We 
laid  before  them  the  general  neglect  of  giWng  religious  instruction  to  the 
youth  of  our  country,  except  in  pious  families— described  the  plan  pursued 
in  Edinburgh  for  educating  the  youth  in  the  principles  of  the  Gospel,  by 
the  formation  of  schools  on  the  Sabbath  evenings,  and  the  countenance 
that  was  given  to  the  plan,  and  the  ease  with  which  children  were  collected, 
with  the  trifling  expense  that  attended  its  execution.  After  some  conver- 
sation, those  present  were  formed  into  a  Society  for  establishing  and 
conducting  Sabbath-evening  schools  in  Glasgow  and  the  surrounding  towns 


144  TOUE   TO   THE   WEST   OP    SCOTLAND. 

and  villages.  We  acted  in  the  same  way  and  with  the  same  success  in 
Paisley  and  Greenock.  We  also  called  on  ministers  of  different  denomi- 
nations in  the  towns  through  which  we  passed,  and  conversed  with  them 
on  the  subject  of  Sabbath-schools,  all  of  whom,  I  think,  approved  of  the 
plan.  I  remember  all  the  persons  to  whom  wc  offered  tracts  on  the  road, 
whether  they  were  in  carriages,  or  on  horseback,  or  on  foot,  received  them, 
except  in  two  cases,  the  one  a  gentleman  on  horseback,  who  would  not 
condescend  to  stretch  forth  his  hand  to  receive  the  proffered  tract,  but  rode 
snllenly  on ;  the  other  was  that  of  three  gentlemen  on  horseback,  to  whom 
we  held  out  tracts  on  both  sides  of  the  gig ;  two  took  no  notice,  the  third 
jpartly  held  out  his  hand  to  receive  them,  but  immediately  drew  it  back, 
as  if  they  had  been  infectious.  We  left  them  lying  upon  the  road,  which 
was  then  dry,  that  if  they  repented  they  might  still  have  them.  We  after- 
wards looked  back,  when  we  saw  them  halting  in  a  group  at  the  top  of  a 
rise,  and  receiving  them  from  a  boy,  whom  they  had  sent  back  to  bring 
them  to  them.  I  found  afterwards  that  they  were  three  Burgher  ministers 
who  were  returning  from  the  Synod ;  for  the  Rev.  John  Brown  of  Whit- 
bum,  eldest  son  of  John  Brown  of  Haddington,  called  upon  me  about 
three  months  afterwards  to  apologise  for  their  rejecting  our  tracts.  He 
aaid  they  heard  who  we  were  at  the  next  town  they  came  to  (viz.,  Selkirk,) 
and  were  sorry  that  they  so  treated  us,  but  they  thought  they  were  papers 
on  politics,  for  these  were  the  sad  days  of  Tom  Paine,  and  the  French 
Revolution,  when  the  nation  was  on  the  very  verge  of  rebellion.  We 
arrived  at  home  on  Saturday  evening.  In  three  months  afterwards  we 
heard  that  the  result  of  this  one  week's  exertion  was  the  formation  of  sixty 
Sabbath-evening  schools!  The  Christian  zeal  that  had  been  excited  in 
Scotland  by  the  lately-formed  Missionary  Society  in  London,  greatly  helped 
to  the  success  of  our  week's  experimental  journey." — Life  of  Campbell, 
p.  129. 

This  journey  to  the  west  of  Scotland  in  the  spring  of  1797, 
was  the  commencement  of  an  active  career  of  usefulness,  which 
continued  for  no  less  than  fifty-four  years.  But  a  reference  to 
his  own  notes  will  once  more  enable  us  to  trace  the  steps  by 
which  he  was  gradually  led  to  become  himself  a  preacher  of  the 
Gospel, — 

'^  For  some  time  after  I  knew  the  truth,  I  had  no  thoughts 
towards  the  ministry.  My  attention  was  directed  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures  and  other  religious  books,  for  my  own  improve- 
ment, and  because  I  found  much  pleasure  in  them.  When  I 
first  lived  in  my  own  house,  I  began  family  worship  on  Sabbath 
evenings.     I  was  unwilling  to  have  it  more  frequently,  lest  I 


DESIRE    TO    PREACH    THE    GOSPEL.  145 

should  meet  with  ridicule  from  my  acquaintance.  A  conviction 
of  duty  at  length  determined  me  to  begin  to  have  it  every  morn- 
ing; but  I  assembled  the  family  in  a  back-room  for  some  time, 
lest  any  one  should  come  in.  I  gradually  got  over  this  fear  of 
man,  and  being  desirous  to  instruct  those  who  lived  in  my  family, 
I  began  to  expoimd  the  Scriptures.  I  found  this  pleasant  and 
edifying  to  myself,  and  it  has  been  one  chief  means  by  which  the 
Lord  prepared  me  for  speaking  in  jmblic.  About  this  time, 
some  of  my  friends  remarked  that  I  would  by  and  by  become  a 
preacher.  A  person  asked  me  whether  I  did  not  regret  that  I 
had  not  been  a  minister,  which  made  a  considerable  impression 
on  my  mind.  I  began  secretly  to  desire  to  be  allowed  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  which  I  considered  as  the  most  important  as  well  as 
honourable  employment.  I  began  to  ask  of  God  to  send  me  into 
his  vineyard,  and  to  qualify  me  for  the  work.  This  desire  con- 
tinued to  increase,  although  I  had  not  the  most  distant  prospect 
of  its  being  gratified,  and  sometimes  in  prayer  my  unbelieving 
heart  suggested  that  it  could  not  be.  I  had  no  idea  of  going  to 
the  highways  and  hedges  and  telling  sinners  of  the  Saviour. 
However,  I  entertained  some  distant  hope  that  the  Lord  would 
direct.  Things  which  passed  in  convei'sation  tended  to  increase 
my  expectation,  and  a  tour  I  proposed  to  undei-take  to  the  north 
with  a  view  of  establishing  Sabbath-schools,  at  length  opened  a 
prospect  of  being  allowed  to  speak  for  Jesus.  The  success  of  a 
joiumey  to  the  west  country,  increased  my  desire  of  going  through 
the  north,  not  to  preach,  but  to  establish  schools,  while  I  was  to 
be  accompanied  by  a  minister  from  England,  who  should  preach 
in  the  towns  and  villages.  Before  we  set  out  our  plan  was 
enlarged.  Another  Christian  brother  (Mr.  Aikman,)  with  whom 
I  had  become  particularly  intimate  in  a  prayer  meeting,  who  had 
studied  for  the  ministry,  agreed  to  accompany  us,  and  both  he 
and  I  began  to  preach  in  a  neighbouring  village  about  the  same 
time.  The  journey  to  the  north  is  pretty  generally  known,  and 
ever  since  the  Lord  first  allowed  me  to  speak  of  him  to  others,  I 
have  found  increasing  pleasure  in  the  work,  and  seen,  I  hope, 
more  of  the  inward  workings  of  my  corrupt  heart,  while  I  have 
found  His  grace  all  sufficient.'^ 

L 


146  OEIGIN    OF    LAY    PREACHING. 

Mr.  Campbells  account  of  the  "  Origin  of  Lay  preaching  at 
Gilmerton,  near  Edinburgh/'  is  written  in  his  own  plain  matter- 
of-fact  style, — 

"  I  had,"  says  Mr.  Campbell, "  an  acquaintance  in  the  large  collier  village 
of  Gilmerton,  and  one  who  lived  near  it  They  were  frequently  telling  of 
the  ignorance  and  irreligion  of  the  inhabitants  ;  and  no  wonder,  for  they 
had  nothing  like  the  Gospel  in  the  Parish  Church  for  at  least  forty  years. 
These  reports  made  rae  often  feel  compassion  for  them,  and  I  remember 
calling  on  Dissenting  ministers  of  different  denominations,  urging  them  to 
supply  poor  Gilmerton  with  a  sermon  now  and  then,  which  they  were  to 
mention  to  their  pre8b)'teries ;  but  it  came  to  nothing.  Soon  after  this,  a 
worthy  friend  of  mine,  a  Mr.  Buchan,  one  Monday  morning  introduced 
me  to  a  Mr.  Joseph  Rate  as  a  preacher  from  Dr.  Bogue*s  academy  at  Gos- 
port  On  asking  him  what  stay  he  intended  to  make  in  Edinburgh,  he 
said  for  some  weeks.  I  immediately  related  the  circumstances  of  Gilmer- 
ton, and  asked  if  he  would  preach  to  them,  while  he  remained,  on 
Sabbath  evenings.  He  said  he  would,  if  I  could  get  him  a  place  to  preach  in 
and  people  to  preach  to.  I  said  I  had  no  doubt  but  I  should  procure  both, 
for  they  had  a  kind  of  thatched  town-house  capable  of  containing  at  least 
two  hundred  persons  ;  but  Mr.  Salmon  comes  to  the  Corn  Market  on 
Wednesday,  and  always  calls  upon  me.  I  shall  then  be  able  to  tell  you 
positively  about  both  the  place  and  congregation.  On  mentioning  the 
matter  to  Mr.  S.,  he  said,  *  If  you  will  assure  me  of  a  preacher  on  Sabbath 
evenings,  I  will  insure  you  of  a  place  and  congregation,*  which  I  cheerfully 
engaged  to  do.  I  mentioned  the  matter  to  Mr.  James  Haldanc  and  Mr. 
Aikman,  who  were  delighted  with  the  circumstance,  and  as  I  was  obliged 
to  attend  to  my  own  bishopric  at  Loanhead  that  evening,  they  engaged  to 
walk  with  Mr.  Rate  to  Gilmerton,  where  they  were  glad  to  find  a  house 
full  of  people  waiting  for  them.  Afler  sermon  he  intimated  that  he  would 
preach  there  regularly  on  the  Sabbath  evening  for  some  time,  or  until 
further  notice.  The  next  evening  the  congregation  was  increased,  by 
persons  coming  from  a  greater  distance.  During  the  succeeding  week  Mr. 
Rate  was  called  to  leave  Edinburgh,  as  he  expected  only  for  a  few  days, 
of  which  the  next  Sabbath  was  one ;  but  who  was  to  supply  Gilmerton  for 
that  Sabbath  evening  ?  There  was  no  one,  and  yet  a  congregation  would 
assemble.  In  our  dilemma  Mr.  Haldane  recommended  to  Mr.  Aikman 
to  do  it ;  but  he  would  not  consent.  However,  he  was  afterwards  gained 
upon  to  consent  to  preach,  by  Mr.  Haldane  telling  him  that  if  he  would 
consent  to  preach  the  next  Sabbath,  and  Mr.  Rate  did  not  return  during 
the  week,  he  would  engage  to  supply  the  succeeding  Sabbath.  This  offer, 
coming  from  a  sailor,  touched  the  right  chord  in  Mr.  Aikman*s  warm  heart, 
and  constrained  him  to  comply  with  the  solicitation  to  preach,  and  he  did 
preach,  greatly  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  judicious  Christians  who  were 


FIRST    SERMON    AT    GILMERTON.  147 

praent,  and  no  Mr.  Kate  making  his  appearance  the  following  week,  Mr. 
Haldane  was  obliged  to  take  his  place  on  the  Sabbath  evening,  much  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  congregation." 

Mr.  J.  Haldane's  first  sermon  thus  alluded  to  was  preached  at 
Gilmerton^  on  the  Gth  May^  1797^  and  on  the  same  day  his  third 
daughter  was  bom.  Amongst  those  who  were  present  at  the 
sermon  was  the  well-known  Dr.  Charles  Stuart  of  Duneam^ 
whom  it  may  be  proper  here  to  introduce  to  the  reader.  Dr. 
Stuart  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  good  Regent  Murray, 
and  at  one  time  stood  third  in  prospective  succession  to  that 
ancient  Earldom.  He  was  a  man  of  deep  piety^  and  induced  to 
enter  on  the  study  of  divinity^  at  a  time  when  the  ministry  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  presented  few  temptations  to  a  man 
of  birth  and  family.  He  was  presented  to  the  parish  of  Cra- 
mond,  near  Edinburgh,  and  married  a  daughter  of  the  venerable 
Dr.  Erskine,  who  was  himself  partially  disinherited  by  his 
father  (the  Blackstone  of  Scottish  jurisprudence)  because  he 
had  declined  the  profession  of  the  law  and  assumed  that  of  a 
minister,  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Scottish  aristocracy, 
¥ras  then  a  choice  unworthy  of  a  descendant  of  the  noble  houses 
of  Buchan  and  Mar.  Dr.  Stuart  did  not,  however,  remain  long 
satisfied  with  the  Church  of  Scotland.  In  his  thirst  for  general 
information,  and  the  society  of  good  men.  Dr.  Stuart  had  gone 
from  the  Divinity  Hall  in  Edinburgh  to  some  of  the  Dissenting 
Academies  in  London,  and  there  imbibed  notions  unfavourable 
to  the  union  between  Church  and  State.  For  some  time  these 
opinions  lay  dormant,  but  at  length  he  became  convinced  that 
he  ought  not  to  baptize  the  children  of  unbelievers,  or  admit  to 
the  Lord^s  table  those  who  did  not  make  a  consistent  profession 
of  Christianity.  Acting  on  this  persuasion,  he  found,  on 
examining  his  parishioners,  that  there  was  hardly  a  family 
whose  children  he  could  baptize,  or  whose  adult  members  he 
could  admit  to  the  Lord's  table.  Tlie  pain  of  his  scruples  was 
aggravated  by  his  hypochondriacal  constitution,  and  an  alterna- 
tion of  high  and  low  spirits,  which  made  him  at  one  time  as 
melancholy  in  his  solitary  hours  as  he  was  at  other  times  joyous 
as  a  companion.     The  result  was  that  he  resigned  his  charge, 

L  2 


148  DR.  CHARLES    STUART. 

quitted  the  Church  of  Scotland^  studied  medicine^  took  his 
degree  as  a  physician^  and  became  a  zealous  Baptist.  Still 
it  was  his  more  peculiar  honour  to  be  "  a  lover  of  good  men" 
of  every  name^  and  a  promoter  of  every  enterprise  which  had  for 
its  object  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel. 

When  Mr.  James  Ilaldane  preached  his  fiist  sermon,  Dr. 
Stuart  was  at  once  surprised  and  delighted  with  the  power,  the 
energy,  and  the  earnestness  of  the  preacher.  He  pronounced 
him  a  Boanerges,  and  became  from  that  moment  an  admirer 
and  friend.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Dr.  Stuart^s  influence  on 
Mr.  James  Haldane  was  considerable,  as  it  was  also  on  several 
other  eminent  men ;  and  it  would  have  been  remarkable  if  it 
had  not  been  so,  considering  Dr.  Stuart^s  active  zeal,  affec- 
tionate friendship,  as  well  as  his  elegant  scholarship,  critical 
acuteness,  general  knowledge,  and  attractive  qualities.  In  the 
preceding  year  the  '^ Missionary  Magazine"  had  been  com- 
menced, under  the  auspices  of  Dr.  Stuart,  with  Mr.  Ewing  as 
the  editor. 

The  preaching  at  Gilmerton  was  attended  with  a  blessing. 
The  people  flocked  in  crowds  to  hear  Mr.  Aikman  and  the  Sea- 
Captain.  The  parish  minister,  who  had  been  at  first  quiescent, 
now  burned  with  indignation,  and  took  means  to  deprive 
them  of  the  school-house,  in  which  they  had  hitherto  preached, 
and  which  had  been  filled  to  overflowing.  But  Mr.  Falconer, 
a  pious  tradesman,  procured  a  spacious  loft  as  a  substitute,  and 
when  this  was  found  insufficient,  a  large  bam,  which  continued 
to  be  filled  to  excess  by  the  people,  who  flocked  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  listened  with  interest  to  their  earnest  and  affec- 
tionate appeals.  About  this  time  an  incident  occurred,  which 
Mr.  James  Haldane  mentioned  with  emotion  not  long  before  his 
death,  in  conversing  with  the  surviving  sister  of  Mr.  Aikman, 
who  was  one  of  the  last  persons  he  visited.  He  was  crossing 
the  High-street  near  the  market,  then  held  round  the  Tron 
Church,  when  a  countryman,  dressed  like  a  miller,  with  a  whip 
tied  over  his  shoulder,  rushed  across  the  street,  and  eagerly 
holding  out  his  hand,  said,  "  Oh !  Sir,  I^m  glad  to  see  you." 
Mr.  J.  Haldane,  surprised  at  this  familiarity,  repUed,  ^^I  do 


ANECDOTE.  149 

not  know  you/'  "  Ah  !  Sir/'  exclaimed  the  honest  carter,  as 
the  big  tear  rolled  down  his  manly  cheek,  "  but  I  know  you, 
for  you  preached  the  Gospel  to  me  at  Gilmerton/' 

Miss  Aikman,  who  records  this  touching  anecdote,  goes  on  as 
follows : — "  A  considerable  degree  of  general  excitement  arose 
out  of  the  preaching  at  Gilmerton,  and  some  even  of  the  Evan- 
gelical ministers  in  Edinburgh  became  afraid  of  the  consequences 
of  lay  preaching.  But  the  two  preachers  increased  in  boldness, 
and  hearing  of  the  death-like  state  of  the  north  of  Scotland,  and 
the  carelessness  and  immorality  of  the  ministers,  resolved  to 
make  a  tour,  and  examine  ])crsonally  into  the  state  of  rcUgion, 
and  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  streets  of  the  different  towns  and 
populous  villages  visited.  They  made  this  plan  the  subject  of 
prayer  and  consultation,  and  when  it  was  fixed  that  they  should 
go,  each  of  them  wrote  an  address  to  the  congregation,  at 
Gilmerton,  and  got  a  large  impression  printed  for  distribution 
on  the  road.  In  a  letter  I  had  from  Miss  Stuart  (Duneam), 
she  says,  ^  My  father  has  read  both  your  brother  s  address  and 
the  Captain's  with  great  delight.^  They  also  reprinted  a  tract, 
written  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon,  of  Cambridge,  entitled, 
'  An  Advice  to  all  whom  it  may  Concern,'  and  these  tracts  they 
gave  away  at  every  place  where  they  preached,  to  all  who  would 
receive  them,  two  years  before  the  London  Tract  Society  was 
formed  in  1799.  On  the  evening  before  their  departure  for  the 
north,  there  was  a  special  meeting  for  prayer  held  in  the  Rev. 
David  Black's  house.  North  Richmond-street,  where  they  were 
recommended  by  the  brethren  to  the  grace  of  God  for  the  work 
in  which  they  were  about  to  engage.^' 

It  was  a  memorable  tour,  the  first  of  a  series  of  successive 
itinerancies,  in  which  Mr.  James  Haldane,  at  first  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Aikman,  afterwards  by  Mr.  Innes,  or  again  by  Mr. 
Campbell,  preached  in  almost  every  town  or  populous  village  in 
Scotland, — from  Ben;\'ick-upon-Tweed  and  the  Solway  Frith  to 
John  o'  Groat's  and  the  northern  islands  of  Orkney  and  of 
Shetland.  Good  men  may  differ  in  their  opinions  as  to  the 
general  question  of  the  lawfulness  of  lay  preaching,  but  no  well- 
judging  Christian  will  think  it  wise  to  condemn  that  on  which 


150  REV.  CHARLES    SIMEON. 

the  Lord  has  stamped  the  seal  of  his  approhation.  Upon  the 
tour  to  the  North  in  1797  there  was  poured  out  a  blessing 
which  never  can  be  mistaken^  and  whatever  may  be  said  of  the 
regularity  of  their  commission^  it  will  be  safer  to  adopt  the 
sentiments  so  beautifully  expressed  in  one  of  Mr.  Simeon's 
letters  to  Mr.  James  Haldane  after  his  return. 

**  With  respect  to  your  excursion,  I  am  far  from  having  entertained  the 
opinion  you  suppose.  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  think  immortal  souls 
of  such  value,  that  I  should  rejoice  if  all  the  Lord's  people  were  prophets. 
With  respect  to  regularity,  propriety,  &c.,  the  most  godly  men  in  all 
ages  have  differed  in  their  judgment ;  and  I  find  it  so  difficult  precisely 
to  draw  the  line  in  any  case  of  my  own,  that  I  do  not  presume  to  judge 
for  others.  Some  think  they  may  eat  meat,  and  others  not;  I  neither 
judge  nor  despise,  but  leave  all  to  their  own  Master.  We  certainly  must 
not  do  moral  evil,  that  good  may  come.  But  if  mercy  and  sacrifice  stand 
in  opposition  to  each  other,  we  may  choose  mercy ;  and  if  David  and  his 
men  be  fainting  with  hunger,  they  may  eat  the  forbidden  bread.  I  love 
all  good  men  of  all  descriptions,  and  rejoice  in  the  good  they  do,  whether 
they  do  it  in  my  way  or  not  I  think  for  myself  and  act  for  myself,  and 
leave  others  to  do  the  same.  As  a  minister  who  has  a  flock  that  is  dear 
to  him,  I  stand  more  aloof  from  those  who  might  injure  t?iem  than  I 
should  if  I  were  a  private  individual.  But  if  I  must  err  on  one  side, 
I  wish  it  to  be  on  the  side  of  love  and  zeaL" 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MB.  JAMES  HALDANE»S  FIRST  TOUB  THROUGH  THE 
NORTHERN  COUNTIES  OF  SCOTLAND  AND  THE  ORKNEY 
ISLANDS  IN  1797— PRAYER  MEETING  AT  REV.  D.  BLACK'S 
—  LAY  PREACHING  —  LETTER  TO  THE  "MISSIONARY 
MAGAZINE"— MANNER  OF  TRAVELLING  —  LEAVE  EDIN- 
BURGH ON  12th  JULY— PERTH,  SCONE,  CUPAR,  GLAMIS, 
KERRYMUIR,  MONTROSE,  ABERDEEN  —  LETTER  FROM 
BANFF  —  ABERDEEN  —  MAGISTERIAL  INTERFERENCE  — 
EFFECTS  OF  PREACHING  AT  BANFF— ELGIN— NAIRN- 
FORRES— INVERNESS— PROCEED  TO  THE  ORKNEYS— STATE 
OF  RELIGION  THERE— CON^'FIRSION  OF  AN  OLD  MAN  OP 
NINETY-TWO— PREACHING  TO  CROWDS  AT  KIRKWALL— 
ACCIDENT  TO  MR.  AIKM AN— BLESSING  ON  MR.  J.  HAL- 
DANE'S  LABOURS  IN  CAITHNESS— LETTER  OF  MRS.  MCNEIL 
OP  ELGIN— BATTLE  OF  CAMPERDOWN— STATE  OF  RELI- 
GION AT  INVERNESS— CONCLUSION. 

[1797.] 

When  Mr.  James  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman  commenced  their 
first  preaching  tour  through  the  North  of  Scotland,  they  took 
their  commission  from  the  obligation  imposed  on  every  believer 
to  proclaim  to  others  the  Gospel  of  salvation,  and  from  the 
prayers  with  which  they  were  solemnly  commended  to  the  grace 
of  Grod  in  the  house  of  their  pastor,  the  much  honoured  David 
Black,  the  Minister  of  Lady  Yester's  Church.  Disputes  there 
may  be  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  what  is  called  lay  preaching,  and 
assuredly  the  great  body  of  private  Christians  have  neither  the 
opportunity,  the  ability,  nor  the  leisure,  to  preach  in  public. 
But  the  office  of  an  Evangelist  is,  in  some  sense,  imposed  upon 
every  Christian  in  whatever  sphere  he  moves.  For  surely  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  every  believer  is  bound,  in  his  family  and 


152  FIRST    TOUR   TO    THE    NORTU. 

amongst  his  friends,  to  make  known  to  others  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation.  Accordingly  we  read  (Acts  viii.  1,  4),  that  when 
''  the  Church  were  all  scattered  abroad,  except  the  apostles,^' — 
"  therefore  they  that  were  scattered  went  everj^where  preaching 
the  word."  "  If,"  says  an  able  divine,  "  if  the  Gospel  be  true, 
can  there  be  any  danger  of  sin  in  proclaiming  its  truths  ?  If 
the  Gospel  be  salvation,  and  if  God  wills  the  salvation  of  men, 
can  it  be  sinful  to  tell  them  of  that  w^hich  saves  from  hell?" 
But  the  question  was  fully  and  warmly  debated  at  the  time 
Mr.  J.  Haldane  entered  on  his  itinerancies,  and  the  arguments 
which  he  has  himself  so  ably  drawn  from  Scripture  in  the 
introduction  to  the  Journal  of  his  Tour  in  1797,  cannot  now  be 
easily  refuted.  "  We  would  not,"  he  says,  "  here  be  under- 
stood to  mean  that  every  follower  of  Jesus  should  leave  the 
occupation  by  which  he  provides  for  his  family  to  become  a 
public  preacher.  It  is  an  indispensable  Christian  duty  for  every 
man  to  provide  for  his  family ;  but  we  consider  every  Christian 
is  bound,  wherever  he  has  opportunity,  to  warn  sinners  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  point  out  Jesus  as  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life.  "Whether  a  man  declare  those  important 
truths  to  two,  or  two  hundred,  he  is,  in  our  opinion,  a  preacher 
of  the  Gospel,  or  one  who  declares  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation, 
which  is  the  precise  meaning  of  the  word  preach.'^ 

Having  very  forcibly  asserted  the  right  of  every  man  who 
knows  the  Gospel  to  proclaim  it,  he  next  disclaims  any  design  of 
usurping  or  intruding  into  the  Pastor's  office,  an  office  which 
was  quite  distinct  from  that  of  an  Evangelist,  as  evidenced  by 
the  apostohc  declaration  that  there  were  "  some  evangelists,  and 
some  pastoi's  and  teachers."     (Ephes.  iv.  11.) 

His  reasoning  is  powerful,  and  its  force  was  substantially 
admitted  by  Mr.  Simeon,  Mr.  Scott  the  Commentator,  as  well 
as  the  venerable  John  Newton,  and  othera  of  his  correspondents. 
He  winds  up  his  able  defence  with  the  follow^ing  words: — 
*'  Such  are  some  of  the  arguments  which  have  satisfied  our 
minds  that  we  have  a  right  to  preach  the  Gospel,  founded  both 
on  reason  and  on  the  Word  of  God.  We  formerly  hinted  that 
our  situation  in  life  enabled  us  to  undertake  the  journey  without 


LAY    PREACHING.  153 

interfering  with  necessary  avocations^  and  we  deemed  the  low 
state  of  religion  a  sufficient  call  for  us  to  go  to  the  highways  and 
hedges^  and  endeavour  to  compel  our  fellow-sinners  to  lay  hold 
on  the  hope  set  before  them  in  the  Gospel.  The  writings  of 
laymen  in  defence  of  Christianity  have  always  been  considered 
peculiarly  important^  as  there  is  less  ground  to  suspect  such 
men  of  interested  motives,  and  the  clergy  are  naturally  led  to 
refer  to  such  writings  when  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  have 
ascribed  their  zeal  to  ambition  and  priestcraft.  Strange,  then, 
if  we  might  not  speak  on  subjects  on  which  we  might  have 
written  !'' 

Resting  on  these  principles,  actuated  by  these  motives,  encou- 
raged by  the  prayers  of  their  brethren,  and  stimulated  by  an 
earnest  and  aflFectionate  zeal  to  promote  the  Gospel  of  their 
Lord  and  Sanour,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Aikman  and  Mr.  Joseph  Rate,  left  Edinburgh  on  Wednesday, 
12th  July,  1797,  having  first  addressed  the  following  as  a  mani- 
festo of  their  designs : — 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  *  Mimonary  Magazine*  from  the  jyersons  engaged 

in  the  Scotch  Itinerancy, 

**  The  advantage  of  missionary  schemes,  both  in  England  and  Scotland, 
has  remarkably  appeared,  not  only  in  exciting  the  zeal  of  Christians  to 
send  the  Guspel  of  Jesus  to  the  dark  places  of  the  earth,  but  to  use  means 
to  extend  its  influence  at  home.  With  this  view  a  missionary  journey 
has  been  undertaken  to  the  northern  part  of  Scotland,  not  to  disseminate 
matters  of  doubtful  disputation  or  to  make  converts  to  this  or  the  other 
sect,  but  to  endeavour  to  stir  up  their  brethren  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  not  rest  in  an  empty  profession  of  religion.  Accordingly,  they 
are  now  employed  in  preaching  the  word  of  life,  distributing  pamphlets, 
and  endeavouring  to  excite  their  Christian  brethren  to  employ  the  talents 
committed  to  their  charge,  especially  by  erecting  schools  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth.  As  the  Lord  alone  can  crown  their  endeavours  with 
success,  and,  as  He  has  declared,  that  for  all  the  blessings  He  bestows  on 
his  Church  and  people  He  will  be  entreated,  they  earnestly  request  the 
prayers  of  the  friends  of  Jesus.  Tliat  their  object  may  be  misrepresented, 
they  have  no  doubt.  It  has  already  been  said,  they  are  going  with  a 
design  of  making  people  dissatisfied  with  their  ministers ;  but  they  can 
appeal  to  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts,  that  they  are  determined,  in  their 


154  FIRST   TOUR   TO    THE    NORTH. 

conTersation  or  preaching,  to  know  nothing  but  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified.  If  they  should  meet  with  teachers  who  do  not  follow  the 
apostolic  rule,  they  will  not  bid  them  Ood  speed,  lest  they  become  par- 
takers of  their  evil  deeds ;  but  they  love  no  man  more  or  less  because  he  is 
of  the  Establishment  or  of  the  Secession.  They  would  therefore  request, 
that  intercession  should  be  made  for  them  by  the  Church  of  Christ 
without  ceasing,  that  they  may  have  a  prosperous  journey;  and  that 
many  who  are  now  disobedient  may  be,  by  means  of  them,  turned  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  just,  that  Ood  in  all  things  may  be  glorified  through 
Christ,  to  whom  be  praise  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." 

They  travelled,  at  their  own  expense,  in  a  light  open  carriage 
purchased  for  the  occasion.  They  were  largely  provided  with 
religious  tracts  and  pamphlets,  which  they  also  themselves 
printed  for  the  purpose;  and  fresh  supplies  were  forwarded  to 
different  stations  on  their  route.  Of  Mr.  Simeon's  "Friendly 
Advice  to  all  whom  it  may  concern/'  they  circulated  5,000; 
of  Mr.  Haldane's  "Address,''  4,000;  of  Mr.  Aikman's,  3,000; 
besides  8,000  short  sermons  and  other  tracts.  They  were  also 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Joseph  Rate  as  far  as  Inverness,  where  he 
was  usefully  occupied  for  more  than  two  months,  while  his 
colleagues  proceeded  to  the  Orkney  Islands  and  to  Caithness. 
The  account  of  this  tour,  as  well  as  the  Introduction  and 
Appendix,  were  chiefly  written  by  Mr.  James  Haldane.  It  is 
marked  by  his  characteristic  manly  simplicity,  and  is  singularly 
devoid  of  egotism  or  self-seeking.  Even  the  good  that  was 
done  is  scarcely  noticed,  and,  in  one  of  the  few  instances  where 
it  is  just  glanced  at,  it  is  said, — "To  the  name  of  Jesus  we 
would  desire  to  render  all  the  glory  of  the  undeserved  honour 
and  happiness  of  being  instrumental  in  plucking  any  of  our 
fellow-sinners  as  brands  from  the  burning." 

The  Journal  begins : — 

"  July  12. — Left  Edinburgh  (after  frequent,  earnest,  and  united  prayer 
to  God  for  direction  and  support),  and  arrived  at  Northfeery,  where  we 
immediately  began  our  labours.  Preached  in  a  school-room  to  about 
fifty  persons.  Came  forward  to  a  village  called  Keltic  Bridge  about  ten 
at  night,  where  they  preached  next  morning." 

Having,  on  the  14th,  preached  at  Perth,  Scoon,  and  Cupar, 
they  proceeded  to  Meigle,  Glamis,  and  Kerrymuir,  preaching  in 


KERRYMUIR.  155 

hospitals^  at  market-crosses^  and  in  churchyards^  attracting 
some  attention,  but  not  so  much  at  first  as  afterwards.  In 
order  to  furnish  an  idea  of  their  plan,  and  as  this  was  the  first 
occasion  on  which  the  false  doctrines  of  the  parish  ministers 
were  openly  attacked,  we  shall  insert  Mr.  J.  Haldanc's  own  entry 
in  the  published  Journal : — 

"  LonTa'dat/,  July  16/A. — Kerryminr. — Preached  in  the  momiug,  at 
eight  o'clock,  in  the  market-place,  to  upwards  of  200  people.  "Went  to 
church  and  heard  sermon.  The  minister  preached  from  1  John  iii.  8.  The 
lermon  did  not  appear  to  us  glad  tidings  to  sinners.  The  object  of  it  was  to 
show,  that  the  Son  of  Ood  came  into  the  world  to  instruct  and  enable  men  to 
destzoy  the  worlte  of  the  devil.  He  represented  the  Gospel  as  a  contract 
between  Ood  and  man,  of  which  the  equitable  condition  was  repentance 
and  sincere,  although  imperfect,  obedience,  '  which  God,'  he  added,  *  was 
too  just  and  too  good  not  to  accept.'  As  he  read  the  sermon,  and 
repeated  every  passage  of  the  smallest  importance,  it  was  impossible  for 
QB  to  mistake  the  meaning  of  any  of  them.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  then 
dispensed;  and  it  surely  must  affect  the  minds  of  all  who  know  the 
importance  of  the  Gospel  and  the  value  of  men's  souls,  to  learn  that, 
immediately  afterwards,  upwards  of  1,500  persons,  daily  acquiescing  in 
such  doctrine  as  has  been  mentioned,  professed  to  commemorate  the 
death  of  Christ.  We  heard  one  table  served  by  a  neighbouring  minister. 
This  person,  to  guard  the  communicants  against  the  commission  of  sin, 
told  them  that,  if  they  fell  into  any  after  that  day,  there  remained  no 
more  sacrifice  for  them.  .  .  .  When  the  Church  was  dismissed  in  the 
evening,  went  to  the  top  of  a  walled-stair  in  the  market-place,  which  the 
congregation  had  to  pass,  and  immediately  began  as  usual  by  singing. 
There  might  probably  be  near  1,000  people  who  stopped.  Preached  to 
them  from  Mark  zvi.  15,  16,  *  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,'  &c.  Explained  to  them  the  Gospel,  and  the 
circumstances  which  rendered  it  glad  tidings  to  every  creature ;  showed 
that  it  was  a  dispensation  wholly  of  grace,  and  that  it  was  completely 
contradictory,  both  to  Scripture  and  to  fact,  to  represent  a  man  as  capable 
of  doing  anything  in  order  to  render  himself  acceptable  to  God.  .  .  . 
Told  the  people,  plainly,  that  what  they  heard  was  not  the  Gospel, 
and  urged  them  to  search  the  Scriptures  for  themselves,  mentioning,  at 
the  same  time,  that  our  only  motive  in  making  these  observations  was 
love  to  their  immortal  souls,  whose  final  state,  we  were  convinced, 
depended  upon  their  belief  or  rejection  of  the  Gospel.  As  to  their 
minister,  we  could  have  no  ill  will  towards  him ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
sincerely  prayed  to  God  that  He  might  give  him  repentance  to  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  truUi." 


< 


156  .    PIRST   TOUR   TO    THE    NORTH. 

They  again  preached  on  the  Monday  morning,  at  Kerrymuir, 
to  a  large  congregation,  many  of  whom  came  in  purposely  from 
the  country ;  and  then  proceeded  to  Forfar,  where  they  preached 
in  the  street  to  a  very  attentive  congregation,  and  took  occasion 
to  warn  the  people  against  Paine's  "Age  of  Reason/^  which 
had  been  there  extensively  circulated  and  obtained  some  footing. 
At  Brechin  they  preached  to  a  crowded  and  attentive  auditory, 
and  where,  for  the  first  time,  they  availed  themselves  of  the 
town-drummer  to  announce  the  sermon.  The  Itinerants  apolo- 
gized for  this  mode  of  publishing  their  sermons,  expressing  a 
fear  lest  it  might  shock  the  feeling  of  some  serious  persons. 
"  But,^'  says  Mr.  H.,  "  these  emotions  ought  certainly  to 
subside  when  we  consider  the  vast  importance  of  using  every 
means  to  assemble  careless  sinners  to  hear  the  Word  of  God, 
and  the  impossibility  of  our  adopting  any  other  mode  equally 
eflFectual  for  giving  general  notice  in  our  limited  time.^'  Accord- 
ingly, the  bellman,  or  town-drummer,  as  the  case  might  be, 
was  generally  charged  with  an  intimation;  and  in  the  Orkney 
Islands  the  people,  of  their  own  accord,  summoned  their  more 
distant  neighbours  by  lighting  beacon  fires  on  the  hills. 

At  Montrose,  where  they  preached  twice,  they  observe,  "  We 
were  sorry  to  leam  that  many  of  the  children  in  Montrose  were 
unable  to  read,  in  consequence  of  going  to  the  cotton  manu- 
factory at  a  very  early  age.  They  are  greatly  neglected  by  their 
parents,  and  crowd  the  streets  on  the  Lord's-day."  This 
remark  shows  how  soon  the  establishment  of  factories  and  the 
employment  of  young  children  began  to  corrupt  and  demoralize 
the  people.  With  reference  to  the  ignorance  of  the  children 
there  is  the  following  note : — 

"  This  is  by  no  means  to  be  considered  as  the  unavoidable  consequence 
of  attending  a  cotton  manufactory'.  In  the  cotton  mills  at  Lanark,  estab- 
lished by  Mr.  Dale,  the  greatest  attention  is  paid,  both  in  teaching  the 
children  to  read  and  in  instructing  them  in  the  principles  of  Christianity. 
It  would  be  well  if  those  who  imitate  that  friend  of  his  country  in 
employing  children  in  their  manufactories,  Mould  imitate  him  also  in  his 
earnest  care  to  communicate  the  blessings  of  religious  knowledge  to  their 
tender  minds." 

From  Montrose  the  tourists  proceeded  to  Bervie,  and  thencfe 


LETTER   TO   MR.  CAMPBELL.  157 

to  Stonehaven^  where^  amidst  the  remnants  of  Popery  and 
nonjuring  Episcopacy^  they  ''noticed  the  greatest  indifference 
to  the  concerns  of  eternity  that  they  had  anpvhere  remarked/' 
although  there  were  two  Episcopal  chapels  besides  the  parish 
church. 

The  insertion  of  the  following  letter  from  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane 
to  Mr.  Campbell,  although  hastily  written^  may  be  more  inter- 
eating,  and  have  in  it  more  of  freshness^  than  extracts  from  a 
journal  prepared  for  the  public.  It  is  dated,  Banff,  July  28th, 
1797  :— 

"  My  dear  Fbiexd, — It  gave  us  much  pleasure  to  hear  of  your  welfare 
this  morning,  by  your  letter  to  Mr.  Aikman.  1  received  your  other  letter 
at  Aberdeen,  and  it  gave  us  cause  to  glorify  God  on  your  behalf  when  we 
heard  he  had  so  strengthened  and  countenanced  you  at  Gilmerton.  I  hope 
and  believe,  that  your  labours  there  will  not  be  in  vain.  But,  while  I  am  on 
this  subject,  I  would  say  a  few  words  as  to  your  exerting  yourself  too  much. 
You  say  you  are  sometimes  at  a  loss  what  is  duty,  but  I  imagine  all  your 
friends  see  clearly  that  you  ought  to  spare  yourself.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  what  you  ought  to  do  and  what  not,  but  you  ought  to  be  guided  by 
the  state  of  your  body  and  not  exhaust  your  strength.  By  following  this 
plan  you  will,  humanly  speaking,  do  more  in  the  Lord's  service  in  the 
long  run ;  and  therefore  here  is  a  pro}>er  opening  to  exercise  self-denial. 
Mr.  Newton  says,  in  one  of  his  letters,  that  the  devil  would  be  glad  to 
have  you  out  of  Edinburgh.  I  believe  he  would  be  glad  to  have  you  out 
of  the  world,  although  it  were  to  remove  you  to  a  better.  You  will  think 
it  hard  that  I  should  first  wish  you  to  take  more  work  and  then  find 
fault,  but  you  know  that  nothing  but  unfeigned  affection  for  you  and 
desire  to  promote  the  Redeemer's  glory  can  actuate  me  in  this  matter.  I 
therefore  think  that  you  should  endeavour  to  get  some  one  to  assist  you 
at  Lonehead,  and  you  can  give  an  exhortation  at  the  end,  and  sometimes 
at  Gilmerton.  Perhaps  you  may  get  a  curate.  But  you  wish  me  to  tell 
you  what  we  are  doing.  I  should  have  written  to  you  before  now,  but 
I  wrote  to  Mr.  Ewing  and  told  him  to  acquaint  you  of  our  progress,  and 
really  our  time  is  so  short  that  we  cannot  employ  much  of  it  in  writing 
letters.  I  know  there  is  no  one  more  interested  in  our  success  than 
yourself,  and  none,  I  am  persuaded,  who  remembers  us  more  at  a  throne 
of  grace.  Therefore,  be  assured,  when  we  are  long  in  writing  to  you  it  is 
not  owing  to  forgctfulness,  for  I  believe  you  are  in  each  of  our  hearts. 
You  ought  to  be  on  mine,  for  there  is  no  one  whose  preaching,  conver- 
sation, or  writings,  have  been  so  useful  to  me  as  the  hours  we  have  spent 
together.    The  letter  to  Mr.  Ewing  was  from  Stonehaven.    We  went  on 


158  FIRST   TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

next  day  to  Aberdeen,  and  saw  several  brethren,  who  were  very  kind,  but 
seemed  to  think  we  were  going  rather  too  far  in  preaching  in  the  streets, 
&c.    We  spoke  to  them  at  supper  about  schools,  &c.,  but  there  were  so 
many  objections,  that  unless  we  had  stayed  and  taught  the  schools  our- 
selves, little  good  seemed  likely  to  be  done.     But  I  hope  what  we  said 
wiU  bring  the  matter  under  consideration,  and  that  hereafter  something 
of  that  kind  may  be  established.     The  parties  are  not  much  united,  which 
is  a  vast  loss.    We  preached  twice  on  Saturday  at  Old  Aberdeen,  once 
there  on  Sabbath  morning;   twice  on  Sabbath,  and  once  on  Monday 
morning,  at  Gilhomston,  a  small  toTi-n  in  the  neighbourhood.  ...  So  that 
in  two  half  days  we  preached  ten  times  in  that  town  and  neighbourhood. 
...   I  am  to  stay  here  all  Sabbath.     Intend  preaching  to-morrow  night 
at  M*Duff  town,  within  about  a  mile  from  this  place.     To  preach  on  the 
Green  Sabbath  morning,   at  M*Duff  town  afternoon,   and  here  in  the 
evening.    I  have  not  found  the  least  inconvenience  from  preaching, 
although  sometimes  I  have  been  obliged  to  raise  my  voice  a  good  deal. 
The  people  are  really  perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge.     Pray,  then,  that 
what  we  say  may  be  blessed,  and  lead  them  to  search  the  Scriptures  for 
themselves.    We  shall  not  have  too  many  pamphlets.     Indeed  I  suppose 
we  shall  need  to  have  sent  us  what  we  have  left  at  Edinburgh.    We  shall 
hope  to  hear  from  you  by  the  time  we  get  to  Inverness.     We  were  much 
refreshed  by  your  letter  this  morning,  and  some  others  which  we  received. 
We  need  something  to  encourage  us,  although  we  have  met  with  enough 
of  the  Lord's  goodness  to  put  to  shame  our  unbelief.     He  sometimes 
brings  us  down  that  we  may  look  to  Him,  but  He  has  disposed  the  hearts 
of  all  to  behave  to  us  with  much  civility  and  respect  in  every  place. 
It  is  a  great  comfort  to  know  that  so  many  of  the  Lord's  people  are 
praying  for  us.     We  have,  I  am  persuaded,  experienced  the  benefit  of 
their  prayers.    It  is  now  past  five.    You  will  soon,  I  suppose,  meet  at 
Mr.  Black's.    May  the  Lord  meet  with  you.    I  know  you  will  remember 
us.    A.  and  R.  will,  I  suppose,  be  preaching  at  the  very  time.     I  am 
much  obliged  by  your  kindness  to  my  wife.     She  is  ver}'  sensible  of  it. 
I  expected  to  have  heard  from  her  to-day.     Ilemember  me  to  Mr.  Ewing 
kindly.    I  have  got  his  letter.     I  shall  write  to  him  some  time  hence ; 
you  can  give  him  what  information  there  is  in  this  letter.    It  is  written  in 
a  very  hurried  manner,  as  you  will  see.     I  cease  not  to  pray  for  you  and 
the  people  of  Gilmerton  and  your  colleague.    May  your  labours  be 
crowned  with  abundant  success.    Remember  us  most  kindly  to  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Black  and  all  our  friends.     The  brethren  salute  you  much. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Sir, 

"  Yours  verj*  affectionately, 

"  (Signed)  J.  A.  Haij)ane.'' 


COLLEGE-CLOSE    AT   ABERDEEN.  159 

At  Aberdeen  a  circumstance  occurred,  which,  many  yean 
afterwards,  gave  rise  to  a  gross  exaggeration,  to  the  effect  that 
they  had  been  arrested  at  the  instigation  of  some  of  the  Profes- 
sors, for  preaching  to  the  students  in  the  College-close.  When 
this  idle  tale  was  mentioned  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  in 
the  year  1842,  as  an  old  story  still  circulated  on  the  authority  of 
the  widow  of  one  of  the  Professors,  then  living  at  firighton,  he 
replied  as  follows :  — 

''The  matter  at  Aberdeen  was  simply  this.  Intending  to 
preach  out  of  doors  on  the  Lord's-day  evening,  I  was  told  that 
the  College-close  would  be  an  excellent  place,  so  the  town 
drummer  was  sent  round  to  give  notice.  On  Sunday  morning, 
before  breakfast,  I  received  a  message  from  one  of  the  Magis- 
trates, who  was  also  a  Professor,  that  he  wished  to  see  me.  On 
presenting  myself,  he  inquired  how  I  came  to  intimate  preaching 
in  a  place  which  was  not  public.  I  replied  that  I  had  been 
informed  that  there  would  be  no  objection  in  any  quarter. 
'Who  told  you  so? '  I  replied  that  I  was  told  it  and  believed 
it,  but  would  not  say  by  whom.  He  pressed  the  matter  very 
much,  but  saw  I  was  firm.  I  had  been  so  told  by  one  highly 
respectable,  who  spoke  in  good  faith,  but  whom  I  would  not 
implicate.  But  I  said,  '  Since  it  appears  that  I  was  misinformed, 
I  have  no  wish  to  persist,  and  I  will  preach  elsewhere.'  '  No,' 
said  the  Baillie,  '  that  will  be  worse ;  it  will  occasion  a  riot,  and 
our  windows  will  be  broken/  '  Then,'  said  I,  '  as  you  wish  it, 
I  will  preach,'  and  accordingly  I  did  so  to  a  very  great  congre- 
gation. For  this  the  place  was  well  adapted.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  widow's  story  may  be  correct  in  regard  to  my  telling 
the  Professor  that  the  Grospel  was  of  more  importance  than  the 
studies  of  the  young  men,  though  I  do  not  recollect  it.  At  all 
events,  they  were  not  engaged  in  their  studies,  at  least  within 
the  College,  on  the  Sabbath  evening.  There  is,  however,  an 
episode  to  the  story  of  the  sermon.  The  Magistrates  called 
their  dnimmer  to  account,  and  fined  him  a  guinea.  He  was 
obliged  to  pay,  or  would  have  lost  his  office.  When  I  heard  it, 
I  sent  him  the  money,  with  which  he  was  very  well  pleased,  as 
he  had  no  expectation  of  it.     Not  long  after  my  preaching,  the 


160  PIKST   TOUR   TO    THE    NORTH. 

Magistrates  of  Aberdeen  sent  a  complaint  to  the  Admiralty  of 
their  trade  not  being  duly  protected.  The  Admiralty  referred 
their  letter  to  Lord  Duncan  (as  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
North  Seas),  who  told  me  that  he  wrote  a  very  sharp  letter  to 
the  Magistrates  on  the  occasion.  Of  course,  he  knew  nothing 
of  any  difference  between  them  and  me,  but  in  those  days  they 
attributed  the  sharpness  of  his  rebuke  to  their  interference 
with  me,  and  I  met  with  no  further  interruption  at  Aberdeen. '^ 

The  sermon  in  the  College-close  was  the  more  remarkable  on 
this  account,  that  although  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  before  preached 
to  the  colliers  of  Gilmerton,  and  also  at  various  places  between 
Edinburgh  and  Aberdeen,  this  was  the  first  occasion  on  which 
he  addressed  a  crowded  audience,  composed  of  persons  of  all 
conditions  in  life.  It  might  be  said  that  the  whole  population 
of  Aberdeen  turned  out  by  thousands  to  hear  an  East  India 
Captain.  There  was  novelty  in  the  fact ;  but  his  powers  as  a 
preacher  were  also  beginning  to  be  known,  and  the  multitude 
was  so  great  that  even  in  the  spacious  court  which  they  occupied 
they  "  almost  trod  upon  each  other."  The  people  listened  with 
deep  attention  as  the  speaker  addressed  them  from  Rom.  i.  16, 
''  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Grospel  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth."  He  spoke 
with  that  earnest  fervour  of  spirit  which  gives  wings  to  thought, 
and  inspires  eloquence  in  those  who  are  least  solicitous  about 
oratory.  On  a  subsequent  occasion  he  preached  in  the  streets  of 
Aberdeen  on  a  Sabbath  evening,  and  next  morning  one  of  his 
hearers  was  found  dead,  but  on  his  knees,  in  the  attitude  of 
prayer. 

In  the  above  letter  Mr.  J.  Haldane  alludes  to  his  intention  to 
remain  at  Banff,  to  preach  once  on  the  Saturday  at  a  little 
village  in  the  neighbourhood,  as  well  as  three  times  on  the 
Lord's-day.  These  intentions  were  fulfilled,  and  his  ministra- 
tions produced  a  deep  sensation  in  the  town  and  district.  On 
the  Sunday  evening  the  Battery-green  was  usually  crowded  by 
multitudes,  attracted  by  the  military  band  which  during  the 
summer  performed  for  two  hours  every  evening.  But  on  this 
occasion  the  commanding  officer,  in  compliment  to  Mr.  Haldane^ 


SERMON  ON  THE  BANKS  OP  THE  DOVERN.    161 

very  politely  intermitted  the  parade^  so  as  to  leave  the  green 
undisturbed^  and  more  particularly  to  give  the  soldiers  an  oppor- 
tunity of  attending  sermon.  But  there  is  another  circumstance 
connected  with  his  preaching  on  the  Saturday  evening,  which  is 
still  more  interesting.  It  was  unkn(fwn  to  himself,  and  is  one 
of  the  many  instances  which  prove  how  little  a  preacher 
can  be  aware  of  the  eflect  of  the  messages  he  delivers.  It 
was  communicated  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Morison,  of  Chelsea,  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  James  Haldane,  of  whom  he  said  that  a  remark- 
able sermon  of  his,  preached  on  a  certain  summer's  evening  in 
1797,  on  the  banks  of  the  Dovem,  near  Banff,  had  been  blessed 
to  his  excellent  and  pious  wife.  The  details  are  given  in  the 
following  letter,  written  by  Mrs.  Morison  : — 

'' April  29,  IS51. 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — When  the  news  reached  us  of  your  venerable  and 
beloved  father's  removal  from  this  vale  of  tears,  I  did  indeed  feel  (though 
I  never  had  the  honour  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  him)  that  I  had 
lost  a  true  friend,  one  to  whom  I  shall  owe  much  in  eternity,  where, 
through  the  mercy  of  *  God  our  Saviour,'  I  hope  yet  to  meet  him,  and  to 
converse  on  all  the  way  in  which  the  Lord  hath  led  us,  to  prove  us  and  to 
try  us,  in  this  wilderness.  I  do  not  know  that  the  incident  to  which  my 
husband  referred,  in  a  late  note,  is  worthy  of  being  formally  recorded,  yet 
to  me  it  must  always  be  so  interesting  that  I  cannot  decline  communi- 
cating it,  as  well  as  memory  will  permit  at  this  distance  of  time. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1797,  Captain  Haldane,  as  he  was  then  called,  visited 
my  native  town,  in  company  with  one  or  two  other  gentlemen,  whose 
names  I  do  not  remember.  By  the  usual  mode  of  advertisement,  the 
tuck  of  drum,  a  sermon  was  announced,  not  at  the  usual  place,  the 
Battery-green,  but  at  a  neighbouring  village,  on  the  green  banks  of  the 
gently-flowing  Dovem.  The  reason  for  the  selection  of  this  spot  was  the 
fact,  that  the  Battery-green  had  been  previously  engaged  by  a  company  of 
equestrians.  I  was  then  a  very  little  child,  and  I  well  remember  I  had 
been  invited  by  a  school-fellow  to  accompany  her  to  see  the  equestrians. 

"  We  had  actually  set  out  to  go  to  the  place ;  but  before  reaching  the 
spot,  a  worthy  lady,  who  knew  us  both,  met  and  accosted  us, '  Where  are 
you  going,  my  young  friends  ?  *  My  companion  replied,  *  To  the  Battery- 
green,  to  see  the  horsemen.'  *  Oh,'  said  she,  *  you  had  better  go  with  me 
to  the  green  banks,  and  hear  Captain  Haldane ;  it  will  do  you  more  good.' 
My  companion  said,  *  No ;  I  can  hear  a  sermon  at  any  time,  but  I  cannot 
see  the  horsemen.'  She  determined  to  execute  her  purpose,  and  went  to 
the  Battery-green ;  and  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  she  has  never  entered  on 

M 


162  FIRST   TOUK   TO    THE   NORTH. 

the  narrow  path.  Young  as  I  was  then,  I  was  influenced  by  an  unseen 
hand  to  accept  the  pressing  invitation  to  go  to  the  sermon  on  the  green 
banks,  and  quitted  my  companion.  Captain  Haldane  arrived  on  horse- 
back at  the  place  where  the  people  were  assembled  to  hear  him.  He 
dismounted,  and  gave  his  horse  to  the  charge  of  another  gentleman  who 
stood  by.  He  was  then  a  youn^  man,  under  thirty  years  of  age,  and  had 
on  a  blue  great-coat,  braided  in  front,  after  the  fashion  of  the  times.  He 
also  wore  powder,  and  his  hair  tied  behind,  as  was  then  usual  for  gentle- 
men. And  I  can  never  forget  the  impressions  which  fell  on  my  young 
heart,  as  your  father,  in  a  distinct,  clear,  and  manly  tone,  began  to  address 
the  thoughtless  multitude  that  had  been  attracted  to  hear  him.  His 
powerful  appeals  to  the  conscience,  couched  in  such  simple  phrase,  at  the 
distance  of  more  than  fifty  years  are  still  vividly  remembered,  and  were 
so  terrif)ing  at  the  time,  that  I  never  closed  an  eye  nor  even  retired  to 
rest  that  night.  I  cannot  be  quite  sure  what  was  your  father's  text ;  but 
from  the  frequent  and  pointed  repetition  of  the  words,  "  Except  ye  repent^ 
ye  shall  all  likewise  perish^*  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  these  must  have 
been  the  subject  of  discourse.  One  thing  I  know,  that  the  impression 
produced  by  what  I  heard  was  never  effaced  from  my  mind ;  for  though  I 
did  not  fully  embrace  the  Gospel  for  years  after  I  had  listened  to  your 
honoured  father,  yet  I  never  relapsed  again  into  my  former  state  of  care- 
lessness and  indifference  to  eternal  things. 

" '  And  oft,  amid  the  giddy  throng. 

Did  conscience  whisper,  thou  art  wrong. 
Thou  art  not  fit  to  die.' 

"  Thus,  my  dear  Sir,  very  imperfectly,  but  truthfully,  have  I  endeavoured 
to  comply  with  your  request ;  and  praying  that  every  blessing  may  rest 
on  you  and  yours,  I  am,**  &c. 

The  sermon  thus  referred  to  produced  a  very  general  impres- 
sion. The  preacher  drew  the  character  of  various  classes  of 
mankind^ — ^the  rich,  the  poor,  the  learned,  the  ignorant,  the 
old,  the  young,  the  sinner,  and  the  self-righteous, — exposing 
the  various  subterfuges  under  which  the  deceitfulness  of  the 
human  heart  shrouds  itself,  and  concluding,  in  regard  to  each, 
*'  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish.^' 

In  speaking  of  Banff  and  the  neighbourhood,  Mr.  J.  H. 
observes,  in  the  Journal : — 

"  Religion  appears  at  all  those  places  to  be  at  a  low  ebb.  A  minister 
of  this  town  published  a  Catechism,  in  which  he  openly  avowed  Socinian 
principles,  and  his  opinions,  we  understood,  had  made  considerable  pro- 
gress among  the  people.    The  Catholics  here,  as  in  some  other  parts  of 


FORRES NAIRN INVERNESS.  163 

the  north,  are  Mud  to  be  upon  the  increase,  partly  owing  to  the  zeal  of 
their  clergy,  and  the  want  of  zeal  in  others.  There  is  also  here  an 
Episcopal  meeting. 

"  July  31. — Met  at  Cullen,  and  after  preaching  and  distributing  tracts, 
as  usual,  went  on  to  Fochabers  (a  \illage  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Gordon 
Castle).  This  place  is  notorious  for  its  laxity  of  morals  and  indifference 
to  religion.  Of  these  we  saw  evident  tokens  in  the  carelessness  and 
indifiSerence  of  those  to  whom  we  preached. 

"August  I, — Arrived  at  Elgin.  The  magistrates  and  ministers  here 
prohibited  the  l)ellman  from  giving  intimation  of  sermon ;  but  though 
public  notice  was  prevented,  some  friends  of  the  truth  wore  abundantly 
actiye,  and  at  the  appointed  hour  we  had  a  congregation  of  about  600 
persons,  to  whom  we  preached  in  the  street  from  the  steps  of  the  church. 
Preached  again  in  the  morning.  We  found  that  the  Socinian  Catechism 
formerly  mentioned  had  been  introduced  into  the  grammar  school  of 
Elgin.  At  a  public  examination,  however,  upon  one  of  the  ministers  of 
the  Presbytery,  v^ho  preaches  the  Gosjyel,  remonstrating  against  this  inno- 
vation (in  which  he  was  opposed  by  the  ministers  of  the  town  who  were 
present),  the  Provost  ordered  this  new  Catechism  to  be  discontinued,  and 
the  shorter  one  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  to  be  restored." 

From  Elgin  they  proceeded  to  FoiTes,  and  thence  to  Nairn, 
where  they  '^  met  with  a  most  affectionate  reception  from  some 
friends  of  the  Gospel,  of  the  Anti-burgher  congregation/'  amongst 
whom  "  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  seemed  to 
flourish/'  and  where  there  were  monthly  prayer-meetings  and 
Sabbath-evening  schools.  At  Fort-George,  the  Governor  declined 
permission  to  preach  to  the  soldiers,  on  the  ground  that  "he 
never  heard  of  sermon  in  any  fort  on  a  week-day."  Mr.  Rate, 
therefore,  remained  behind,  and  his  two  friends,  having  preached 
at  Campbeltown  on  the  way,  arrived  at  Inverness  on  the  5th  of 
Augost.  Next  day  being  a  sacrament  Lord's-day,  both  of  them 
preached  twice,  at  different  hours,  on  a  hill  adjoining  the  town, 
and  on  the  Monday  they  again  addressed  "very  great  multi- 
tudes,'' morning  and  evening.  They  also  held  a  meeting  to 
form  a  Society  for  establishing  Sabbath  Schools.  Three  were 
shortly  after  erected,  and  instantly  met  with  great  success. 

On  the  7th  August,  after  once  more  preaching  in  the  open  air 
to  a  congregation  of  500  anxious  listeners,  who  stood  all  the 
time,  although  it  rained,  Mr.  J.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman  left 
Inverness^  with  the  design  of  visiting  the  Orkney  Islands.    This 

m2 


164  FIRST  TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

plan   was   arranged  under  the  following   circumstances,    thus 
detailed  in  the  Journal : — 

"  Having  heard  whilst  at  Elgin  that  a  fair  was  soon  to  be  held  at  Kirk- 
wall, at  which  there  were  usually  great  numbers  of  people  from  the 
different  Isles  of  Orkney ;  and  having  also  heard  of  the  deplorable  state 
of  many  of  those  Islands  from  the  want  of  religious  instruction,  we 
resolved  that  two  of  us  should  embrace  the  opportunity  of  going  thither 
with  the  merchants  from  Elgin,  and  then  return  through  Caithness, 
Sutherland,  and  Ross-shires,  to  Inverness,  in  which  place  and  neighbour- 
hood we  thought  it  most  advisable  for  one  to  stay  and  labour  till  the  other 
two  should  return." 

At  Nairn  they  again  preached  to  a  numerous  congregation, 
and  were  refreshed  by  the  intelligence  received  from  their 
Christian  friends  at  that  place,  as  to  ''  tokens  of  the  Divine 
presence^'  already  manifested  in  connexion  with  this  missionary 
tour.  Having  again  preached  at  Nairn,  Auldearn,  and  Forres, 
they  arrived  at  Elgin,  and  again,  morning  and  evening,  addressed 
congregations  varying  from  700  to  1000  persons. 


FIRST  VISIT  TO  THE  ORKNEY  ISLANDS. 

The  visit  to  the  Orkney  Islands,  in  1797,  brought  to  the 
inhabitants  a  large  outpouring  of  spiritual  blessings.  In  a 
Memoir  of  James  Haldane,  it  demands  peculiar  notice. 

In  these  days,  when  railroads,  steam,  and  electricity  have 
brought  us  into  close  contact  with  almost  every  comer  of  the 
world,  the  Orkneys  are  still  to  a  considerable  extent  separated 
from  the  rest  of  Britain.  But  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  a  tour  to 
the  northern  islands  of  Scotland  was  an  undertaking,  so  much 
more  formidable  than  one  to  the  Hebrides,  that  it  was  seldom 
attempted.  The  Pentland  Frith,  which  connects  the  German 
Ocean  with  the  Atlantic,  from  John  o'  Groat's  House  to  Cape 
Wrath,  was  in  itself  a  formidable  barrier.  It  is  the  roughest 
and  most  dangerous  of  the  Scottish  seas,  where  the  waves  roll 
onwards,  presenting  a  front,  not  sloping  as  in  the  ocean,  but 
perpendicular  as  a  wall,  and  where  foaming  whirlpools,  powerful 
eddies,  and  startling  waterspouts,  produced  by  strong  currents 


ORKNEYS.  165 

rushing  in  opposite  directions^  or  by  sunken  rocks^  have  given 
occasion  to  descriptions  in  which  poets  and  artists  have  vied  with 
each  other  in  painting  the  sublime  and  terrible.  The  impetuous 
tides  of  the  Pentland  run  at  a  velocity  varying  from  three  to  nine 
miles  an  hour^  and  the  currents  are  often  most  dangerous  in  fogs 
or  calms.  These  tides  are,  however,  equalled  by  those  in  the 
intersecting  friths  or  sounds, 

Where  restJcse  seas 

Howl  round  the  storm-swept  Orcades, — 
Where  erst  St.  Clair  hore  princely  sway 
0*er  isle  and  isleti  strait  and  hay ; 
Still  nods  their  palace  to  its  fall, 
Thy  pride  and  sorrow,  fair  Kirkwall ! 

The  commencement  of  this  missionary  tour  is  thus  chronicled 
in  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  Journal : — 

'*  AugttMi  11. — Left  Elgin  and  came  to  Brough-head,  where  a  good 
many  of  our  friends  from  Elgin  and  the  people  of  the  village  assembled, 
to  whom  we  preached.  We  then  embarked  for  Kirkwall.  Several  of  our 
brethren  accompanied  us  to  the  boat,  and  bade  us  farewell,  most  affection- 
ately commending  us  to  the  grace  and  care  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Sailed 
with  a  fair  wind.  It  fell  calm  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  wind  seemed 
likely  to  become  foul,  but  by  the  kindness  of  Providence  a  fair  and  brisk 
gale  sprung  up,  which  brought  us  safely  into  Scalpa  Bay,  about  a  mile 
from  Kirkwall,  by  eight  o'clock  next  morning.  The  merchants  who 
freighted  the  boat,  and  the  sailors  in  general,  behaved  to  us  with  much 
kindness  and  respect.  Preached  in  tlie  boat  on  Friday  evening,  lliey 
listened  with  much  attention,  and  frequently  attended  afterwards,  during 
our  stay  at  Kirkwall. 

"  August  12. — Arrived  at  Kirkwall.  Were  providentially  directed  to 
a  friend  of  the  truth  (Baillic  Jamieson),  who  received  us  with  much  kind- 
ness. Litimated  sermon  by  the  bell  at  half-past  six  in  the  evening,  in  the 
Palace  Close,  where  we  (Mr.  Aikman)  preached  to  a  congregation  of 
about  eight  hundred  persons.  This  is  a  square,  formed  by  a  large  and 
ancient  edifice  on  the  south,  supposed  to  have  been  the  palace  of  some  of 
the  Norwegian  kings,  and  on  the  north  by  another,  termed  the  Bishop's 
Palace.  On  the  east  is  the  church  of  St.  Magnus,  and  on  the  west  it  is 
bounded  by  a  wall.  It  is  capable,  probably,  of  containing  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  persons.  Having  heard  that  there  had  been  only  two  or  three 
sermons  preached  in  the  Island  of  Shappinshay  (a  few  miles  distant  from 
Kirkwall),  from  the  time  of  the  last  General  Assembly,  when  their 
minister  had  left  them,  we  resolved  that  one  of  us  should  spend  the 


166  FIRST   TOUR  TO   THE   NORTH. 

LordVday  in  that  island,  while  the  other  remained  in  Kirkwall.  The 
minister  of  Shappinshay  was  at  this  time  detained  in  Edinburgh,  as  an 
evidence  in  a  trial ;  but  it  is  well  known  to  be  the  practice  of  ministers 
from  that  country,  to  take  a  considerable  vacation  at  the  time  of  the 
(General  Assembly. 

"  Before  proceeding  further  in  the  account  of  our  labours,  we  shall  here 
offer  a  few  remarks  on  the  former  and  present  religious  state  of  Orkney. 
The  islands  of  Orkney,  according  to  our  information,  which  is  rendered 
strongly  credible  by  what  we  actually  witnessed,  have  been,  for  a  period 
beyond  the  memory  of  any  man  living  (except  in  one  or  two  solitary 
instances),  as  much  in  need  of  the  true  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  far  as 
respects  the  preaching  of  it,  as  any  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Many  of  the  parishes  comprehend  two  or  three  different  islands.  In  each 
of  these  the  minister  should  preach  occasionally ;  but  owing  to  the  want  of 
churches,  or  rather  to  the  churches  being  in  want  of  repair,  as  well  as 
to  the  occasional  trouble  and  difficulty  of  crossing  the  Friths  which 
intersect  these  islands,  to  say  nothing  of  the  want  of  zeal,  many  of  the 
people  see  their  pastor  but  seldom  in  the  course  of  the  year.  It  is  a  fact, 
that  in  some  cases  where  there  are  two  islands  in  a  parish,  or  two  parishes 
annexed  in  one  island,  and  a  church  in  repair  only  in  one  of  them,  the 
minister  preaches  in  it  on  one  Sabbath,  but  the  next,  when  it  falls  to  the 
turn  of  the  other  island  or  parish,  he  neither  preaches  there,  nor  in  his 
other  church,  though  it  may  adjoin  his  manse. 

"  It  can  occasion  no  siurprise  to  those  who  know  the  Gospel  and  are 
acquainted  with  that  enmity  and  opposition  which  the  human  mind 
naturally  bears  to  its  humiliating  doctrines,  to  learn  that  the  sermons  of 
such  pastors  do  not  contain  glad  tidings  to  perishing  sinners.  At  the 
same  time,  one  would  think  that  the  most  inconsiderate  could  scarcely 
fell  to  be  struck  with  the  strange  inconsistency  of  teaching  others  that  they 
will  be  saved  by  a  diligent  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  station,  while 
they  themselves  so  openly  neglect  their  own.  The  manners  and  conduct 
of  the  people,  as  in  every  other  place,  are  corrupted  in  a  due  proportion  to 
their  ignorance  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  no  part,  in  Orkney,  as  we  learn,  did 
this  remark  more  justly  apply,  than  it  did  about  five  or  six  years  ago  to 
Kirkwall,  where,  excepting  two  or  three  individuals,  the  great  body  of 
the  people  were  utter  strangers  to  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  without  works.  It  pleased  God, 
however,  in  the  riches  of  his  grace,  to  look  down  with  tender  compassion 
upon  the  deplorable  situation  of  this  place,  and  to  send  them  help  out  of 
his  holy  heaven.  A  native  of  Orkney,  who  had  been  apprentice  to  a  pious 
tradesman  in  Kirkwall,  went  to  Newcastle,  where  he  attended  with  profit 
the  ministry  of  Mr.  Graham,  the  Anti-burgher.  He  returned  to  Kirkwall, 
and  having  experienced  the  benefit  of  religious  society  in  the  south,  upon 
finding  another  person  of  views  similar  to  his  own,  he  proposed  a  weekly 


ORKNEYS.  167 

meetiiig  for  prayer  and  religious  fellowship.  This  was  immediately 
formed.  One  and  another,  whose  minds  it  pleased  God,  by  means  of 
eonyersation  or  reading  books,  which  were  put  into  their  hands,  to  bring 
under  impressions  of  the  infinite  worth  of  their  immortal  souls,  were 
added  to  their  little  meeting.  Their  numbers  continued,  from  time  to 
time,  to  increase.  These  persons  now  began  seriously  to  feel  their  state 
of  bondage,  with  regard  to  religious  privileges.  They  found  it  was  a 
yoke  which  they  were  not  able  to  bear,  and  therefore  determined,  looking 
np  to  God  for  his  countenance,  to  open  a  subscription  for  erecting  a  place 
of  worship,  where  they  might  enjoy  the  blessing  of  the  preaching  of  the 
GospeL  Their  means  were  indeed  but  very  slender,  and  appeared  little 
likely  to  accomplish  the  end,  especially  in  the  view  of  that  opposition, 
with  which  they  knew  they  must  contend.  But  he,  whose  glory  it  is  to 
choose  the  weak  things  of  this  world  to  confound  the  mighty,  appeared 
mott  eminently  in  their  behalf,  and  they  were  enabled  both  to  begin  and 
to  finish  a  house  for  the  worship  of  God.  They  then  applied  to  the  Anti- 
burgher  Synod  for  a  minister  to  preach  to  them.  A  minister  was 
accordingly  sent,  and  others  successively  since  that  time,  all  of  whose 
labours  appear  to  have  been  remarkably  blessed.  Many  who  were  living 
altogether  careless  of  Divine  things,  since  the  Gospel  was  preached  in  the 
new  church,  as  it  is  called,  have  been  brought  under  serious  concern,  and 
give  good  evidence,  by  their  conduct,  that  they  are  passed  from  death 
unto  life,  and  some  who  M'ere  avowed  enemies  have  become  the  friends 
of  the  cause.  The  Lord  appears  evidently  to  have  been  preparing  a 
people  in  this  place  for  himself:  and  it  is  remarked,  that  since  the  time 
that  this  uncommon  concern  has  been  excited,  a  very  considerable  external 
reformation  has  taken  place,  even  amongst  those  who  do  not  appear  to 
be  under  the  influence  of  the  truth.  That  the  Lord's  arm  hath  been 
made  bare  in  behalf  of  these  destitute  isles  in  no  common  way,  will 
appear  from  the  fact,  that  two  hundred  persons  were  admitted  to  the 
Lord's  Supper,  upon  the  first  celebration  of  that  ordinance  in  the  new 
church,  in  July  last,  after  a  strict  and  individual  examination,  in  which 
the  ministers  enjoyed,  as  we  are  informed,  much  satisfaction.  Several 
also  were  kept  back,  of  whom  good  hopes  are  entertained.  When  the 
circumstance  just  stated  is  contrasted  with  the  situation  of  Kirkwall  but 
four  or  five  years  since,  the  friends  of  Christ  may  well  exclaim  with  joy 
and  gratitude,  *  What  hath  God  wrought ! '  *  The  wilderness  hath  truly 
rejoiced;  it  hath  blossomed  as  the  rose.  The  Lord's  hand  is  not  yet 
shortened  that  it  cannot  save,  neither  is  his  ear  heavy  that  it  cannot 
hear.'" 

On  the  next  Lord's-day  Mr.  Aikman  preached  twice^  to  con- 
gregations of  twelve  hundred  and  three  thousand  persons^  whilst 


168  FIRST   TOUR   TO    THE   NORTH. 

Mr.  J.  Ilaldane^  who  was  always  the  first  to  undertake  the 
more  laborious  duties,  for  which  his  physical  health  and  energy 
also  better  fitted  him,  crossed  over  to  Shappinshay,  in  a  boat 
sent  for  the  purpose  by  the  people,  and  preached  twice  by  the 
sea-side,  to  congregations  compiising  the  greater  part  of  the 
population  of  the  island.  But  this  visit  was  rendered  memor- 
able by  the  conversion  of  an  old  man,  of  ninety- two,  who  had 
been  bom  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  was  now  confined  to 
bed.  Mr.  J.  Haldane  visited  him  after  sermon,  and  found  him 
hardly  able  to  speak,  although  quite  sensible.  In  the  Journal 
he  says,  '^  Asked  him  what  was  to  become  of  him  after  death  ? 
He  replied,  he  was  very  ignorant,  could  not  read,  but  had 
sometimes  prayed  to  God.  On  being  asked,  whether  he  knew 
anything  of  Christ,  he  acknowledged  his  entire  ignorance." 
The  old  man  stated,  that  he  remembered  how,  when  a  lad, 
herding  cattle,  under  a  sense  of  darkness  as  to  his  future  state, 
he  once  prayed  to  God  that  some  teacher  might  be  sent  to 
enlighten  his  ignorance.  This  prayer  seems  to  have  entered 
into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth,  and,  after  being  treasured 
up  for  nearly  eighty  years,  was  answered  almost  at  the  last 
hour  of  parting  life.  Mr.  James  Haldane  came  to  the  old  man 
as  the  messenger  of  peace,  and  preached  to  him«the  Gospel, 
declaring,  that  now  the  Lord  was  waiting  to  be  gracious,  and 
that  if  he  believed  what  the  word  of  God  testified  of  his  guilt 
and  misery,  and  of  the  person  and  work  of  Christ  as  that  of  an 
Almighty  Saviour,  he  should  be  saved.  He  "  seemed  much 
affected,  and  grasped  the  speaker  eagerly  by  the  hand.  He 
cried  to  God  for  the  pardon  of  his  sins;  and  being  informed 
that  his  prayers  could  only  be  heard  through  Jesus  Christ, 
who  came  to  save  the  very  chief  of  sinners,  he  called  upon  the 
Saviour  for  mercy,  and  repeatedly  exclaimed,  /  believe,  I  believe. 
This  recalled  strongly  to  our  mind  the  case  of  the  bhnd  man, 
who,  as  soon  as  he  knew  the  Son  of  God,  worshipped  him." 

The  same  evening  Mr.  Haldane  returned  to  Kirkwall,  but  did 
not  fail,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  once  more  to  visit  Shappin- 
shay, and  the  dying  old  man.     It  was  a  case  to  which  he  often 


O&KNETS OLD    MAN    OP   NINETY-TWO.  169 

referred  in  after  life^  and  it  was  obviously  near  to  his  heart 

at  the  time^  as  appears  from  his  correspondence,  and  particularly 

fifom  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Campbell : — 

"  KirkwaU,  Augmt  Uth,  1797. 
"  Mt  Dear  Friend, — You  did  not  expect  to  hear  from  me  from  this 
place  when  I  left  you,  but  the  Lord  does  all  things  well.  I  have  written  to 
Mrs.  Haldane  to-day.  You  will  hear  from  her  some  accovmt  of  us  since 
we  came  here.  If,  as  there  is  reason  to  hope,  our  coming  has  been  useful 
to  the  old  man,  there  was  a  needs  be  for  our  coming.  We  intend  to  stay 
till  Monday.  There  is  a  great  fair  here,  which  begins  to-morrow.  We 
intend  to  preach  twice  a-day,  and  visit  some  of  the  neighbouring  islands. 
We  go  to-morrow  to  Stromness,  which  is  the  next  largest  town  on  this 
island,  to  preach,  and  visit  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton,  with  whom  we  intend 
to  stay  all  night.  I  was  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  letter.  It  increases 
my  respect  for  Mr.  Newton,  that  he  should  find  so  little  difficulty  in 
resolving  the  knotty  point  (as  to  lay  preaching).  If  the  Lord  spares  me 
to  return,  I  shall  write  to  him.  We  have  left  Rate  at  Inverness.  I 
hope  he  may  be  the  means  of  doing  good  there.  The  Lord  has,  I  am 
persuaded,  much  people  in  that  place.  We  received  a  supply  of 
pamphlets  there,  which  we  needed,  as  we  were  quite  run  out.  You 
was  afraid  we  had  too  many,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  I  must  request  you 
to  desire  Mr.  Ritchie  to  throw  off  two  thousand  more  of  my  *  Address ' 
immediately,  and  to  forward  one  thousand  of  them  to  me  at  Aberdeen, 
first  ship,  together  with  all  the  other  pamphlets  he  has  belonging  to  me.*' 

The  letter  here  breaks  oflf,  and  Mr.  Aikman  takes  up  his  pen, 

and  proceeds — 

"  Our  dear  friend  having  written  thus  far,  was  obliged  to  begin  to 
prepare  for  preaching.  He  tliereforc  handed  me  over  the  paper,  that  I 
might  tell  you  a  little  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  in  his  late  dispensa- 
tions towards  us  in  this  place,  and  in  bringing  us  to  it.  Truly  this  has 
been  the  work  of  God,  and  not  of  man.  We  were  led  to  think  of  coming 
here  by  hearing  that  a  multitude  of  **  idle  vagrants,**  or  busy  vagrants 
rather,  assembled  here  at  these  times,  and  that  an  easy  opportunity  was 
afforded  us  by  the  boats  from  Elgin.  .  .  .  Yesterday,  being  Lord*s- 
day,  Mr.  Haldane  went  to  a  neighbouring  and  desolate  island,  and 
preached  two  long  sermons,  and  afterwards  visited  an  old  man  of  ninety- 
two,  who  knew  nothing  of  Jesus,  but  appeared  wonderfully  affected.  The 
Lord  grant  that  the  issue  may  be  to  the  praise  of  his  grace.  I  heard  a 
shocking  sermon  in  the  Established  Church  in  the  forenoon,  after  preach- 
ing to  about  one  thousand  five  hundred  people,  and  was  strengthened  of 
God  to  bear  an  open  and  explicit  testimony  against  it,  from  Pilate's 
question,  John  xiii.  38,  before  three  thousand  persons,  I  suppose.    I  told 


L;U  Vi&ST   TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

Likr'tu  lUai  I  uccouiitcil  it  an  unspeakable  happiness  to  have  stood  upon 
liWL  plucc,  uiid  to  have  declared  that  there  was  no  other  name  given 
uuili'i  ht'uvcii,  by  which  men  could  be  saved,  but  the  name  of  Christ. 
HlcNMfd  be  God,  things  are  much  changed  (at  Kirkwall)  since  the 
luniiHtvi'M  ot  the  secession  were  sent  hither,  and  of  this  I  hope  we  shall 
bo  liblu  to  bring  you  such  accounts  as  shall  fill  the  hearts  of  our  brethren 
iiah  giatitudu  to  Him,  who  gave  his  life  for  the  sheep,  and  who  will  call 
thu  hii'uliugM  to  a  strict  account  The  people  in  this,  as  in  other  places, 
ivccixu  UH  with  much  affection.  Our  love  to  all  our  dear  brethren. 
Huiiit;uibur  UH  affectionately  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Black,  and  to  our  friend, 
Mr.  Uiillbur. 

"  We  ure  just  going  to  preach;  a  great  multitude  is  assembled.  Our 
Uvui  I'riuud,  Mr.  IL,  officiates.  Remember  us  on  Friday  (at  Mr.  Black's 
liiu^vi  lucuting). 

"  Ever  yours  affectionately, 

"  John  Aikman." 

Ml*  llttldttiie  adds  a  postscript  to  what  he  calls  ''the  Com- 
ply liuttt^r.*'     He  says, — 

"  'thu«  far  (he  Company  letter.  I  preached  to  a  large  congregation, 
Vkhii  wuru  iiiuvh  affected.  Truly  the  concern  among  people  here  is 
iki>u\lviiul.     (-t^ase  not  to  pray  for  us,  and  praise  the  Lord  for  his 

"  Yours  truly, 

«  J.  A.  H." 

^hx  tht)  15th  August  they  proceeded  to  Stronmess,  where 
iki\^  laiuivtor,  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  his  wife,  the  sister  of  Mr. 
4i4vvh44V>  Mttiwulay,  received  them  courteously.  After  preaching 
|Kv\\  voIui'iuhI  to  Kirkwall,  where,  the  fair  having  begun,  multi- 
^uvt^vji  UiUli  tVoni  the  islands  and  mainland  were  assembled. 
^V^v*  wM*^  the  fair  continued,  their  sermons  from  day  to  day 
V^sW  '^  \^tjiH^t  of  attraction,  and  were  frequented  by  congrega- 
^^^  i^v^uuliuK  ^^  S,000  and  4,000,  and,  on  the  Lord's-day, 
y  WM  Wv^  i^j^MttViU  of  6,000  persons. 

\\v  ItiW  hvre,^  says  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  "much  reason  to  remark  the 
wx^.>«luvvi4  \^  Viv»U  ill  disposing  the  people,  the  whole  time  the  fair  lasted, 
^\  ^KVivtuuv  ^^^  r«^gularity  in  their  attendance.  The  fair  was,  in  a 
^\%i\^-'\^  .«^«f<^  vv«?ry  evening.  May  He,  whose  blessing  alone  giveth 
vV\  Ai^i^skWi  (h>  i^IvmsimI  graciously  to  water  the  seed  which  hath  been 
ft\v^^  ^^vK  iKs^  \W^  \^f  liMiven,  causing  it  to  take  root  downward,  and  to 
VhiN^jk  Avi^K  iWil  M|»wiirtl,  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  own  rich  and 


ORKNEYS.  171 

But  amidst  the  excitement  incident  to  preaching  to  thousands 
who  hung  upon  the  Hps  of  the  preacher,  many  of  whom  drank  in 
the  words  of  eternal  life,  the  poor,  soHtary,  dying  nonogenarian 
at  Shappinshay  was  not  forgotten.  Once  more  Mr.  J.  H. 
visited  him,  but  found  him  unable  to  speak,  although  still 
sensible  and  capable  of  expressing  intense  pleasure  in  once 
more  seeing  his  instructor.  He  was  supported  in  his  bed 
whilst  Mr.  J.  Haldane  spoke,  and  showed  that  he  understood 
what  was  said,  by  clasping  his  withered  hands,  and  raising 
them  to  heaven  as  if  in  the  attitude  of  thanksgiving.  Upon 
asking  him  whether  he  wished  that  prayer  should  be  made,  he 
showed  his  desire,  as  far  as  possible,  by  attempting  to  speak. 
'^  He  wife  said  that  he  had  wept  much  after  our  leaving  him  on 
the  former  day.  She  had  occasionally  read  to  him  parts  of  the 
Scriptures.''  He  died  on  the  next  Lord's-day,  and  the  joy  with 
which  he  received  the  Gospel,  the  earnest  delight  with  which  he 
welcomed  the  second  visit  of  his  spiritual  teacher,  and  the 
devout  peace  in  which  he  departed,  left  no  room  to  doubt  that 
he  slept  in  Jesus. 

Rendal  and  Eva,  forming  one  parish,  were  next  visited.  It 
was  found  that  in  the  latter  island  there  had  been  no  sermon 
for  eight  or  nine  years,  and  that  at  Rendal  there  was  no  Church 
service  except  on  alternate  Sabbaths.  Eggleshay  and  Rousay 
were  in  a  situation  as  to  spiritual  things,  nearly  as  destitute, 
although  the  proprietor,  when  at  home,  was  accustomed  to  read 
a  sermon  to  the  people  in  chiu*ch.  Kirkwall  continued  to  be 
the  head-quarters  of  the  preachers  until  the  23d,  when  they 
separated,  Mr.  Haldane  taking  the  cluster  of  islands  to  the 
right,  and  Mr.  Aikman  the  cluster  of  islands  to  the  left.  Mr. 
Haldane  embarking  for  Eday,  was  obliged,  by  the  force  of  the 
tide,  to  land  at  Shappinshay,  where,  during  the  two  hours  he 
was  detained,  he  went  into  a  house  and  expounded  the  Scriptures 
and  prayed.  After  preaching  at  Eday,  and  visiting  some  sick 
persons,  he  crossed  the  Frith  to  Sanday,  where  he  had  some 
difficulty  in  procuring  any  lodging,  but  preached  next  day 
morning  and  evening  to  750  persons,  at  two  opposite  sides  of 


172  FIRST   TOUR  TO   THE   NORTH. 

the  island.  At  North  Ronaldshay  he  found  that  there  was  no 
school^  and  that  there  had  only  been  a  sermon  five  times  since 
the  year  before.  He  sent  to  the  proprietor  a  proposal  to  erect 
one  at  his  own  expense^  provided  a  site  and  grass  for  a  cow 
should  be  supplied.  This  disinterested  proposal  was^  however^ 
ultimately  declined.  At  Stronsay^  whose  mineral  waters  made 
it  a  place  of  resort  in  ancient  times  for  the  Danish  chiefs^  he 
met  with  a  man  who  appeared  to  be  a  true  Christian.  '^Thus/' 
he  observes^  "  one  and  another  of  the  sheep  of  Christ  are  occa- 
sionally found  in  places  where  they  are  least  expected/^  After 
preaching  to  800  people^  or  about  three-fourths  of  the  whole 
population^  he  took  a  boat  for  Shappinshay^  and  having  walked 
across  that  island  and  taken  another  boat^  he  arrived  before 
midnight  on  Saturday  at  Kirkwall.  Next  day^  being  Sunday^ 
he  preached  in  the  Palace-close  to  2^500  people^  and  on  the 
Monday  again  preached  at  Kirkwall^  and  at  Deemess  and 
Tankemess^  to  large  congregations.  These  services  were  exclu- 
sive of  family  prayer,  with  an  exposition  of  Scripture,  which 
was  daily  attended  by  as  many  as  their  room  could  hold  whilst 
residing  at  Kirkwall. 

After  a  stay  of  sixteen  days  they  left  Kirkwall  on  the  29th 
August,  and  having  preached  on  that  day  and  the  following  at 
different  islands,  they  crossed  the  Fentland  Frith  in  about  two 
hours,  being  favoured  with  moderate  weather.  They  had 
preached  no  less  than  fifty-five  times  in  ten  days,  so  that  each 
must  have  preached  nearly  three  times  every  day.  Mr.  J. 
Haldane  adds : — 

**  It  becomes  us  here  to  remark  the  goodness  of  God  to  us,  both  in 
crossing  the  different  Friths,  and  during  the  whole  of  our  stay  in  Kirk- 
wall, having  never  once  been  incommoded,  while  preaching,  with  rain, 
although  sometimes  the  clouds  had  a  lowering  aspect.  Walked  two  miles 
from  the  place  of  landing  to  Hoonah,  to  the  great  inconvenience  of  one 
of  us  (Mr.  Ailunan),  who  bruised  his  leg  in  coming  from  Eggleshay,  a 
circumstance  which,  though  apparently  trivial  at  first,  yet  afterwards 
materially  altered  the  plan  of  our  journey,  detaining  us  six  weeks  in  the 
county  of  Caithness,  instead  of  a  fortnight,  as  we  had  at  first  intended." 


CATIHNESS.  173 


MB.  J.  HALDANE*S  LABOURS  IN  CAITHNESS,  AND  THE 
BLESSING  WHICH  FOLLOWED  THEM. 

The  number  of  inhabited  islands  in  Orkney  is  now  twenty- 
nine.  The  missionary  tourists  had  preached  in  nearly  all  of 
them  excepting  Walls  and  Flota^  which  Mr.  James  Haldane 
took  occasion  to  visit  during  his  detention  at  Thurso.  The 
detention  which  arose  from  Mr.  Aikman's  accident  was  provi- 
dentially overruled  for  good^  and  probably  there  was  no  period 
of  his  life  more  distinguished  by  unmistakeable  marks  of  the 
Lord's  favour  than  the  six  weeks  during  which  Mr.  J.  Hal- 
dane laboured  in  Caithness.  In  consequence  of  his  excellent 
companion's  confinement  to  the  house,  he  was,  in  the  public 
ministrations  in  Caithness,  the  sole  labourer;  and  if  any  one 
desire  to  estimate  the  force  of  his  zeal,  and  the  ardour  of  his 
desire  to  speak  for  Christ,  let  his  labours  in  Caithness  at  this 
time  be  regarded.  The  state  of  religion  in  that  county  was 
then  most  deplorable.  The  town  of  Thurso,  containing  between 
2,000  and  3,000  uihabitants,  had  not  been  catechised  for  forty 
years,  a  circumstance  which  then  implied  great  neglect,  and 
'^  in  all  the  shire  of  Caithness,  consisting  of  ten  parishes,'' 
there  was  scarcely  an  instance  of  the  Gospel  being  faithfully 
preached.  At  Thurso,  a  pious  Anti-burgher  minister  laboured 
with  some  good  results,  and  there  were  a  few  of  those  belonging 
to  the  Established  Church  who  attended  the  Secession  place  of 
worship,  without  themselves  joining  its  communion.  But  the 
good  that  was  done  by  these  Anti-burghers  was  on  a  very 
limited  scale,  and  no  effort  was  made  to  extend  the  (xospel 
beyond  the  boimds  of  their  own  chapels  or  the  families  of  those 
by  whom  they  were  attended. 

'*  It  18,"  says  the  Journal,  "  a  mournful  fact,  that  it  was  the  universal 
practice  to  commute  for  a  sum  of  money  the  public  profession  of  repent- 
ance enjoined  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  on  those  guilty  of  adultery  or 
other  open  transgressions.  When  such  persons  have  paid  the  fine  they 
are  admitted  to  the  communion-table  without  scruple.  When  such 
practices  as  these  take  place  to  any  extent,  no  wonder  if  the  land  mourn, 
and  that  the  Lord  threaten  to  visit  us  with  his  sore  judgments.  <  Shall  I 
not  visit  for  these  things  ?  saith  the  Lord.'     Nor  can  it  at  all  surprise 


174  FIRST   TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

those  vfho  know  the  Gospel  to  learn,  that  while  the  name  and  ordinances 
of  God  are  thus  profaned,  men  shoidd  in  general  he  living  without  God 
and  without  Christ,  and,  consequently,  without  any  well-grounded  hope 
in  the  world.  It  gives  us  much  pleasure,  however,  to  remark,  that  the 
Lord  hath  not  wholly  left  himself  ivithout  a  witness,  even  in  those  places 
which  are  most  desolate.  It  is  said  that  in  this  shire,  about  fifty  or  sixty 
years  ago,  the  whole  of  the  ministers  were  faithful  preachers  of  Christ. 
Their  testimony  has  been  transmitted,  and  the  instructions  and  example 
of  humble  individuals  have  been  blessed  of  God  for  keeping  alive  a  spirit 
of  real  religion  in  some  of  the  interior  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  remarked 
that  those  persons  are,  in  general,  such  as  live  at  the  greatest  distance 
from  the  churches,  and  who,  in  consequence,  meet  together  by  them- 
selves for  the  purposes  of  religious  conference  and  worship  on  the  Lord*s- 
day." 

Such  was  the  state  of  Caithness  at  the  time  when  Mr.  James 
Haldane  preached,  on  Thursday,  the  31st  August,  1797,  his 
first  sermon  in  the  yard  of  the  Anti-burgher  Meeting-house  to 
not  more  than  300  persons,  "  who  seemed  rather  unconcerned.'* 
The  town  was  crowded  with  strangers  who  had  come  up  to  the 
fair.  The  next  day  he  preached  twice  in  a  large  yard,  in  the 
open  air,  to  congregations  '^  which  seemed  more  attentive." 
Next  day  the  congregation  had  increased  to  800  persons  in  the 
morning,  and  about  1,500  in  the  evening.  On  the  Lord's-day 
morning  attention  had  become  so  much  aroused,  that  before 
the  usual  church  hours,  he  preached  at  half-past  nine  o'clock 
to  1,700  people,  and,  although  it  began  to  rain,  '^no  person 
moved/'  He  then  went  to  church,  where  a  melancholy  sermon 
was  delivered,  in  which  the  minister  cautioned  the  people  against 
trusting  for  acceptance  with  God  to  the  blood  of  Christ.  ^'  His 
peace-speaking  blood,"  says  Mr.  Haldane,  ''was  only  for  the 
holy  and  the  good !"  But  against  this  false  doctrine  he  testified 
in  the  evening  to  no  less  than  3,000  persons,  assembled  from 
places  far  and  near,  to  whom  he  proclaimed  the  true  Gospel  of 
the  grace  of  God.  During  the  following  week-days  he  preached 
morning  and  evening  each  day  at  different  places  in  the  county. 
The  Journal  contains  the  following  entry  on  the  next  Lord's- 
day  :— 

^'  LorJPs'day,  September  10/A. — Preached  at  ten  o'clock  to 
from  2,000  to  3,000  people,  many  of  whom  had  come  from  the 


CAITHNESS.  175 


country.     Preached  again  at  two  o'clock^  to  upwards  of  3^000 
persona,  from  the  Second  Epistle  of  John,  verses  10  and  11/' 

Another  letter  to  Mr.  Campbell,  dated  16th  September,  will 
give  a  short  summary  of  his  proceedings  up  to  this  date. 

'*  Thurso,  Sept  16/A,  1797. 
"  My  DEAK  Fbiend, — This  is  Saturday  night,  and  I  am  just  returned 
ftom  the  Island  of  WaUs,  one  of  the  Orkney  Islands.  It  was  the  only 
one  of  any  size  we  had  not  visited,  and,  being  the  nearest  to  this  place,  I 
thought  it  a  duty  to  visit  it,  as  we  have  been  so  long  detained  here  by 
our  dear  brother's  accident  After  preaching,  I  left  this  place  on  Wed- 
nesday morning,  preached  at  Walls  and  the  Island  of  Flota  on  Thursday, 
returned  at  night  to  Walls,  where  I  preached  yesterday,  and  should  have 
been  here  last  night  had  not  the  wind  been  too  strong.  I  desire  to  be 
thankfiil  I  am  now  arrived  safe  and  may  again  set  up  my  Ebenezer.  I 
had  this  journey  in  contemplation  when  I  wrote  to  Mrs.  Haldane  on 
Monday,  but  as  I  was  not  determined,  and  thought  it  might  make  her 
uneasy  to  hear  of  my  crossing  the  Pentland  Frith  again,  I  said  nothing 
about  it  Indeed,  I  did  not  fully  determine  to  go  till  it  was  time  on 
Wednesday  to  set  off.  We  have  now  preached  in  fifteen  of  the  Orkney 
Islands,  and  in  all  of  them  the  people  have  seemed  affected  under  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel.  I  this  evening  received  a  letter  from  my  wife 
without  a  date,  but  it  seems,  by  the  post-mark,  to  be  about  the  lOth  of 
August  It  is  directed  to  Inverness,  and  was  written  before  our  journey 
to  Orkney  was  known  in  Edinburgh.  Our  dear  brother*s,  Mr.  Aikman's, 
lieg  is  not  yet  quite  well,  and,  as  we  do  not  intend  to  run  any  risk  of 
hurting  it  by  early  travelling,  I  cannot  fix  the  day  on  which  we  are  to 
leave  this.  There  is  much  need  of  the  Gospel  here.  I  have  been 
strengthened  to  preach  twice  a  day  here  since  we  came,  except  two  or 
three  days,  during  which  I  have  been  in  the  country  parishes.  Wben  we 
came  here  we  could  find  no  room  in  the  inn,  but  the  Lord  directed  us  to 
a  private  house ;  both  our  host  and  hostess  (Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Millar) 
are  most  attentive.  May  the  Lord  grant  our  visit  may  be  useful  to  them 
for  one  thing  they  lack.  Remember  me  kindly  to  Mr.  Newton  when  you 
write  to  him.  Remember  us  affectionately  to  our  dear  friends  with  you. 
I  am  sure  you  do  not  cease  to  pray  for  us.  I  have,  I  am  persuaded,  felt 
the  benefit  of  your  prayers,  especially  on  Friday  evening.  Give  our  love 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Black  and  Mr.  Balfour. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  friend, 

"  Yours,  ever  affectionately." 

Mr.  George  Millar^  of  Thurso,  is  again  noticed  in  the  Journal^ 
with  this  prayer  attached, — "  May  the  Lord  recompense  their 


176  FIRST   TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

kindness  by  bestowing  on  them  blessings  which  perish  not  with 
the  using/'  This  prayer  on  behalf  of  their  kind  hosts  was 
answered,  and  they  too  were  brought  to  Christ,  and  found  that,  in 
entertaining  strangers,  they  had  '^  entertained  angels  unawares/' 

On  the  17th  September,  being  the  Lord^s-day,  he  preached 
in  the  morning  to  about  1,500  people,  and  afterwards  heard 
the  parish  minister  preach  from  Titus  iii.  8.  He  seemed  much 
a&aid  of  people  abusing  the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  therefore 
told  them  that,  though  they  were  to  be  justified  freely  by  grace, 
yet  that  afterwards  they  must  be  justified  partly  by  faith  and 
partly  by  works.  He  then  gave  intimation  that  there  would  be 
no  sermon  in  the  afternoon  during  the  remainder  of  the  season. 
It  is  the  regular  practice,  it  seems,  through  this  part  of  the 
country,  as  it  is,  indeed,  in  other  places  farther  south,  to  have 
only  one  discourse,  of  half  an  hour's  length,  in  the  day  during 
nearly  nine  months  of  the  year. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  Lord's-day  Mr.  Haldane  preached 
to  about  3,000  persons,  from  Eph.  ii.  8 — 10 : — "  For  by  grace 
are  ye  saved  through  faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves:  it  is 
the  gift  of  God.  Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast," 
&c.  '^Took  particular  notice  of  the  sermon  that  had  been 
preached."  He  then  told  them,  that  he  had  found  it  to  be  his 
duty,  however  unpleasant,  to  bear  testimony  against  the  doctrine 
which  he  had  heard  from  their  minister;  but  that,  though  he 
might  be  detained  another  Sabbath  in  Thurso, .  he  would  not 
again  attend  their  church. 

On  the  Lord's-day,  September  24th,  the  weather  being 
uncommonly  fine,  Mr.  J.  H.  preached  in  the  yard  to  about 
8,000  people  in  the  morning.  Mr.  Aikman  was  still  confined, 
but,  as  it  appeared  likely  that  he  would  be  able  to  travel  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days,  it  was  determined  that  his  friend,  on 
whom  all  the  pubhc  labour  had  devolved,  should  spend  the 
remainder  of  the  time  they  should  remain  in  Caithness  in 
visiting  the  town  of  Wick  and  its  neighbourhood.  In  the  view, 
therefore,  of  leaving  Thurso  on  the  next  day,  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
preached  in  the  evening  a  farewell  sermon  to  a  congregation  of 
4,000  persons,   of  whom   there   were  individuals   from  every 


WICK.  177 

parish  in  Caithness.  It  was  a  solemn  oecasion^  and  one  calcu- 
lated to  stir  the  heart  of  the  preacher.  His  text  was  from  Acts 
XX.  82, — '^  And  now,  brethren,  I  commend  you  to  (Jod,  and  to 
the  word  of  his  grace,  which  is  able  to  build  you  up,  and  to 
give  you  an  inheritance  among  all  them  that  are  sanctified.^' 

"  The  parish  minister  was  present,  and  as  it  was  generally  understood 
that  he  had  in  view  the  doctrines  we  preached,  when  cautioning  the 
people  against  their  being  taught  to  separate  faith  from  works,  occasion 
was  taken  briefly  to  recapitulate  the  apostle's  doctrine,  and  plainly  to 
show  the  absolute  necessity  of  completely  separating  faith  from  works  in 
the  important  article  of  a  sinner^s  Justijication  before  God.  At  the  same 
time  the  speaker  appealed  to  those  who  had  heard  him,  whether  he  had 
not  uniformly  insisted  upon  the  absolute  necessity  of  works,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  the  never-failing  fruit  and  evidence  of  faith,  without  which  the 
faith  which  any  man  mtffht  say  he  had  would  never  save  him.  Took 
occasion  also  to  refer  particularly  to  the  lives  and  conversations  of  many 
of  those  who  were  such  strenuous  advocates  for  the  doctrine  of  works, 
and  asked  whether  the  total  and  open  neglect,  both  of  personal  and  family 
religion,  afforded  them  any  ground  so  greatly  to  glory  in  their  pretended 
good  works  ?  Finally,  told  them,  that  he  was  pure  from  their  blood 
(referring  to  the  discourse  connected  with  his  text),  which  could  not  have 
been  had  he  not  faithfully  warned  them  against  the  false  doctrines  which 
he  had  heard  preached  to  them.*^ 

The  sermon  thus  referred  to  was  one  of  great  power  and 
earnest  solemnity,  which  was  long  remembered  in  Caithness. 

Having  preached  on  his  way  to  Wick,  he  arrived  there  on  the 
25th,  and  was  most  hospitably  entertained  by  another  Mr.  A. 
Miller,  the  chief  inhabitant,  to  whom  he  was  a  messenger  of 
grace,  under  circumstances  of  deep  interest,  which  will  presently 
be  noticed.  He  preached  during  the  week  to  large  congrega- 
tions, and  on  the  market-day  twice  to  1,000  persons,  morning 
and  evening. 

"  Lor^ 8-day,  October  \Bt. — Preached  in  the  morning  to  about  2,500 
people.  Heard  the  minister,  in  the  forenoon,  preach  from  Matt.  zxii.  5, 
— *  And  they  made  light  of  it'  He  represented  that  men,  in  becoming 
Christians,  first  began  to  work  out  their  own  salvation,  and  that  when 
God  wrought  in  them,  &c.  He  spoke  much  of  the  criminality  of  such  aa 
found  fault  with  ministers,  '  who  were,*  he  said,  '  the  successors  of  the 
apostles, — the  ambassadors  appointed  to  carry  on  the  treaty  of  peace 
between  God  and  man!'    In  the  afternoon  preached  to  about  4,000 

N 


178  FIRST   TOUR  TO   THE   NORTH. 

people,  and  took  notice  of  what  appeared  contrary  to  the  Gospel  in  the 
minister's  sermon,  himself  being  present** 

During  the  week  days  he  continued  as  usual  to  preach  at 
different  places^  sometimes  once^  and  sometimes  twice  a  day^  in 
the  country  parishes^  and  again  on  the  Lord's-day  at  Wick, 
to  congregations  who  came  in  crowds  from  all  quarters, 
amounting  in  the  morning  to  more  than  2,000,  and  in  the 
evening  to  upwards  of  4,000  people.  On  the  5th  October  there 
is  an  entry  where  he  notices  having  preached  at  Freswick,  in 
the  parish  of  Canisbay,  where  there  was  a  small  Society  of 
Baptists,  who  had  been  formed  into  a  Church  by  means  of  a 
pious  Baronet,  a  Sir  William  Sinclair,  who  had  preached 
amongst  them  for  several  years. 

Mr.  Aikman  being  now  partially  recovered,  was  enabled  to 
join  Mr.  Haldane,  although  still  rather  feeble  and  worn  out  by 
his  labours. 

The  results  of  this  tour  in  Caithness  will  be  again  more 
particularly  noticed,  but  perhaps  it  cannot  at  present  be  more 
fitly  concluded  than  by  the  insertion  of  the  following  letter.  It 
is  written  by  the  wife  of  an  excellent  minister  at  Elgin,  a 
venerable  lady,  who  was  one  of  those  to  whom  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
was  then  the  messenger  of  peace.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
that  Mr.  A.  Millar,  of  Staxigo,  near  Wick,  whose  hospitality  he 
so  gratefully  acknowledged.  Mrs.  McNeil's  letter  was  written 
shortly  after  Mr.  Haldane's  death,  and  is  dated  20th  March, 
1851.  It  is  addressed  to  the  excellent  surviving  sister  of  Mr. 
Aikman,  whose  own  recollections  have  furnished  some  valuable 
incidents  for  this  and  the  preceding  chapter : — 

*'  I  now  come  to  that  part  of  your  letter  wherein  you  mention  my  dear 
and  much  loved  and  respected  friend,  Mr.  James  Haldane, — a  name  very 
dear  to  me.  I  have  often  thought  that  there  was  something  of  idolatry  in 
my  affection  for  that  ffood  man.  If  I  have  ever  felt  or  known  anything  of 
the  truth,  he  was  the  blessed  instrument ;  and  not  to  mjrself  only,  but  he 
was  the  instrument  used  by  God  for  the  conversion  of  my  dear  brother  and 
sister,  in  his  first  visit  to  Caithness.  Both  the  latter  died  of  typhus  fever, 
in  the  hope  of  a  glorious  immortality,  a  few  months  after  his  visit  to 
Caithness.  I  had  a  married  sister,  who  died  of  fever  about  two  years 
previous  to  your  dear  brother  (Mr.  Aikman's)  and  dear  Mr.  Haldane's 


FRUITS    OP   THE   MISSION.  179 

Tint  to  Caithness.    At  the  time  of  her  being  seized  with  illness,  I  was 
young,  thoughtless,  and  lively. 

"  The  fever  being  deemed  infectious,  the  doctor  persuaded  my  parents 
not  to  allow  either  of  my  sisters  or  myself  to  see  her.  However,  early  in 
the  morning  on  which  she  died,  my  eldest  sister  and  myself  were  sent  for 
to  see  her  before  her  death.  She  had  early  in  life  been  made  a  partaker 
of  Divine  grace,  and  was  a  most  affectionate  sister.  We  lived  in  the 
country.  She  lived  in  the  town  of  Wick.  Her  husband  brought  us  into 
the  room  where  she  lay ;  she  was  then  in  the  agonies  of  death.  I  had 
never  seen  one  in  that  state  before,  and  being  much  attached  to  her,  it 
made  a  very  deep  impression  upon  my  mind,  and  I  became  much  con- 
cerned about  my  soul.  My  health  gave  way,  and  I  was  wasted  to  a 
shadow.  I  concealed  from  every  person  the  state  of  my  mind,  and  always 
sought  retirement,  but  did  not  know  where  to  flee  for  deliverance  from 
the  guilt  of  sin.  I  had  relations  who  lived  within  a  few  miles  of  Thurso. 
They  wished  me  very  much  to  visit  them,  in  the  hope  the  change  might 
be  useful  to  me,  and  my  parents  and  their  friends  were  equally  anxious 
for  this.  But  it  was  health  to  my  soul  which  I  needed  and  longed  for. 
However,  as  they  wished  it,  I  went.  Some  days  after  I  went  there,  my 
aunt  had  gone  into  Thurso,  and  when  she  returned  she  said  the  town 
seemed  in  an  uproar,  or  something  to  that  effect,  'about  a  remarkable 
preacher  who  had  come  there,  and  that  he  seemed  very  zealous,  and  was 
preaching  in  the  open  air.'  I  immediately  set  off,  accompanied  by  one  of 
my  cousins.  It  was  on  a  Saturday  evening.  I  went  with  my  cousin  to 
the  place.  He  was  standing  on  the  top  of  an  outer  stair,  dressed  in  a  grey 
coat,  with  tied  hair,  and  powdered.  But  I  think  I  shall  never  forget  the 
fervour  and  divine  unction  with  which  he  proclaimed  the  Gospel  of  mercy. 
It  rained  very  heavily,  and  although  very  wet  and  miry  where  the  congre- 
gation stood,  no  one,  I  think,  moved  to  go  away  until  sermon  was  over.  I 
felt  very  unwell,  but  was  rivetted  to  the  place,  and  sorry  I  was  when  he 
finished  his  subject. 

**  On  Sabbath,  I  went  in  the  forenoon  to  the  parish  church.  The 
minister's  text  was  4th  and  5th  verses  of  the  sixth  chapter  of  Oalatians. 
In  the  evening  Mr.  Haldane  preached  in  a  yard,  where  it  was  thought 
there  were  4,000  people  assembled.  He  took  occasion  to  show  the  fallacy 
of  the  doctrine  preached  in  the  forenoon.  I  was  standing  beside  a  nimiber 
of  the  genteel  people,  but  not  religious  people.  Some  of  the  gentlemen 
called  out,  *  Stone  him !  *  others,  *  Stop  him ! '  However,  no  person  obeyed 
their  commands,  and  Mr.  Haldane  went  on  with  his  subject.  At  last 
these  gentry  all  left  the  place,  and  I  was  very  glad  to  be  rid  of  them. 
This  minister,  of  whose  erroneous  teaching  Mr.  Haldane  had  said  so  much, 
was  a  particular  friend  of  my  dear  father.  My  mind  was  in  distress 
lest  my  father  should  take  any  dislike  to  Mr.  Haldane ;  and  that  if  Mr. 
Haldane  should  go  to  Wick,  I  might  not  have  the  liberty  to  hear  him.    I 

N  2 


180  FIRST   TOUR   TO    THE    NORTH. 

next  day  wrote  to  my  sister,  giving  an  account  of  the  whole  matter,  and 
said  all  I  could  in  Mr.  Haldane*s  favour.  Your  dear  brother  (Mr. 
Aikman)  had  hurt  his  leg  in  coming  out  of  a  boat.  This  confined  him 
to  his  lodgings,  in  Mr.  George  Miller's  house,  for  several  weeks,  so  that 
I  did  not  see  him  in  Thurso.  Owing  to  your  brother  being  confined  so 
long,  they  determined  that  Mr.  Haldane  should  come  to  Wick  imtil  Mr. 
Aikman  should  get  better.  It  seems  they  had  previously  no  intention  of 
stopping  at  Wick,  but  the  Lord  had  purposes  of  mercy  for  some  there. 
When  Mr.  James  Haldane  arrived,  an  express  was  sent  to  my  father 
to  let  him  know.  When  I  heard  this  information  given,  my  heart 
trembled  between  fear  and  joy.  I  was  afraid  my  father  would  not  allow 
my  sisters  and  myself  to  go  to  hear  him,  because  he  had  said  so  much 
about  his  favourite  minister ;  and  I  was  just  saying  to  my  eldest  sister 
that  I  feared  we  would  not  be  allowed,  when  my  father  came  into  my 
room,  and  said,  '  Make  yourselves  ready  to  go  and  hear  Mr.  Haldane,  and 
jrour  mother  and  myself  will  also  go.*  I  could  not  describe  my  joy.  We 
went,  and  the  people  were  assembling.  It  was  in  a  large  yard.  Mr. 
Haldane,  after  singing  and  prayer,  gave  out  the  7th  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Haggai, — *  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.  Consider  your  ways.* 
My  father  heard  with  deep  attention.  As  for  myself,  I  was  completely 
rivetted ;  my  eyes  could  see  nothing  but  Mr.  Haldane,  and  my  ears  hear  no 
sound  but  his  voice.  Well,  that  was  the  text  and  sermon  which  the  Lord 
blessed  for  the  conversion  of  my  dear  father.  After  sermon,  my  father 
said  to  my  sister  and  me,  '  Go  in  to  Mr.  Craig's,  and  give  your  mother's 
compliments  and  my  own,  and  ask  Mr.  Haldane  if  he  will  kindly ^ome 
out  to  Staxigo  with  you.'  (Mr.  Craig  was  my  brother-in-law.)  My  joy 
was  great,  and  I  thought,  surely  the  Lord  has  heard  my  prayers.  Mr. 
Haldane  very  kindly  consented  at  once,  and  he  came,  and  for  two  weeks, 
if  not  more,  he  remained  in  my  father's  house, — indeed,  as  long  as  he  was 
in  the  place,  except  when  he  went  into  the  town  to  preach,  which  he  did 
every  day,  and  we  always  walked  in  and  out  again  with  him.  My  eldest 
sister  then  alive,  and  my  youngest  brother,  were  both  at  that  time  also 
brought  to  Christ,  so  that  there  were  four  of  us  who  I  trust  were  all 
brought  out  of  darkness  into  God's  marvellous  light.  Could  I  but  love 
that  worthy  man  ?  He  threw  his  whole  soul  into  his  subject,  and  com- 
mended the  truth  to  every  one's  conscience,  as  in  the  sight  of  God.  Your 
brother  only  came  to  Wick  the  day  before  they  left  the  country,  so  that  I 
only  saw  and  heard  him  once  at  that  time.  Both  of  them,  with  Mr.  Innes, 
came  round  again  in  1799;  but  whenever  they  came,  my  father's  house 
was  head  quarters  with  the  whole  of  them. 

"  I  recollect  the  last  sermon  Mr.  Haldane  preached  in  our  chapel  in 
Wick  (some  years  afterwards,  in  1805,  on  his  fourth  tour  to  Caithness)  was 
on  these  words, — *  Finally,  brethren,  farewell.*  I  thought,  shall  this  be  the 
last  sermon  he  shall  preach  here  ?  and  I  felt  my  spirits  sink  within  me. 


FRUITS    OP   THE   MISSION.  181 

**  ThiB  was  indeed  the  last  The  last  night  he  was  in  our  house  he  read 
the  4th  of  Philippians,  and  made  some  remarks.  He  wrote  mc  several 
letters,  one  of  which  I  now  inclose,  and  a  very  short  one,  mentioning  that 
he  had  sent  me  some  books  for  my  Sabbath-schools. 

**  I  may  add,  that  I  believe  there  was  not  a  district  in  Scotland  where 
fheir  labours  were  so  much  blessed  as  in  Caithness.  In  Orkney,  too,  the 
Lord  made  them  very  useful.  But  the  good  done  by  those  godly  men 
was  remarkable.  Under  God,  they  were  the  means  of  bringing  the  Gospel 
to  Wick  and  Thurso. 

"  When  Mr.  Haldane  came  first  to  Wick  in  the  year  '97,  it  was  in  the 
harvest  time,  in  the  month  of  October.  One  gentleman,  at  that  time  a 
very  careless  man,  gave  liberty  to  the  shearers  to  leave  the  field  and  go  to 
hear  Mr.  Haldane,  which  they  did,  and  reaped  the  field  by  moonlight. 
This  I  believe  was  only  once.  But  from  that  time  he  paid  more  attention 
to  religion,  and,  I  believe,  under  Mr.  Cleghom's  ministry,  was  savingly 
converted  to  the  truth.  Often  did  my  dear  brother  Benjamin  say  to  me 
upon  his  death-bed,  that  he  blessed  God  he  had  ever  known  and  heard 
dear  Mr.  Haldane.  He  died  in  February,  '98,  and  my  sister  about  three 
weeks  after.  My  sister  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  my  dear 
brother  eighteen  years.  They  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  and 
in  death  were  not  long  divided.  Both  were  beautiful  and  handsome,  and 
both,  if  there  were  any  favourites,  were  the  favourites  with  my  father,  and 
were  loved  by  all  who  knew  them.  I,  too,  was  Ipng  ill,  and  despaired 
of  at  the  time.  You  may  believe  what  a  trial  this  was  to  our  parents,  but 
God  wonderfully  supported  them. 

"  The  deep  distress  of  mind  I  was  in  when  I  first  heard  Mr.  Haldane  I 
could  not  describe ;  and  when  the  Gospel  was  revealed  to  me  in  all  its  glory, 
my  joy  was  great,  so  much  so  that  I  was  sometimes  so  overcome  with  it, 
I  thought  I  could  contain  no  more.  Often  do  I  wish  I  now  felt  the  same 
brokenness  of  heart,  and  the  same  lively  hope  which  I  had  in  the  days  of 
my  youth.  Often,  when  these  good  men  were  in  Caithness,  many  would 
walk  twenty  miles  to  hear  them,  and  return  home  in  the  evening. 

**  Worthy  Dr.  Innes  has  lived  to  see  all  those  who  then  were  fellow- 
helpers  with  him  consigned  to  the  house  appointed  for  all  living,  while 
their  emancipated  spirits  are  now  rejoicing  before  the  throne  of  God.  I 
trust  he  may  be  spared  a  long  while  yet,  to  labour  for  the  good  of  souls. 
May  he  yet  have  many  given  him  for  his  joy  and  crown !  Mr.  Campbell 
was  only  once  in  Caithness.  He,  too,  was  an  excellent  minister.  Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.  May  it  be  our  happiness,  my  dear 
friend,  to  meet  those  holy  men  of  God  at  His  right  hand,  when  we  go 
hence  and  are  no  more ! 

"  My  letter  is  not  fit  for  any  eye  but  that  of  a  friend ;  but  though  I 
write  confusedly,  perhaps  Mr.  Haldane  may  find  some  interesting  things 


182  FIRST   TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

in  it,  to  show  how  his  worthy  father  was  esteemed,  and  the  good  he  was 
the  means  of  doing  in  Caithness. 

"  All  my  blunders  I  hope  he  will  kindly  overlook.  At  my  advanced 
age,  on  the  borders  of  seventy-five,  I  cannot  expect  to  be  very  free  from 
blunders  in  my  way  of  stating  what  I  have,  but  I  can  vouch  for  all  as 
feiCta  which  I  have  written." 

Mr.  James  Haldane  left  Wick  on  the  11th  of  October,  1797, 
thus  concluding  his  labours  in  Caithness,  on  a  day  memorable 
as  that  on  which  the  great  naval  victory  was  gained  off  Cam- 
perdown.  On  that  day  he  had  preached  twice,  probably  little 
thinking  of  the  very  different  scenes,  amidst  which  his  gallant 
relative  was  engaged ;  although  private  memoranda,  never  intended 
for  any  other  eye  but  his  own,  show  how  much  that  relative 
was  habitually  in  his  heart,  and  in  his  prayers  before  the  throne 
of  grace.  He  did  not  know  of  the  victory  for  some  time, 
although  the  booming  of  the  guns  was  actually  heard  on  that 
coast.  On  arriving  at  one  of  the  towns,  the  pubUc  rejoicing 
announced  the  event.  The  place  was  in  a  great  bustle,  and 
the  itinerants  were  shown  into  an  inferior  room.  Having 
addressed  a  letter  to  his  uncle,  he  desired  the  waiter  to  convey 
it  to  the  post-office.  The  direction  struck  the  man,  and  the 
letter  was  carried  to  the  landlord,  who,  in  a  few  minutes, 
entered,  and  apologizing  for  the  mistake,  begged  the  gentlemen 
to  follow  him  to  another  room,  as  he  was  resolved  that  any 
friend  of  the  Admiral's  should  have  the  best  accommodation 
his  house  could  supply. 

It  may  now  be  hardly  worth  while  to  notice  that  amidst  the  many 
jibes  and  sneers,  to  which,  as  a  matter  of  course,  both  the  brothers 
were  subjected,  and  which  they  bore  with  much  good-humour, 
there  was  one  relating  to  Lord  Duncan's  victory.  It  was  reported 
that^  instead  of  congratulating  their  uncle,  they  had  both 
written  to  him  a  kind  of  expostulatory  sermon  on  the  horrors 
of  war,  and,  instead  of  rejoicing  in  his  success,  had  spoken  of 
laurels  stained  with  blood,  and  watered  with  tears.  It  is 
almost  needless  to  state,  that  such  ridiculous  inventions  could 
only  receive  credence  amongst  those  who  knew  nothing  of 
the   Haldanea,    or   who,  in  their  ignorance,    imagined   that 


BATTLE    OP    CAMPERDOWN.  183 

too  mnch  religion  had  made  them  mad.  So  far  from  there 
being  any  foundation  for  the  story,  their  letters  of  congra- 
tulation both  to  the  Admiral  and  Lady  Duncan,  expressed  their 
genuine  feelings  of  thankfulness  to  the  (xod  of  battles,  who 
had  enabled  their  gallant  relative  to  triumph  in  the  defence 
of  his  country,  and  by  the  destruction  of  the  Dutch  fleet  to 
be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty,  for  saving  the 
nation  from  the  invading  expedition  with  which  Ireland  was 
threatened. 

In  particular.  Lord  Duncan  himself  declared,  that  of  all  his 
letters  of  congratulation,  none  had  gratified  him  more  than  that 
of  his  nephew,  Robert  Haldane.  Mr.  Haldane,  in  his  letter, 
had  not  merely  indulged  in  general  topics,  but,  with  the  critical 
eye  of  a  sailor,  who  had  been  enthusiastically  attached  to  the 
navy,  and  who  possessed  a  mind  equally  penetrating  and  acute, 
entered  on  a  review  of  the  whole  affair.  He  noticed  the  inferior 
and  undisciplined  state  of  a  great  part  of  the  North  Sea  fleet, 
some  of  the  ships  being  old  Indiamen  and  undermanned,  as 
well  as  the  boldness  of  the  manoeuvre  in  braving  the  dangers 
of  a  lee  shore,  breaking  through  the  cnemy^s  line,  and  cutting 
off  his  retreat ;  and,  above  all,  considering  the  superiority  of  the 
Dutch,  as  sailors,  over  the  French  and  Spaniards,  he  gave  the 
battle  of  Camperdown  the  preference  over  all  the  previous  great 
naval  actions.  The  imperfect  results  of  the  battles  of  the  1st  of 
June,  1794,  23d  of  June,  and  13th  of  July,  1795,  were  after- 
wards noticed  by  Lord  Exmouth,  whose  remarks  corroborated 
Mr.  Haldane^s  opinion,  that,  taking  into  account  the  difliculties 
of  the  position,  and  the  energy  with  which  the  Admiral  dashed 
at  the  hostile  fleet,  the  completeness  of  the  victory,  and  the 
numbers  as  well  as  the  skill  of  the  Dutch,  when  compared  with 
the  Spaniards  or  even  the  French,  with  whom  Rodney,  Howe, 
and  St.  Vincent  himself  had  been  engaged,  Camperdown  was^ 
the  greatest  of  all  the  naval  victories  up  to  that  period  of 
the    war.*      When    Lord  Duncan    returned   home,    no    one 

*  The  late  Admiral  Sir  Charles  Ekins,  in  his  able  Critical  Dissertation 
on  all  the  Naval  Battles,  has  this  remark.  In  the  action  off  Camperdown 
**  Eleven  ships  of  war  were  captured  by  ten  ships  of  the  British  squadron^ 


184  CONCLUSION    OF   THE   TOUR. 

conversed  with  him  more  fully  and  familiarly,  or  with  greater 
interest,  than  his  nephews,  on  the  details  of  the  action,  or  of 
his  proceedings  during  the  previous  more  appalling  Mutiny  at 
the  Nore,  which  Mr.  Pitt  always  considered  to  be  the  brightest 
part  of  the  Admiral's  conduct,  and,  on  account  of  which,  a 
patent  of  nobility,  as  an  Irish  peer,  was  in  preparation  even 
before  the  victory  of  Camperdown.  Mr.  Pitt's  sentiment  was 
repeated  in  the  speech  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  expressing  the 
thanks  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  announcing  that  this  was 
one  reason  why  the  "unprecedented  honour,"  of  summoning 
all  the  peers,  had  been  adopted  on  that  occasion. 


CONCLUSION  OP  THE  TOUE. 

Mr.  J.  Haldane,  once  more  accompanied  by  Mr.  Aikman, 
having  taken  leave  of  Caithness,  entered  Sutherland,  and  came 
to  Dornoch,  the  county  town,  where  they  heard  a  melan- 
choly account  of  the  state  of  religion.  But  whilst  the  people 
were  without  the  blessing  of  a  preached  Gospel,  it  was  com- 
forting to  hear  of  the  good  done  at  "prayer-meetings,''  insti- 
tuted about  the  time  of  the  Revolution  of  1688. 

"  Their  origin  is  not  very  well  known,  but  they  began  at  a  time  when 
much  of  the  power  of  godliness  was  experienced.  They  generally  met  at 
first  in  the  minister's  house,  or  in  some  private  house  in  the  parish.  Tho. 
parochial  fellowship  meetings  are  now  all  so  numerous,  that  they  meet  in 
churches.  The  minister  acts  as  moderator.  He  begins  with  singing,  and 
then  prays.  In  many  places,  especially  if  the  meeting  be  thin,  he  reads  a 
portion  of  Scripture,  and  explains  it.  He  then  asks  if  any  person  has  a 
question,  or  case  of  conscience,  to  propose  for  the  consideration  of  those 
who  are  to  speak  at  the  meeting.  A  passage  of  Scripture  is  then 
mentioned,  and  a  question  proposed  from  it,  relative  to  experimental 
religion,  by  some  person  present.  The  moderator  elucidates  the  passage, 
and  states  the  question  as  intelligibly  as  possible,    llie  speakers  then 


as  not  more  than  that  number  were  seriously  engaged.  More  was  accom- 
plished, in  proportion  to  the  means,  than  in  any  naval  engagement  of 
modem  times."  Sir  Charles  Ekins  adds,  "Nelson,  although  not  acquainted 
with  Lord  Duncan,  after  the  Battle  of  the  Nile  wrote  to  tell  him  how  he 
had  profited  by  his  example,**^  JEkM  Battle*,  4to.,  pp.  234,  235. 


PRAYER-MEETINGS    IN    8UTHERLANDSHIRE.         185 

deliver  their  sentiments  with  an  earnestness  suited  to  the  importance 
of  the  subject,  and  the  moderator  collects  their  different  ideas,  corrects 
an}'thing  that  may  be  improperly  stated,  and  gives  his  o^^  opinion.  The 
man  who  proposes  the  question  never  speaks  to  it.  In  many  places  there 
is  a  prayer  offered  up  about  the  middle  of  the  service.  One  of  the 
speakers  prays  aAer  the  service  is  over,  and  a  psalm  is  sung.  Occasions 
of  this  nature  are  highly  and  deservedly  valued  by  the  people.  In  many 
places,  we  understand  they  arc  the  chief  means  of  maintaining  and  carry- 
ing forward  the  work  of  Christ  It  is  here  also  worthy  of  particular 
remark,  that  until  within  these  few  years  that  some  ministers  have  dis- 
countenanced them,  it  was  the  practice  of  a  great  part  of  the  north  country 
to  hold  public  fellowship  meetings  on  the  Friday  previous  to  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Experienced  Christians  here  discoursed  freely 
of  the  manner  of  the  Lord's  dealing  with  them,  and  were  enabled  often  to 
speak  much  to  the  comfort  and  edification  of  their  weaker  brethren." 

The  above  extract  is  inserted  the  rather^  because  it  indicates 
that,  even  before  the  Haldanes,  or  Mr.  Aikman,  and  Mr.  Ewing, 
had  left  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  old  Scottish  "  Fellowship 
meetings''  had  found  much  favour  in  their  eyes.  It  will  also 
show  the  origin  of  certain  of  the  plans  of  social  worship,  which 
afterwards  produced  so  much  excitement  amongst  the  Scottish 
Congregationalists. 

Having  left  Dornoch,  where  the  Gaelic  was  so  generally 
spoken,  that  the  people  did  not  understand  English,  they  came 
to  Tain,  where  they  found  the  people  *'  highly  favoured,  being 
blessed  with  a  zealous  and  faithful  minister  of  the  Established 
Church,  who  is  the  fifth  of  that  character,  in  immediate  succes- 
sion.'' After  preaching  at  Tain,  Milton,  Invergordon,  and 
Drummond,  they  arrived  at  Dingwall,  where  they  preached, 
both  in  the  street  and  in  the  Town-hall,  and  then  crossed  the 
Ferry,  ''and,  by  the  Lord's  good  hand  upon  us,  arrived  in 
safety  at  Inverness,  in  the  afternoon  of  the  18th  of  October, 
where  we  had  the  happiness  to  meet,  in  good  health,  the 
brother  (Mr.  Rate)  whom  we  had  left.  And  here  we  joined  in 
setting  up  an  Ebenezer,  saying,  Hitherto  God  hath  helped." 
Mr.  Rate  had  been  most  usefully  employed,  during  their  separa- 
tion, in  preaching  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  the  following  year 
he  was  again  engaged  in  itinerating  in  the  coimty  of  Fife^ 
and  ultimately  became  the  minister  of  a  Scotch  Presbyterian 


186  CONCLUSION    OF   THE   TOUR. 

congregation  at  Alnwick^  where  he  laboured  in  the  Gospel  till  his 
deaths  in  1844.  He  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Macintosh^  of 
Bagmore^  near  Inverness^  and  the  sister  of  Lachlan  Macintosh^ 
Esquire^  of  Montague-square^  London^  long  known  as  an 
eminent  East  India  merchant^  who  has  devoted  his  influence  to 
the  best  objects. 

With  reference  to  the  state  of  religion  in  Inverness,  in  1797, 
the  following  paragraph  in  the  Journal  is  interesting  : — 

"  We  are  informed,  that  the  power  of  religion  greatly  prevailed  in 
this  town  and  country  round  for  several  generations.  The  celebrated 
Mr.  Bruce,  who  was  in  exile  here  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
and  who  was  a  faithful  and  zealous  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  was  instru- 
mental in  leading  multitudes  of  perishing  sinners  to  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ 

**  At  that  period,  the  North  Highlands  of  Scotland  were  in  a  state  of 
greater  barbarity  than  some  of  the  more  civilized  parts  of  Afirica  are  at 
this  day.  By  the  blessing  of  God,  however,  on  the  labours  of  that  good 
man,  and  many  able  and  faithful  successors,  the  wilderness  was  made  to 
rejoice,  and  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  But,  alas !  '  how  is  the  gold  become 
dim,  and  the  most  fine  gold  changed ! '  The  present  generation,  having  in 
general  had  a  religious  education,  retain  their  opinions,  but  have  forss^en 
the  practice  of  their  fathers.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that  this  knowledge 
may  yet  serve  to  promote  the  revival  of  real  religion  in  this  place, 
if  it  shall  please  God  to  send  zealous  ministers  among  them,  of 
which  many  of  the  people  are  truly  desirous.  It  is  remarkable  to 
observe  the  number  which  flock  to  hear  any  of  the  neighbouring  Gospel 
ministers,  of  whom  there  are  several,  when  they  come  to  this  place,  or  its 
neighbourhood.  It  is  not  at  all  uncommon  on  such  occasions  to  see  three 
or  four  thousand  people  assemble  in  the  open  air  to  hear  the  word  of  life* 
This  serves  to  account  for  what  appears,  at  first  view,  rather  surprising, 
namely,  that  a  number  of  young  persons  are  prospering  in  religion,  in 
circumstances  so  very  disadvantageous.  There  is  no  parochial  visitation 
or  examination  performed  by  the  dergy  of  this  town ;  but  the  parish  are 
in  the  habit  of  paying  a  catechist,  a  godly  man,  who  visits  from  house  to 
house,  and  examines  the  servants  and  lower  classes  of  people  on  the 
Sabbath  evenings  in  summer.  There  are  some  praying  societies  here, 
which  meet  weekly,  and  their  members  in  general  travel  ten  or  twelve 
miles  to  hear  the  Gospel.  There  is  an  Episcopal  meeting  here,  over 
which  a  bishop  presides,  but  religion  is  much  in  the  same  state  amongst 
them  as  in  the  rest  of  the  Scotch  Episcopal  meetings.  There  is  alsa  a 
meeting  of  Methodists,  and  a  small  one  of  Antibuigher  Seceders." 

The  itinerants  arrived  at  Huntly  on  the  26th  of  October^ 


HUNTLY.  187 

having  preached  at  Auldearn,  Forres,  ElgiUi  Fochaber,  and 
Keith,  and  met  with  a  most  a£fectionate  reception  from  Mr. 
Cowie. 

On  LordVday,  29th  October,  they  preached  five  times  at 
Aberdeen,  and  on  the  Monday  proceeded  by  Stonehaven  to 
Montrose,  where  they  found  Sabbath-schools  established  in  the 
interval  since  their  first  visit,  and  that  the  Burgher  minister  had 
himself  begun  to  itinerate  his  neighbourhood.  At  Brechin, 
after  preaching,  a  minister  of  the  Established  Church,  before 
unknown,  came  up  to  them  and  wished  them  God  speed. 
From  Forfar  they  went  to  Glamis,  where  they  preached  to  a 
comparatively  small,  but  very  attentive  audience.  At  Kerry- 
muir  and  Cupar  Angus  they  had  overflowing  congregationsi 
and  on  Monday,  the  6th  of  November,  arrived  and  preached  at 
Perth,  and  on  the  following  day  at  Auchterarder,  near  Glen* 
eagles,  whence  they  drove  on  to  Airthrey,  where  the  tour  ended. 

Mr.  James  Haldane,  upon  whom  the  labour  had  chiefly  fallen 
during  this  long  and  memorable  tour,  began  now  to  find  that 
even  his  physical  energies  were  imequal  to  his  zeal.  Of  his 
voice,  Mr.  Rate  said,  that  he  had  known  one  louder,  but  never 
one  that  combined  such  strength  and  compass ;  but  powerful  as 
it  was,  it  had  been  over-laboured.  In  chapels,  in  town-halls, 
and  covered  places,  or  in  the  open  air,  at  market-crosses,  by  the 
sea-shore,  or  by  the  river^s  side,  he  had  preached  to  crowded 
audiences,  and  even  when  addressing  multitudes,  sometimes 
estimated  at  6,000  and  upwards,  he  had  commanded  silence 
and  been  heard  with  attention.  He  thus  closes  his  narrative : — 
'^  Preached  (at  Auchterarder)  in  the  School-house  to  about 
300  persons,  and  then  came  forward  to  a  friend's  house  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Stirling,  one  of  us  being  much  indisposed 
by  a  sore-throat,  in  consequence  of  the  fatigue  of  much  speaking. 
The  condescension  and  goodness  of  God  were  also  strikingly 
displayed  in  this,  that  though  he  had  had  frequent  attacks  of 
this  complaint  in  the  course  of  the  journey,  he  had  never  been 
once  disabled  by  its  violence  from  preaching  till  he  had  fuUy 
completed  the  circuit.^' 

In  closing  the  Journal,  Mr.  James  Haldane  submits  some 


188  ARRIVAL   AT   AIRTHREY. 


• 


striking  observations  to  the  consideration  of  those  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity^  with  the  view  of  exciting  them 
to  greater  zeal  for  Home  Missions.  He  describes  the  people^ 
with  the  Scriptures  in  their  hands,  as  perishing  for  lack  of 
knowledge,  aer  taught  to  put  their  trust  in  refuges  of  lies, 
which  the  hail  shall  sweep  away  in  the  day  of  God^s  wrath. 
"  Surely,^'  he  exclaims,  ^'  their  miserable  circumstances  are  now 
proclaiming  in  the  ears  of  all  who  know  the  worth  of  a  Saviour 
and  of  immortal  souls,  '  Come  over,  and  help  us  !^  ^^ 

The  details  of  this  memorable  tour  in  1797  may  be  forgotten, 
and  even  the  recollection  of  the  excitement  it  produced  through- 
out Scotland  may  be  ignored  by  ecclesiastical  historians  more 
sealous  for  party  than  for  truth.  But  the  blossoms  did  not 
''  go  up  as  dust,''  and  the  fruits  cannot  perish.  Some  accounts 
will  be  given  in  these  Memoirs  of  the  actual  results,  as  seen  after 
time  had  tested  their  reality.  But  the  extent  of  the  blessing 
will  never  be  known  till  the  number  of  the  elect  shall  be  accom- 
plished, and  the  Lord  shall  hasten  his  coming.  Multitudes 
dated  their  turning  to  Ood  from  the  period  of  this  awakening. 
Several  years  later,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cleghom  names,  as  within  his 
own  knowledge,  in  the  small  town  of  Wick  alone,  forty  cases  in 
which  there  had  been  a  solid  work  of  conversion.  But  it  is  not 
merely  from  such  instances  that  the  good  done  must  be  esti- 
mated. It  was  far  more  visible  in  the  impulse  given  to  the 
Established  Church,  and  to  the  other  denominations  in  Scot- 
land. This  very  circumstance  may  occasionally  have  tended 
to  prevent  the  due  acknowledgment  of  the  services  of  these 
labourers,  but  as  they  did  not  look  for  human  applause,  or 
a  crown  of  earthly  glory,  they  were  not  disappointed.  Their 
ambition  soared  to  a  loftier  end  than  the  approbation  of  their 
fellow-men.  They  desired  to  sacrifice  all  for  Christ,  and  doubt- 
less the  labours  and  services  which  they  were  privileged  to 
render  are  recorded  in  the  book  of  Gk)d,  and  will  one  day  be 
acknowledged  in  the  presence  of  angels  and  of  men. 


^J^ 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  TOUR  OF  1797— DISCUSSIONS  AS  TO  LAY 
PREACmNG— LETTEES  FEOM  ME.  SIMEON— MR.  SIMEON'S 
SECOND  VISIT  TO  SCOTLAND— MR.  JAMES  HALDANE'S  AND 
MR.  AIRMAN'S  TOUR  IN  THE  WEST  AND  SOUTH  OF  SCOT- 
LAND IN  1798— MEETING  WITH  THE  REV.  ROWLAND  HILL 
—MR.  HALDANE  INDUCES  MR.  Z.  MACAULAY  TO  BRING 
OVER  A  NUMBER  OF  AFRICAN  CHILDREN  FROM  SIERRA 
LEONE  TO  BE  EDUCATED. 

[1797-8.] 

After  Mr.  James  Haldane^s  return  from  his  first  northern  tour 
his  position  was  completely  changed.  The  idea  of  leading  the 
retired  life  of  a  country  gentleman  was  at  an  end.  He  had 
assumed  a  new  character^  incurred  new  responsibilities^  and 
attracted  to  himself  the  notice  of  all  Scotland.  He  had  **  put 
his  hand  to  the  plough'^  in  the  Oospel  fields  and  to  have  drawn 
back  after  such  encouragement  would  have  seemed  an  act  of 
spiritual  rebellion  and  deep  ingratitude.  The  slumbers  of  a 
careless  and  worldly  clergy  had  been  broken^ — ^the  attention  of 
the  people  had  been  aroused;  and  whilst  the  Gospel  had  been 
received  by  many,  a  still  greater  number  began  to  inquire^ 
What  must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  There  was  great  excitement, 
and  withal  not  a  little  irritation.  Some  derided  his  zeal  as  the 
ebullition  of  a  distempered  brain,  whilst  by  those  who  knew 
that  he  spoke  ^'  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness/^  the  question 
was  eagerly  canvassed.  What  confers  authority  to  preach? 
Various  opinions  were  expressed  even  by  good  men,  and  by 
enemies  to  the  truth  lay  preaching  was  loudly  and  bitterly 
denounced.  In  a  qualified  degree  it  had  been  already  sanc- 
tioned by  the  father  of  the  Evangelical  clergy,  the  learned  and 
pious  Dr.  Erskine,  who,  in  the  preface  to  one  of  his  works. 


190  MR.  cowie's  testimony. 

bears  testimony  to  the  blessing  which  had  attended  the  labours 
of  a  zealous  lay  preacher  in  the  Highlands^  in  convincing  and 
converting  many  who  woidd  not  otherwise  have  listened  to  the 
Gospel.  Other  instances  of  remarkable  revivals  brought  about 
by  lay  preaching  were  appealed  to^  and  particularly  those  men- 
tioned in  the  Appendix  to  the  valuable  ^'  Historical  Collections^' 
of  the  late  Dr.  Gillies^  of  Glasgow. 

But  in  regard  to  Mr.  James  Haldane^  the  blessing  which 
had  attended  his  labours  was  to  himself^  as  to  others,  the  best 
evidence  of  his  call  to  the  work.  The  celebrated  Mr.  Cowie,  of 
Huntly,  familiarly  styled  the  Whitfield  of  the  north,  thus 
wrote: — '^No  honest  pastor  has  anything  to  dread  from  the 
friendly  visits  of  such  men.  They  come  not  to  shake  his  influ- 
ence, but  to  place  him  higher  in  the  alSections  of  his  people,  by 
spreading  the  light  of  truth  among  them.''  And  in  a  long 
letter,  dated  November,  1797,  published  in  the  ''Missionary 
Magazine,"  the  same  experienced  and  able  minister  thus  records 
his  testimony : — ''  I  and  several  other  ministers  heard  Mr.  Hal- 
dane  on  his  late  tour;  and  I  confess,  though  I  have  been  little 
short  of  thirty  years  a  minister,  have  heard  many  excellent 
preachers,  and  laid  my  hand  on  many  heads,  I  have  very 
seldom  heard  anything  so  much  to  my  satisfaction,  and  nothing 
that  could  exceed  Mr.  Haldane's  discourses.  I  could  even  say 
more,  but  I  forbear.      He   carries   his   credentials  with 

HIM,     AND    NEEDS    NOT     RECOMMENDATORY     LETTERS.       (2  Cor. 

iii.  13.)" 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  was  it  probable  that  he  should 
falter  in  his  course,  or  that  he  should  not  persevere  in  his  prac- 
tical answer  to  the  question  of  Dr.  Carlyle  and  the  rest  of  the 
Moderates,  when  they  opposed  Foreign  Missions  by  asking  if 
we  had  not  ''enough  of  heathen  at  home?"  He  felt  that  he 
had  been  forgiven  much,  and  knowing,  in  his  own  experience, 
the  Lord  Jesus  as  the  only  and  Almighty  Saviour,  he  spoke 
from  the  heart  to  the  heart,  and  was  honoured  to  become  one 
of  the  chief  instruments  of  that  movement  by  which  Scotland 
was  roused  from  a  state  of  spiritual  death.  But  in  carrying  out 
these  Home  Missions  it  was  needful  to  make  some  systematic 


SOCIETY  FOR  PROPAGATING  THE  GOSPEL  AT  HOME.    191 

effort  to  provide  other  preachers^  to  continue  and  extend  the 
work  which  he  had  himself  begun  in  the  summer  of  1797. 
A  plan  for  training  young  men  had  for  some  time  been  in 
agitation.  Dr.  Bogue^  always  foremost  in  every  attempt  to 
promote  the  kingdom  of  Christy  had  established  an  Association 
in  Hampshire,  the  design  of  which  was  to  make  the  Gospel 
known  in  the  neighbouring  towns  and  villages.  Following  in 
the  wake  of  the  Hampshire  Association,  a  Society  was  estab- 
lished in  Edinburgh,  consisting  of  Christians  of  different  deno- 
minations, under  the  name  of  ^^The  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Grospel  at  Home/^  A  preliminary  ^Meeting  was  held  on  the 
20th  December,  1797,  and  the  first  General  Meeting  on  the 
11th  January  following,  when  a  Committee  of  twelve  Directors 
was  appointed,  all  of  whom  were  laymen,  and  nine  of  them 
engaged  in  secular  pursuits.  The  following  is  the  list  as  they 
appear  in  order : — 

Mr.  Robert  Morris. 


**  Mr.  James  Christie. 
Mr.  Robert  Haldane. 
Mr.  A.  Johnstone. 
Mr.  John  Campbell. 
Mr.  George  Gibson. 
Mr.  John  Aikman. 


Mr.  Walter  Russell. 
Mr.  James  Haldane. 
Mr.  John  Grcig. 
Mr.  George  Feattie. 
Mr.  Andrew  Rochead. 


OFFICEBS  OF  THE  SOCIETT. 

Mr.  John  Ritchie,  Secretary, 

Mr.  Alexander  Steel,  Treasurer. 

Mr.  George  Wilson,  Clerk/* 

In  their  first  address  they  declare, — "  It  is  not  our  design  to 
form  or  to  extend  the  influence  of  any  sect.  Our  sole  intention 
is  to  make  known  the  Evangelical  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  In  employing  itinerants,  schoolmasters,  or  others,  we 
do  not  consider  ourselves  as  conferring  ordination  upon  them,  or 
appointing  them  to  the  pastoral  office.  We  only  propose  by 
sending  them  out,  to  supply  the  means  of  grace  wherever  we 
perceive  a  deficiency."  The  labours  of  this  Society  were  greatly 
blessed.  It  was  one  of  its  principles  that  its  itinerants  and 
catechists  should  make  no  public  collections,  or  take  money 
privately  from  those  amongst  whom  they  preached,  and  it 


192  MR.  EWING    SECEDES. 

undertook  to  defray  the  expenses  of  stated  ministers  desirous 
of  extending  their  sphere  of  labour.  Public  subscriptions  for 
its  support  were  received,  but  to  a  very  limited  extent,  for 
by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  funds  were  supplied  by  Mr. 
Haldane. 

The  principles  and  plans  of  this  Society  were  materially  aided 
and  recommended  by  the  pen  of  Mr.  Cowie  and  other  ministers, 
through  the  pages  of  the  "  Missionary  Magazine.^'  Of  that 
publication  the  editor,  Mr.  Ewing  had  not  then  left  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  although  his  position  was  every  day  becoming 
more  untenable.  On  the  24th  December,  1797,  he  delivered  a 
powerful  and  eloquent  sermon  in  defence  of  field-preaching, 
which  produced  a  great  sensation,  and  served  still  more  to 
alarm  the  Moderates.  The  occasion  of  this  sermon  was  a 
request  to  preach  on  behalf  of  the  Edinburgh  Sabbath-evening 
Schools,  which  had  been  rapidly  increasing  under  the  influence 
of  a  new  impulse.  Mr.  Ewing  undertook  to  prove  that  the 
unfettered  preaching  of  the  Gospel  was  one  of  those  characters 
of  universality  which  distinguish  the  Christian  from  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  and  he  ably  contended,  that  in  the  closing  words 
of  the  Apocalypse,  the  whole  system  of  revelation,  and  the 
whole  mystery  of  God,  seem  to  be  resolved  into  the  provision 
made  for  the  universal  propagation  of  the  Gospel.  "The 
Holy  Spirit  and  the  Church  unite  their  voice,  and  continually 
cry  to  sinners.  Come.  This  precious  invitation  is  so  necessary 
to  be  known,  and  known  without  a  moment^s  delay,  that  every 
one  that  heareth  is  commanded  to  repeat  it.  Like  a  multiplying 
and  never-dying  echo,  '  the  joyful  sound '  must  be  on  all  sides 
transmitted  from  one  to  another,  that  in  this  accepted  time,  in 
this  day  of  salvation,  he  that  is  athirst  may  come,  and  whoso- 
ever will,  may  take  the  water  of  life  freely.^^ 

The  publication  of  the  "  Journal  of  the  Tour  to  the  North,*' 
prepared  and  edited  by  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  served  still  more  to 
swell  the  mingled  tumult  of  censure  and  approval  which  the 
new  proceedings  had  called  forth.  The  "  Journal "  went  rapidly 
through  three  large  editions,  of  which,  at  least  one  consisted  of 
6,000  copies,   which  were  eagerly  bought  up  and  read  with 


LETTER   TO    THE    '*  MISSIONARY    MAGAZINE."       193 

interest.  In  the  spring  of  1798  Mr.  Rate  was  commissioned  by 
the  new  Society  to  itinerate  as  their  agent  in  Fife,  whilst  Mr. 
John  Cleghom  and  Mr.  Ballantyne,  originally  belonging  to  the 
Scotch  Secession  Church,  who  had  also  studied  under  Dr. 
Bogue,  were  dispatched  to  the  north,  there  to  labour  in  those 
places  where  so  great  an  awakening  had  followed  the  preaching 
of  Mr.  J.  Haldane  during  those  memorable  weeks,  when  the 
illness  of  Mr.  Aikman  had  detained  him  in  Caithness. 

It  was  the  privilege,  both  of  Mr.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman, 
to  be  able  to  preach  the  Gospel  without  charge,  and  their 
movements  were  therefore  independent  of  the  Society.  They 
resolved,  in  the  course  of  the  approaching  summer,  to  visit  the 
south  and  west  of  Scotland  upon  the  same  errand  of  mercy 
as  that  which  had  previously  conducted^  them  to  the  north. 
Before  setting  out,  they  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the 
"  Missionary  Magazine.'^  It  indicates  the  spirit  iu  which  their 
labours  were  undertaken  : — 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  "  Missionary  Magaziney 

"  Sir, — ^We  last  year  requested  the  prayers  of  our  Christian  brethren 
through  the  channel  of  your  valuable  publication.  The  favour  we  met 
with,  and  the  many  opportunities  we  enjoyed  of  preaching  salvation, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  to  multitudes  of  our  northern  brethren,  proved  that 
their  prayers  were  heard  on  our  behalf.  There  has  been,  it  would  appear, 
in  some  places  a  shaking  among  the  dry  bones ;  and  the  anxiety  which 
many  have  since  expressed  to  hear  the  Word  of  God,  we  would  hope  is  a 
token  that  the  Spirit  of  life  has  entered  into  the  hearts  of  some. 

*'  Two  of  those  who  went  out  last  year  are  about  to  set  off  for  the 
western  and  southern  parts  of  Scotland,  with  a  \'iew  of  calling  upon  the 
careless  to  consider  their  ways.  While  we  take  this  opportunity  of 
requesting  a  renewal  of  the  prayers  of  our  brethren  for  our  direction  and 
success,  we  would  observe  that  it  is  our  intention  to  adopt  a  different  line 
of  conduct  from  that  which  we  formerly  pursued,  in  animadverting  upon 
the  sermons  of  particular  ministers.  This  afforded  a  handle  to  those  who 
did  not  approve  of  our  design,  to  represent  us  as  actuated  by  party  spirit 
and  ill-will  to  individuals.  AVhile  we  can  safely  say  our  consciences  bear  ub 
witness  that  our  motives  were  very  different,  yet  we  now  see  the  propriety 
of  cutting  off  occasion  from  those  who  seek  occasion,  as  well  as  of 
removing  prejudice  from  some  of  our  brethren  who,  in  this  peulicular, 
disapproved  of  our  conduct.    We  accordingly  take  this  opportunity  to 

o 


194  LAY    PREACHING. 

state,  that  vre  are  resolved  to  confine  ourselves  in  our  intended  journey  to 
the  declaration  of  what  we  consider  as  the  truth  of  God,  without  making 
personal  remarks  on  any  individual. 

"  James  Haldane. 

"  John  Airman." 

The  itinerating  system  had  become  decidedly  popular  with 
the  multitude,  and,  during  the  winter  and  spring  of  1797-8, 
the  preachers  had  not  been  idle.  There  was  a  great  awakening 
and  general  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  the  Moderates  were  filled  with 
indignation.  Even  some  of  the  friends  of  the  Gospel  began  to 
tremble  for  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Establishment,  and  dreaded 
the  approach  of  a  disruption.  "  Our  good  clergy,^^  writes  Mr. 
Campbell  to  the  Countess  of  Leven,  '^have  diflFerent  opinions 
about  it.  The  majority  are  in  favour  of  it.  Dr.  Erakine  thinks 
that  the  preachers  should  not  take  a  text,  but  just  give  an 
exhortation.  The  gentlemen  say  that  they  could  not  keep  up 
variety  in  this  way.  Dr.  Stuart  thinks  that  they  ought  to  have 
a  formal  commission  from  some  Church.  As  for  myself,  I  did 
not  give  an  opinion  at  first ;  but  now  their  plan  vindicates  itself 
to  me,  for  they  are  not  preaching  to  the  Church,  but  to  the 
world/'  The  venerable  Coimtess  closed  her  life  just  before  the 
second  tour,  made  in  the  summer  of  1798.  Her  Ladyship 
was  one  of  those  who  dreaded  the  consequences  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Established  Church  which  might  result  from  so 
openly  and  plainly  exposing  the  faithless  clergy.  In  her 
yoimger  days  she  had  encouraged  Whitfield  boldly  to  denounce 
and  rebuke  "  hirelings,^'  but  age  had  rendered  her  more  timid, 
although,  amidst  her  fears,  she  observes,  that,  '^  after  all,  any- 
thing is  better  than  dust  gathering  through  drowsiness  and 
indolence/' 

The  boldness  with  which  the  itinerants  had  attacked  the 
false  doctrines  of  unfaithful  ministers,  seemed  to  Dr.  Erskine 
and  other  fathers  of  the  Church  subversion  of  order.  To  the 
judgment  of  such  men  they  were  vnlling  to  bow,  and  therefore, 
in  the  foregoing  letter,  published  at  the  outset  of  their  tour  in 
1798,  they  announced  that  they  did  not*  intend  in  future  to 
pursue  that  plan,   although  there  were  those  who  considered 


LETTER    PROM    REV.  C.   SIMEON.  195 

that  the  necessities  of  the  times  rendered  the  bolder  course 
preferable  for  its  faithfulness,  as  well  as  its  efficiency.  The 
outcry  which  it  produced  was  the  best  proof  of  its  results,  and 
from  no  tour  were  more  abundant  fruits  gathered  than  from  the 
first. 

The  following  letters  from  Mr.  Simeon  contain  his  views  at 
that  mature  period  of  his  life,  in  regard  to  lay  preaching  and  the 
recent  tour.  Between  Mr.  Simeon  and  Mr.  James  Haldane 
there  long  subsisted  a  close  and  affectionate  correspondence. 

Copy  of  a  Letter  from  the  Rev,  Charles  Simeon  to  J,  A.  Haldane,  Eeq. 

"  King's  CollegCy  Cainbridge,  April  13,  1798. 

"  My  VERY  DEAR  Friend, — ^I  haTc  been  long  intending  to  write  to 
you,  and  though  my  manifold  engagements  might,  in  a  measure,  plead 
my  excuse  for  the  delay,  yet  the  true  reason  has  been,  that  I  have  been  in 
a  state  of  utter  uncertainty  with  respect  to  my  projected  journey,  and  was 
unwilling  to  write  till  I  could  speak  something  positively  with  respect  to 
it.  .  .  .  If  I  can  have  my  God  to  go  before  me  in  the  pillar  and  the 
cloud,  I  long  exceedingly  to  visit  you  once  more ;  but  if  I  cannot  see  my 
way  clear,  I  am  better  where  I  am.  Had  my  plan  been  finally  settled, 
you  would  have  heard  from  me  long  since ;  but  I  have  dreaded  any 
appearance  of  fickleness.  A  minister's  word  should  never  be  yea  and 
nay ;  he  should  plan  with  wisdom,  and  execute  with  firmness.  O  that 
God  would  direct  my  way.    I  hope  I  can  truly  say,  *  Thy  will  be  done.' 

"  With  respect  to  your  excursion,  I  am  far  from  having  entertained  the 
opinion  you  suppose.  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  think  immortal  souls  of 
such  value,  that  I  should  rejoice  if  all  the  Lord's  people  were  prophets. 
With  respect  to  regularity,  propriety,  &c.,  the  most  godly  men  in  all  ages 
have  differed  in  their  judgment ;  and  I  find  it  so  difficult  precisely  to 
draw  the  line  in  any  case  of  my  own,  that  I  do  not  presume  to  judge  for 
others.  Some  think  they  may  eat  meat,  and  others  not ;  I  neither  judge 
nor  despise,  but  leave  all  to  their  own  Master.  We  certainly  must  not  do 
MORAL  evil,  that  good  may  come.  But  if  mercy  and  sacrifice  stand  in 
opposition  to  each  other,  we  may  choose  mercy ;  and  if  David  and  his 
men  be  fainting  with  hunger,  they  may  eat  the  forbidden  bread.  I  love 
aU  good  men  of  all  descriptions,  and  rejoice  in  the  good  they  do,  whether 
they  do  it  in  my  way  or  not.  I  think  for  myself  and  act  for  myself,  and 
leave  others  to  do  the  same. 

"  As  a  minister  who  has  a  flock  that  is  dear  to  him,  I  stand  more  aloof 
from  those  who  might  injure  them  than  I  should  if  I  were  a  private 

o  2 


196  LETTER    FROM    REV.   C.   SIMEON. 

indiTidual  .  .  .     But  if  I  must  err  on  one  side,  I  wish  it  to  be  on  the  side 
of  love  and  zeal. 

"  As  for  more  union  among  the  different  parties  of  Christians,  I  do  not 
much  expect  to  see  it.  *  Every  man/  said  Luther,  *  has  a  Pope  in  his 
own  belly.'  People  of  different  sentiments  may  coalesce  for  a  time,  but 
there  are  few  who  will  not  be  endeavouring  to  proselyte  others.  1  have 
almost  invariably  found  it  so,  especially  among  the  different  classes  of 
Dissenters;  but  among  the  Moravians  far  less  than  any  other  sect. 
There  is  another  bone  of  contention  which  at  this  time  renders  such  a 
union  more  difficult  than  ever.  A  great  multitude  of  men,  whose  piety 
we  cannot  reasonably  doubt,  have  sadly  hurt  their  own  spirit  by  dabbling 
in  politics.  .  .  .  You,  my  dear  friend,  I  trust,  have  steered  clear  of  this 
rock.  The  Lord  has  given  you  a  meek  and  spiritual  mind,  and  I  earnestly 
pray  that  you  may  ever  have  it  occupied  with  the  best  things.  There  is, 
indeed,  danger,  even  to  the  best  of  men,  lest  their  minds  should  be  soured 
by  opposition  and  disappointment.  I  hope  your  brother's  disappointment 
(about  India)  and  the  opposition  you  may  have  met  with  in  your  itine- 
rancies  have  not  produced  this  effect.  Let  us  look  through  second  causes, 
and  then  we  shall  be  prepared  to  say,  at  all  times,  '  It  is  the  Lord,  let 
Him  do  what  seemeth  Him  good.'  I  promise  myself  much  pleasure  in 
the  perusal  of  your  *  Journal ; '  and,  if  we  live  to  meet  again,  much 
delight  in  your  conversation  and  prayers.  Present  my  very  affectionate 
respects  to  Mrs.  Haldane,  and  believe  me,  yours,  &c., 

"  C.  Simeon." 

A  few  days  later  the  following  letter  was  written,  and  indi- 
cates the  substantial  satisfaction^  with  which  the  patriarch  of 
evangelism  at  Cambridge  viewed  the  proceedings  of  his  younger 
and  more  unfettered  friend.  It  shows,  too,  how  Mr.  Simeon 
was  himself  stimulated  to  follow  in  the  very  same  track,  with 
this  difference,  that  he  would  restrict  himself  to  Presbyterian 
Churches  and  Episcopalian  Chapels. 


Hev.  Charles  Simeon  to  Jaines  Haldane,  Esq. 

"  My  deabest  Brotheb, — My  mind  is  now,  with  God's  permission, 
fully  made  up  to  visit  you,  and  to  be  at  Edinburgh  the  16th,  or  more  pro- 
bably 17th,  of  May.  I  have  been  reading  your  Journal,  if  not  with 
unqualified  approbation,  I  may  truly  say  with  exceeding  great  joy  and 
delight  I  bless  and  adore  my  God,  who  has  stirred  up  your  soul  to  seek 
the  salvation  of  His  people,  and  I  earnestly  pray  that  a  blessing  may 
attend  your  labour  of  love. 


MR.  Simeon's  second  visit.  197 

"  Thus  far  I  haTe  no  objection  to  have  known.  But  what  I  am  going 
to  say  must  be  kept  secret  from  every  living  creature.*    .     .    . 

"  I  again  request  you,"  he  says,  "  not  to  judge  me  before  you  know  my 
reasons,  but  to  believe  that  my  heart  is  with  all  those  who  love  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity.  If  I  cannot  do  the  good  which  you  did,  be 
thankful  that  I  wish  to  glean  your  leavings,  and  to  move  in  somewhat  a 
more  confined  path,  rather  than  do  nothing. — ^With  most  fervent  love,  I 
remain,  (with  affectionate  respects  also  to  Mrs.  H.,) 

"  Yours  in  the  Lord, 

"  April  16, 1798."  «  C.  Simeon. 

Mr.  Simeon  did  come  to  Scotland^  and  received  from  Mr. 
James  Haldane  all  the  affectionate  aid  and  co-operation  in  his 
power.  The  motives  which  actuated  Mr.  Simeon  in  withholding  a 
public  avowal  of  his  approbation  of  lay  preaching  were  fully  appre- 
ciated^ and  did  not  for  a  moment  cause  any  umbrage  to  his  friend. 
It  was,  however,  on  this  occasion  that,  preaching  in  the  Tolbooth 
Church,  Mr.  Simeon  prayed  that  the  Assembly  ''  might  do  no 
evil,'' — a  prayer  which  might  have  been  most  appropriate  in 
private,  considering  the  composition  of  the  Assembly,  but  one 
which  did  not  fail  to  produce  irritation.  Mr.  James  Haldane 
used  playfully  to  remark  that  he  generally  observed  that  there 
was  more  of  true  wisdom  in  a  simple  and  straightforward 
course,  and  that  those  who  valued  themselves  on  their  own 
prudence  often  signally  erred  in  this  particular.  In  his  opinion, 
Mr.  Simeon's  prayer  did  much  to  precipitate  the  exclusion  from 
the  Scottish  pulpits  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  and 
other  non-Presbyterian  bodies. 

*  The  secret  which  Mr.  Simeon  did  not  wish  to  be  divulged,  applied  only 
to  thai  time,  and  related  to  his  plan  of  going  northward,  with  Dr.  Walter 
Buchanan,  over  the  same  ground  as  that  which  had  been  so  lately  traversed 
by  Mr.  James  Haldane,  yet  not  so  as  to  appear  altogether  to  be  publicly 
identified  with  his  friend.  He  therefore  wished  Mr.  J.  H,  privately  to 
prepare  the  way  for  him,  by  sending  letters  to  his  acquaintance  in  all  the 
principal  places  where  there  were  Churches  belonging  either  to  Presby- 
terians or  Episcopalians,  with  the  view  of  procuring  pulpits  where  he  might 
be  allowed  to  preach.  He  adds,  however,  that  he  was  not  going  to  preach 
in  the  open  air,  or  in  opposition  to  false  teachers.  "  It  is  not  my  plan  to 
preach  as  you  did,  and  therefore  I  wish  nothing  to  be  said  to  me  upon  that 
subject  If  I  were  alone,  or  with  you,  I  might  act  differently ;  but  circum- 
stanced as  I  shall  be,  my  mind  is  made  up." 


198  SECOND    ITINERATING    TOUR. 

The  vcDerable  John  Newton,  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth,  still 
more  openly  gave  his  countenance  and  blessing  to  the  itinerants. 
"  If/^  he  writes  to  Mr.  Campbell,  ^'  if  all  were  like-minded  with 
Messrs.  Haldane  and  Aikman,  I  would  pray  the  Lord  to  increase 
their  number  a  hundred-fold.  Give  my  love  to  them,  and  tell 
them  that  I  rejoice  in  their  zeal,  their  acceptance,  and  in  their 
success.  Why  should  not  the  Orkney  and  the  Shetland  Islands 
deserve  attention  as  much  as  the  Islands  of  the  South  Sea  ?  I 
hope  Gospel  zeal  will,  in  due  time,  sail  northward  to  Shetland, 
ftnd  westward  to  St.  Kilda,  and  all  the  intermediate  islands/' 

Encouraged  by  past  success,  and  by  the  prayers  and  good 
wishes  of  Christians  of  many  denominations,  Mr.  James  Haldane 
and  Mr.  Aikman  set  off  on  their  second  extensive  tour  on 
Thursday,  the  14th  June,  1798,  travelling  by  Peebles,  Biggar, 
Hamilton,  Greenock,  &c.,  into  Ayrshire  and  Galloway,  preaching 
the  Gospel  in  all  these  districts,  and  finally  completing  their 
circuit  home  by  way  of  Berwick.  The  attention  which  they 
excited  was  as  great  in  the  west  and  south  of  Scotland,  as  it  had 
been  in  the  north.  Multitudes  flocked  to  hear  the  (jospel,  and 
to  the  hearts  of  many  it  was  brought  home  with  power.  In 
some  places  they  encountered  more  opposition  than  before,  and 
especially  at  Ayr,  where  Mr.  J.  Haldane  was  interrupted  in 
preaching  at  the  market- cross,  and  summoned  before  the  magis- 
trates, who  had  been  incited  to  interfere.  But  he  had  done 
nothing  unlawful,  and  he  was  not  a  man  to  yield  to  intimidation. 
He  was  threatened  with  imprisonment  if  he  should  preach  on 
the  following  day,  as  he  had  announced;  but  he  assured  the 
magistrates  that  menaces  without  lawful  sanction  were  of  no 
avail.  He  would  not  indeed  preach  at  the  cross,  or  at  any  place 
to  which  just  exception  might  be  taken,  but  simply  in  preaching 
he  infringed  no  law,  and,  on  the  contrary,  was  protected  by  the 
Toleration  Act.  ''  Depend  upon  it,''  said  one  of  them,  — "  depend 
upon  it,  that  you  will  be  arrested."  Mr.  Haldane  rephed,  "  And 
depend  upon  it.  Sir,  I  shall  be  punctual  to  my  appointment." 
He  was  on  the  ground  at  the  appointed  time,  and  preached  to  a 
great  audience  without  molestation.  One  of  the  gentlemen  most 
eager  in  opposition  was  a  county  magistrate,  lately  returned 


MR.  watson's  letter.  199 

from  India  with  a  large  fortune.  In  the  course  of  this  alterca- 
tion, having  discovered  who  the  preacher  was,  and  that  they  had 
mutual  friends,  he  was  disposed  to  treat  him  with  greater 
courtesy,  although  still  persisting  in  the  determination  to  put 
down  field-preaching.  He  appeared  on  the  ground  next  day, 
with  some  other  magistrates,  as  if  intending  to  carry  their  threat 
into  force.  Mr.  J.  Haldane  proceeded,  fearless  of  their  menaces. 
They  listened  in  silence,  offered  no  interruption,  and  went  away 
seemingly  awed  and  solemnized. 

An  account  of  Mr.  J.  Haldane's  first  sermon  at  the  cross  of 
Ayr  has  heen  written  hy  a  survivor,  who  himself  owed  his  own 
soul  to  the  blessed  words  which  then  for  the  first  time  reached 
his  conscience.  That  good  man,  Mr.  Watson,  afterwards 
minister  of  Dumfries,  and  long  a  valuable  itinerant  roimd  Edin- 
burgh, and  forward  in  every  good  work,  writes  as  follows : — 

"  15,  CaUon-street,  Edinburgh,  April  9,  1861. 

'*  Although  unwilling  to  put  in  writing  the  unpremeditated  narration 
made  by  me  two  years  ago,  at  a  public  meeting  held  in  the  Tabernacle, 
yet  at  your  urgent  and  reiterated  request  I  comply,  rather  than  assume  a 
position  of  refusal  in  a  matter  relating  in  some  respects  more  to  your 
father  than  to  myself.    The  facts  are  simply  these :  — 

<'In  the  year  1798,  your  late  venerated  father,  along  with  the  late  Mr. 
John  Aikman,  whose  praise  is  in  all  the  Churches,  visited  my  native  place, 
the  ancient  town  of  Ayr. 

**  On  their  arrival,  one  Saturday,  intimation  was  publicly  made  by  the 
town  bellman  that  Mr.  Haldane  was  to  preach  at  the  cross  the  same 
evening,  at  seven  o*clock.  I  received  this  information  from  a  good  old 
woman,  who  asked  if  I  would  go  and  hear.  I  replied,  '  No,  no ;  I  never 
go  to  hear  men  who  preach  in  the  streets  for  bawbees.'  In  answer  to 
which  she  assured  me  *  they  were  independent  gentlemen,  who  did  na' 
preach  for  siller.'  This  appeared  to  me  so  extraordinary  that  I  at  once 
resolved  to  go  and  hear  for  myself,  which  I  accordingly  did. 

"  His  sermon  was  delivered  with  such  fervour  and  earnestness  as  to 
produce  a  deep  impression  on  the  listening  multitude. 

**  Intimation  was  also  given  that  he  would  again  preach,  with  the  Lord's 
permission,  on  the  same  spot  on  the  following  morning  (Sabbath),  at  nine 
o'clock.  I  was  at  the  cross,  along  with  my  father,  before  the  hour,  where 
large  numbers  soon  assembled.  The  text  was  in  John  iii.  3,  <  Except  a 
man  be  bom  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  heaven.' 

*'  About  the  middle  of  his  sermon,  the  town-officers  came  firom  the 
magistrates,  and  said,  '  You  must  go  with  us  to  the  Council-room,'  where 


200  PREACHING    AT    AYR. 

the  authorities  were  then  assembled.  Mr.  Ilaldane  went,  but  requested 
the  people  to  remain,  as  he  hoped  he  should  not  be  long  detained.  He 
soon  returned,  and  informed  the  people  that  he  was  commanded  to  preach 
no  more  in  that  place,  but  he  told  them  he  would  finish  his  discourse. 
Before  doing  so,  however,  the  officers  were  again  sent  to  stop  him ;  but 
when  they  came  near,  instead  of  putting  their  orders  into  execution,  they 
stood  respectfully  behind  until  he  had  finished,  and  they  were  heard  to  say 
that  they  were  ashamed  to  execute  the  orders  against  such  a  gentleman. 

"  I  should  explain  that  the  cross  stands,  or  rather  stood,  in  a  comer  of 
the  street  where  there  was  an  open  space,  which  afibrdcd  accommodation 
for  the  assemblage,  and  therefore  the  thoroughfare  was  little,  if  at  all, 
interrupted. 

''  On  dismissing  the  people,  Mr.  Haldane  intimated  that  he  would 
preach  that  evening  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  on  the  Newton  Green. 
"  The  report  of  such  treatment  gave  general  offence  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  place,  and  brought  a  still  greater  multitude  to  hear  him  in  the 
evening.  On  Monday  morning,  Mr.  Aikman  preached  to  a  large  assem- 
blage on  the  Town  Green.  A  private  individual,  who  rented  a  part  for 
grazing  cattle,  had  with  generous  indignation  offered  his  portion  of  the 
Green  for  the  public  accommodation. 

"  In  the  following  year  Mr.  Haldane  again  visited  Ayr,  and  the  report 
of  his  former  visit  and  treatment  having  spread  over  the  county,  brought 
together  immense  numbers  to  hear  him. 

"  To  the  honour  of  my  friend  and  then  minister,  the  late  Dr.  Peebles, 
let  it  be  told,  when  sermon  was  announced  on  one  of  the  evenings  unfa- 
vourable to  out-of-door  preaching,  he  offered  Mr.  Haldane  the  use  of  his 
church  (the  Newton  parish  church  upon  Ayr),  where  he  accordingly 
preached  to  a  full  house,  from  1st  Peter  i.  18,  19,  *  Forasmuch  as  ye  know 
that  ye  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold,  but 
with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and  with- 
out spot.'  These  were  seasons  of  refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord,  and  long  remembered  by  many. 

"Mr.  Haldanc's  visits  to  the  west  of  Scotland  were  the  means  of 
awakening  not  a  few  out  of  their  spiritual  slumbers,  and  of  infusing  fresh 
life  into  the  languishing  souls  of  many  of  God's  own  people  connected 
with  other  denominations. 

"  Although  more  than  fifty  years  have  run  their  course  since  these 
things  were  done,  the  remembrance  is  as  fresh  on  my  memory  as  if  they 
were  only  the  transactions  of  yesterday.  In  my  imagination,  I  see  Mr. 
James  Haldane's  manly  form  and  commanding  attitude,  in  youthful  but 
dignified  zeal,  pouring  out  of  the  fulness  of  his  soul  a  free,  full,  and  ever- 
lasting salvation  to  the  wondering  multitude,  who  by  the  expression  of 
their  faces  seemed  to  say,  *  We  have  heard  strange  things  to-day.* 

"  And  I  may  well  remember  that  first  sermon  of  Mr.  Haldane's,  in  1798^ 


REV.    ROWLAND    HILL.  201 

standing  as  he  did  on  the  steps  of  the  old  cross  of  Ayr,  as  it  may  be  said 
to  have  been  the  pivot  on  which  the  events  of  my  after-existence  all 
turned.  It  was  that  sermon  that  led  roe  to  Christ,  and  eventually  to  the 
relinquishment  of  my  business  and  other  engagements  in  Ayr.  It  was 
that  sermon  that  led  me  to  your  uncle's  academy  at  Dundee  and  Edin- 
burgh, from  thence  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Congregational  Chiutsh  at 
Dumfries,  which  I  voluntarily  resigned  after  Mr.  Robert  Haldane*s  change 
to  Baptist  sentiments,  a  circumstance  which  more  than  forty  years  ago 
brought  me  again  to  Edinburgh,  where  I  have  since  resided.  It  is  &r 
from  my  wish  to  convey  the  idea  of  any  undue  interference  on  the  part  of 
your  late  respected  uncle,  as  proprietor  of  the  Chapel.  That  gentleman 
ever  acted  towards  roe  as  a  friend  and  a  Christian. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Sir,  allow  me  to  close  this  narration  with  my 
earnest  prayer  that  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  who  blessed  Abraham  and 
your  father  also,  and  made  them  blessings,  may  also  bless  you  and  yours, 
and  all  the  house  of  your  father,  both  small  and  great  And  for  his  sake, 
I  remain, 

**  Your  most  affectionate  friend  and  well-wisher, 

"William  Watson. 
"  A,  Ilaldnne,  Esq,'' 

There  are  many  incidental  evidences  of  the  blessing  which 
attended  the  tour  of  1798,  although  no  printed  record  of  it  has 
been  published.  In  a  letter  from  Annan,  in  the  "  Missionary 
Magazine/'  it  is  said :  ^^  Since  Messrs.  Haldane  and  Aikman 
visited  our  part  of  the  country,  a  Sabbath-school  has  been 
erected  at  Annan,  containing  about  eighty  scholars,  who  appear 
to  be  doing  well/'  Again^  with  reference  to  the  same  tour: 
'^  At  Longtown  there  appears  to  be  a  spirit  of  inquiry  after 
Divine  things.  At  Cannanby  there  have  been  five  Sabbath- 
schools  erected  within  these  two  months,  containing  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  children.''  At  Berwick  they  also  preached 
with  great  acceptance,  and  were  hailed  with  joy  by  the  friends 
of  the  Grospel.  The  people  generally  came  out  to  hear  in 
crowds,  and  numbers  found,  in  these  opportunities,  a  message  of 
peace  to  their  souls. 

It  was  whilst  prosecuting  this  second  extensive  tour,  that 
a  stranger  appeared,  whose  arrival  added  fuel  to  the 
flame,  which  had  already  blazed  up,  both  in  the  north  and 
south  of  Scotland.     The  two  preachers  had  repaired  to  Lang- 


202  REV.    ROWLAND    HILL. 

holm^  in  the  county  of  Roxburgh^  in  the  hope  of  doing  some 
good  to  the  multitude  assembled  at  the  annual  fair.  It  was  a 
summer's  evening,  on  the  26th  of  July,  when,  walking  on  the 
romantic  banks  of  the  river  Esk,  they  passed  by  an  English 
clergyman,  also  enjoying  the  retirement  of  the  scene,  but 
engaged  in  close  conversation  with  the  minister  of  the  parish. 
His  person  and  his  errand  were  alike  unknown  to  them. 
In  such  a  place  and  at  such  a  time,  it  was  impossible  not  to 
be  struck  with  his  appearance.  His  tall,  commanding  figure, 
piercing  eye,  and  aquiline  nose,  gave  effect  to  a  countenance 
beaming  with  intelligence,  on  which  there  was  withal  the 
indication  of  a  natural  and  irresistible  vein  of  humour.  It  was 
the  celebrated  Rowland  Hill,  the  brother  of  the  well-known  and 
pious  Sir  Richard  Hill,  of  Hawkestone,  M.P.  for  Shropshire, 
and  uncle  of  that  gallant  peer,  who,  after  having  fought  on 
almost  every  field,  from  Alexandria  to  Waterloo,  was  for  so  many 
years  the  Commander-in-Chief.  Mr.  Hill  shall  himself  relate, 
in  his  own  quaint  style,  the  manner  of  his  introduction  to  his 
new  friends.  The  narrative  is  contained  in  his  journal  of  his 
first  tour  in  Scotland : — 

^'  Having  had  no  opportunity  to  appoint  different  stages  at 
which  to  preach  between  Carlisle  and  Edinburgh,  I  spent  the 
Thursday  evening  at  Langholm.  It  happened  to  be  the  time  of 
their  public  fair,  and  a  sad  example  it  exhibited,  on  my  first 
night's  lodging  in  Scotland,  the  opposite  to  what  I  expected  to 
find  of  decency  and  good  behaviour  among  the  people  in  those 
parts.  The  fair  was  a  downright  revel ;  dancing,  drunkenness, 
and  lasciviousness,  seemed  to  be  the  principal  motives  which  had 
brought  them  together.  In  England  I  scarce  ever  saw  a  more 
disgraceful  assemblage;  and  in  some  parts  of  Wales  I  have 
passed  through  large  fairs,  when  it  was  pleasant  to  behold  the 
innocent  and  well-ordered  bustle  of  the  day.  After  that  traffic  had 
ended,  all  returned  at  an  early  hour,  with  scarce  an  instance  of 
a  sober  person  being  disgusted  by  a  reprobate,  or  insulted  by  a 
drunkard. 

**  As  the  same  horse,  with  a  light  vehicle,  conveyed  me  and 


PLAN    FOR   EDUCATING    AFRICAN    CHILDREN.  203 

my  servant  from  stage  to  stage,  the  next  being  a  long  one,  I 
was  under  the  necessity  of  spending  the  night  in  this  temporary 
hell,  but  that  I  might  enjoy  a  little  respite  from  the  wretched 
tumult,  I  took  my  evening's  walk  out  of  the  town,  by  the  side 
of  a  romantic  river.  Here  I  was  very  kindly  accosted  by  a 
gentleman,  who,  I  conceive,  was  the  minister  of  the  parish,  and 
who,  with  much  hospitality,  offered  me  every  accommodation  his 
house  could  afford  from  the  confusion  of  the  town ;  but  having 
already  procured  a  private  lodging,  I  declined  his  very  friendly 
offer.  While  we  were  in  conversation,  Messrs.  J.  Haldane 
and  Aikman  passed.  These  gentlemen  were  then  imknown 
to  me.  I  was  told,  but  in  very  candid  language,  their  errand 
and  design;  that  it  was  a  marvellous  circumstance,  quite  a 
phenomenon,  that  an  East  India  captain,  a  gentleman  of  good 
family  and  connexions,  should  turn  out  an  itinerant  preacher; 
that  he  should  travel  from  town  to  town,  and  all  against  his 
own  interest  and  character.  This  information  was  enough  for 
me.  I  immediately  sought  out  the  itinerants.  When  I  inquired 
for  them  of  the  landlady  of  the  inn,  she  told  me  she  supposed 
I  meant  the  two  priests  who  were  at  her  house,  but  she  could 
not  satisfy  me  of  what  religion  they  were.  The  two  priests, 
however,  and  myself  soon  met ;  and,  to  our  mutual  satisfaction, 
passed  the  evening  together.'' 

Mr.  Hill  next  morning  went  forward  towards  Edinburgh, 
whilst  his  two  friends  remained  to  complete  their  itinerating 
labour  of  love. 


PLAN  FOR  BRINGHNO  OVER  AFRICAN  CHILDREN  FOR 

EDUCATION. 

• 

Before  Mr.  Hill's  visit  to  Scotland,  and  contemporaneous  with 
the  institution  of  the  Circus  as  a  place  for  preaching,  there 
was  another  plan,  which  originated  in  the  same  ardent  philan- 
thropy and  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  which  marked  the  renewed 
character  of  Robert  Haldane.  It  was  a  scheme  for  bringing 
over  young  Africans  to  Britain,  with  the  view  of  educating  them 
in  this  country  in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  and  sending 


204       PLAN   FOE  EDUCATING   AFRICAN    CHILDREN. 

• 
them  back  to  their  native  land  imbued  with  a  knowledge  of 
civilization^  and^  as  far  as  human  efforts  could  avails  with   a 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel. 

This  scheme  originated  with  Mr,  John  Campbell,  and  will  be 
best  told  in  the  simple  though  somewhat  quaint  style  of  his 
own  autobiography : — 

"  The  formation  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  for  extending  the 
knowledge  of  the  glorious  Gospel  to  all  ends  of  the  earth,  and  the  Society 
being  composed  of  Christians  of  all  denominations,  had  a  most  electrifying 
effect  on  the  Christians  of  the  North.  *  We  were  like  men  who  dreamed.' 
From  the  days  of  George  Whitfield  till  then,  the  Christians  on  both  sides 
of  the  Tweed  had  been  fast  asleep.     .    .     . 

'*  In  a  short  time  a  similar  Society  was  formed  in  Edinburgh,  and  I  was 
chosen  to  be  on  the  direction.  The  first  field  they  fixed  on  for  the  theatre 
of  their  operations,  was  the  Continent  of  Africa;  to  commence  in  the 
vicinity  of  Sierra  Leone;  to  which  some  missionaries  were  sent,  and 
leveral  pious  young  men  volunteered  to  the  Sierra  Leone  Company  to  go 
to  their  settlement  as  clerks,  &c.,  and  one  as  chaplain.  Death  carried 
off  the  chaplain  and  some  of  the  young  men,  and  terminated  the  Mission. 
Musing  on  the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate  to  European  constitutions  one 
morning,  this  thought  occurred :  '  Might  we  not  bring  over  A^ica  to 
England,  educate  her,  when  some,  through  grace  and  Gospel,  might  be 
converted,  and  sent  back  to  Africa  P  If  not  converted,  yet  they  might 
help  to  spread  civilization,  so  all  would  not  be  lost !  *  The  amount  of 
which  was  to  bring  over  twenty  or  thirty,  or  more,  boys  and  girls,  from 
the  coast  of  Guinea,  through  the  influence  of  Governor  Macaulay ;  educate 
them  in  Edinburgh,  and  send  them  back  to  their  own  country,  to  spread 
knowledge,  especially  scriptural  knowledge. 

"  I  laid  my  proposed  scheme  before  two  or  three  judicious  friends,  who 
approved  of  it,  as  did  also  Henry  Thornton,  M.P.,  Treasurer  of  the  Sierra 
Leone  Company,  and  Mr.  Wilberforce ;  but  I  entered  more  fully  into  the 
consideration  of  the  matter  with  the  late  Charles  Grant,  Chairman  of  the 
East  India  Company,  who  had  not  been  long  returned  firom  India,  and 
had  come  with  his  family  to  Scotland  on  a  visit  to  the  Leven  fiimily. 
Having  exchanged  letters  once  a- week  with  the  venerable  Countess  of 
Leven  for  a  considerable  time,  she  got  Mr.  Grant  to  promise  to  call  upon 
me  as  he  passed  through  Edinburgh  on  his  way  to  I^ondon,  which  he 
condescended  to  do,  and  invited  me  to  spend  the  only  two  evenings  he 
was  to  be  in  Edinburgh  at  his  hotel  with  him  and  family.  This  I 
considered  to  be  a  most  favourable  opportunity  for  consulting  a  wise, 
good,  and  experienced  man,  in  regard  to  my  then  favourite  plan.  I  was 
delighted  to  observe  the  interest  he  took  in  it,  and  the  minuteness  of  his 


MR.  CHARLES    GRANT.  205 

calculations  regarding  the  expense  of  bringing  them  over  from  Africa  and 
sending  them  back  five  years  later." 

Mr.  Campbells  first  efforts  resulted  in  a  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Wilberforce,  Mr.  Thornton^  and  others^  of  "  the  Clapham 
Sect/'  who  highly  approved  of  the  plan,  but  hesitated  as  to  the 
expense,  and  judged  it  better  to  postpone  the  scheme  until  at 
peace  with  France,  when  it  might  be  hoped  that  the  removal  of 
the  war-taxes  would  render  it  easier  to  obtain  subscriptions. 

About  a  year  and  a-half  later,  it  happened  in  the  month  of 
March,  1798,  that  Mr.  Campbell  was  invited  to  meet  a  few 
excellent  Christians  at  supper  at  Mr.  Haldan^e's  house,  then  in 
Prince's-street,  Edinburgh.  ^'At  one  time,''  says  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, "  there  was  a  pause  in  the  conversation.  Mr.  Alexander 
Pitcaim,  who  sat  opposite  to  me,  said,  '  Mr.  Campbell,  what 
has  become  of  your  African  scheme?  I  have  not  heard  any- 
thing of  it  for  a  long  time.'  To  which  I  replied,  ^  It  is  put  off 
to  the  peace,'  which  created  a  general  smile.  Mr.  Haldane 
asked  from  the  head  of  the  table,  what  scheme  I  had,  never 
having  heard  of  it."  Mr.  Campbell  then  relates  how  he 
explained  his  project,  and  how  the  conversation  next  turned 
upon  the  idea  of  having  a  place  of  worship  built  on  the  plan  of 
Mr.  \Miitfield's  tabernacles,  and  that,  having  mentioned  that 
the  Circus  might  then  be  obtained,  as  the  Relief  congregation 
had  left  it,  Mr.  Haldane  looked  to  a  lawyer  who  was  present, 
and  said,  "  Mr.  Dymock,  will  you  inquire  about  it  to-morrow  ? 
and  if  it  be  to  let,  take  it  for  a  year." 

''  It  was  believed,"  continued  Mr.  Campbell,  "  by  many  that 
this  system  of  tabernacles  was  a  scheme  laid  for  overturning 
the  Established  Church.  Now  there  was  not  one  Dissenter 
present  at  that  supper,  where  the  matter  was  proposed  and 
approved.  All  wer^  members  of  the  Establishment,  and  I 
believe  the  object  of  all,  when  they  approved  of  the  proposed 
scheme,  was  the  collecting  of  sinners  to  the  Saviour.  When 
the  meeting  was  concluded,  every  one  returned  t%  his  own 
home,  very  prayerful. 

"  Next  morning  I  received  a  note  from  Mr.  Haldane,  wishing 
me  to  call  on  him  as  soon  as  I  could.     I  went  to  him  directly. 


206  MEETING   AT   MR.  HALDANE's. 

He  said  that  my  African  scheme  had  occupied  his  waking 
thoughts  ever  since  I  mentioned  it  last  nighty  on  which  the 
following  conyersation  took  place: — 'What  is  the  real  reason 
why  you  were  advised  to  defer  commencing  the  Institu- 
tion ?'  '  Entirely  the  dreaded  diflSculty  of  obtaining  funds 
to  defray  the  expense/  '  Have  you  calculated  the  probable 
amount  of  these  expenses?'  'Yes;  the  probable  expense  of 
bringing  over  thirty  children,  lodging,  supporting,  and  edu- 
cating them  for  five  years,  and  their  passage  back  to  Africa, 
will  cost  from  6,000/.  to  7,000//  'Supposing  you  were  to 
write  to  the  Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  stating  that  you  had 
sufficient  funds  for  supporting  such  an  Institution,  and  request- 
ing him  to  collect  thirty  or  forty  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  African  chiefs  over  whom  he  had  influence,  and  send  them 
over  to  you,  do  you  think  he  would  have  sufficient  confidence  in 
you  to  fulfil  your  commission?'  'I  think  he  would/  'On 
what  do  you  ground  that  expectation?'  'When  the  French 
destroyed  the  Settlement,  or  Free-town,  Grovemor  Macaulay 
came  to  London  to  lay  the  state  of  things  before  the  Company. 
After  finishing  the  business  there,  he  visited  Scotland,  to  see  his 
relations.  On  coming  to  Edinburgh,  he  called  upon  me  with  a 
letter  of  introduction  from  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  which  would 
be  a  sufficient  passport  to  any  Christian  in  Scotland,  so  highly 
were  his  works  prized.  The  Governor  had  four  sisters  in  Edin- 
burgh living  together,  and  as  they  had  no  particular  friend  to 
advise  with,  he  requested  me  to  engage  to  be  their  adviser ;  to 
which  proposal  I  readily  consented.  In  the  course  of  a  year 
after  they  came  under  my  wing,  I  was  bridegroom's  man  to 
three  out  of  the  four.'  On  hearing  this  statement  Mr.  Hal- 
dane  was  satisfied,  and  volunteered  to  be  responsible  for  the 
whole  expense,  and  gave  me  a  letter  to  that  effect.  Accord- 
ingly I  wrote  by  that  day's  post  to  Governor  Macaulay, 
Sierra  Leone,  requesting  him  to  obtain  thirty  or  thirty-five 
African  boys  and  girls,  and  send  them  to  Edinburgh,  as  I  had 
obtained  sufficient  funds  to  defray  all  expenses.  I  sent  it  to  the 
care  of  Henry  Thornton,  M.P.,  Treasurer  to  the  Sierra  Leone 
Company." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MB.  HALDANE  SELLS  HIS  PATERNAL  ESTATE—OOBRESFOND- 
ENCE  WITH  AND  CHALLENOE  OP  PROFESSOB  BOBISON 
—MB.  BOYTLAND  HILL  COMES  TO  OPEN  THE  CIBCUS— 
PBEACHES  TO  IMMENSE  MULTITUDES  THEBE,  AND  ON 
THE  CALTON  HILL— MAKES  SEVEBAL  TOUBS,  FIBST  WITH 
MB.  HALDANE,  AND  THEN  WITH  HIS  BBOTHEB— FINALLY 
BETUBNS  TO  ENGLAND  WITH  MB.  HALDANE  —  COBBK- 
SPONDENCE  WITH  MB.  MACAULAY  ABOUT  THE  AFBICAN 
CHTLDBEN— MB.  BOWLAND  HILL'S  JOUBNAL. 

[1798.] 

''June  16^  1798,  was  the  laat  night  I  paid  the  labourers  at 
Airthrey/^  Such  is  the  entry  found  in  the  short  memorandum 
of  the  dates  of  the  principal  events  of  Mr.  Haldane's  Ufe.  Dr. 
Innes,  who  was  then  Minister  of  Stirling,  mentions,  that  on  that 
evening,  in  the  prospect  of  quitting  for  ever  his  paternal 
estate,  Mr.  Haldane  assembled  all  his  domestics,  including 
the  gardeners  and  labourers,  in  the  servants'  hall,  where  supper 
was  provided  for  them  and  their  families.  On  that  occasion, 
after  attending  himself  to  their  comforts,  he  addressed  them 
personally,  and  took  a  kind  farewell  of  them  all,  asked  them  to 
forgive  anything  in  which  he  had  failed  in  his  duties  as  a 
master,  and  expressed  his  desire  for  their  temporal  and  eternal 
welfare.  For  some  of  those  who  were  old  or  infirm,  or  had 
been  long  on  the  estate,  he  secured  small  pensions.  There  was 
one  aged  person  who  was  much  attached  to  the  family,  who 
could  not  bear  the  disruption  of  the  tie,  whose  forebodings  were 
dissipated  by  her  own  death  on  the  very  day  when  the  family 
left  Airthrey.  In  Sir  Robert  Abercromby  they  all  found  a 
most  benevolent  and  indulgent  master,  and  more  than  twenty 
years  afterwards  it  was  his  pride  to  mention,  that  there  was  not 


208  MR.  HALDANE    LEAVES    AIRTHREY. 

one  of  Mr.  Haldane's  people  who  had  not  been  attended  to  as 
much  as  if  their  old  master  had  remained. 

It  might  seem  rather  improbable  that  Mr.  Haldane's  farewell 
to  Airthrey  should  be  associated  with  Mr.  Rowland  HilFs  visit 
to  Scotland.  Yet  such  was  the  fact.  It  was  on  Mr.  Haldane's 
invitation,  and  that  of  his  brother,  that  Mr.  Hill  came,  with  a 
view  to  ulterior  proceedings  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
at  home.  The  field  of  his  operation  was  changed,  but  the 
forces  to  be  employed  were  the  same. 

Airthrey  had  been  for  nearly  two  years  for  sale,  when  it  was 
purchased  by  an  uncle  of  Mr.  James  Haldane's,  the  late  Sir 
Robert  Abercromby,  G.C.B.,  then  lately  returned  from  India. 
The  whole  of  the  estate  was  not,  indeed,  at  this  time  disposed 
of,  but  the  sale  included  the  house,  park,  woods,  and  principal 
farms,  composing  all  that  was  either  ornamental  or  useful  to 
a  place  of  residence.  The  lands  retained,  amounting  to  nearly 
a  third  of  the  value  of  the  whole  property  sold,  were  let  on 
leases,  like  his  other  estates  in  Forfarshire,  which  gave  little 
trouble  as  to  management,  and  could  only  be  regarded  as  an 
investment  for  money.  He  used  himself  to  relate,  that  after  he 
had  resolved  to  sell  Airthrey,  he  sent  for  Mr.  Morison,  of 
AUoa,  to  survey  the  estate  and  make  an  estimate  of  its  value. 
On  the  morning  when  Mr.  Morison  arrived  to  begin  his  work, 
the  chapter  read  in  the  usual  course  of  family  worship  was  the 
second  of  Ecclesiastes,  containing  the  following  verses: — "I 
made  me  great  works;  I  builded  me  houses;  I  planted  me 
vineyards;  I  made  me  gai-dens  and  orchards,  and  I  planted 
trees  in  them  of  all  kind  of  fruits ;  I  made  me  pools  of  water.'' 
It  was  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the  coincidence.  Mr. 
Morison  was  much  liked  by  Mr.  Haldane,  who  greatly  esteemed 
his  judgment,  and  always  consulted  him  about  his  works  at 
Airthrey,   as  he   did   afterwards   at   Auchingi'ay.*      His  own 

•  Mr.  Morrison  was  the  father  of  General  Sir  William  Morison, 
K.C.B.y  who  became  M.  P.  for  Clackmannan  and  Kinross,  after  a  brilliant 
course  in  India,  where  he  attained  the  rank  of  Senior  Member  of  Council, 
and  was  for  some  months  Acting  Governor-General.  He  owed  his  original 
appointment  to  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby,  and  the  story  is  worth  recording. 


SIR    WIUJAM    MORTSON.  209 

account  of  his  leaving  his  estate^  in  the  embelUshment  of  which 
he  had  taken  so  much  pleasure,  runs  thus : — 

"  For  some  time  after  this  I  did  not  lay  aside  my  endeavours 
to  get  out  to  Bengal,  and  in  the  meanwhile  was  busied  in 
seUing  my  estate,  that  there  might  be  no  delay  on  my  part 
if  obstructions  from  without  should  be  removed.  I  accordingly 
at  length  found  a  purchaser,  and  with  great  satisfaction  left  a 
place,  in  the  beautifying  and  improving  of  which  my  mind  had 
been  once  much  engrossed.  In  that  transaction  I  sincerely 
rejoice  to  this  hour,  although  disappointed  in  getting  out  to 
India.  I  gave  up  a  place  and  a  situation,  which  continually 
presented  objects  calculated  to  excite  and  to  gratify  ^the  lust 
of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life.^  Instead  of  being  engaged  in 
such  poor  matters,  my  time  is  more  at  my  command,  and  I 
find  my  power  of  usefully  applying  property  very  considerably 

^Sir  Ralph  was  going  abroad,  and  a  question  having  arisen  as  to  the 
division  of  one  of  the  farms  on  his  father*s  estate  of  TuUybody,  he  con- 
sulted Mr.  Morison,  who  undertook  to  procure  a  sketch  of  the  fields  in 
question.  He  did  so,  and  Sir  Ralph  was  much  pleased  with  the  plan ; 
and  on  inquiry,  he  discovered  that  it  was  done  by  his  son,  then  a  youth 
of  sixteen.  Sir  Ralph  said  he  should  like  to  have  a  portable  plan  of  each 
farm  on  the  estate  executed  in  the  same  manner,  so  that,  when  on  foreign 
service,  he  might  be  able  to  correspond  with  confidence  on  any  question 
that  arose.  The  order  was  executed  with  equal  precision  and  alacrity, 
and  Sir  Ralph,  who  was  a  great  discemer  of  character,  discovering  that 
the  young  man  was  ambitious  of  a  military  appointment,  procured  for  him 
the  cadetship  which  was  the  means  of  his  attaining  fortune  and  distinc- 
tion. Shortly  after  Sir  William  Morison's  return  from  India  in  1840, 
the  writer  of  these  Memoirs  met  him  both  at  his  own  house  at  Alloa  and 
under  the  late  Lord  Abercromby's  roof  at  Airthrey.  It  was  pleasing  to 
observe  how  little  Sir  William  had  been  changed  by  prosperity.  The 
man  who  had  occupied  the  palace  of  the  Governor-General  of  India  had 
preserved  the  lowly  mansion  of  his  father  unaltered,  and  was  delighting 
himself  with  the  early  recollections  of  his  honourable  but  comparatively 
humble  origin.  At  Airthrey  he  remarked,  that  few  things  had  struck 
him  more  than  the  reduced  size  of  the  rooms,  which  the  vivid  impressions 
of  his  youthful  imagination  had  during  absence  magnified.  He  died  in 
1851,  and  in  token  of  his  gratitude  to  his  early  patron,  left  out  of  hia 
ample  fortune  a  large  legacy  to  the  grandson  of  Sir  Ralph,  the  present 
possessor  of  Airthrey,  Lord  Abercromby. 

P 


210      CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    PROFESSOR    ROBISON. 

increased.  I  cs^  truly  say  I  experience  the  accomplishment  of 
the  gracious  promise^  that  leaving  house  and  lands  (although 
in  a  very  restricted  sense),  as  I  trust,  for  the  GospeFs  sake 
alone,  and  what  I  esteem  my  duty,  I  have  received  manifold 
more,  though,  as  it  is  added,  '  with  persecutions/  '' 

^'  The  persecutions''  here  alluded  to  refer,  first  and  chiefly, 
to  the  calumnious,  and  now  ridiculous  reports,  which,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  evil  spirit  of  the  times,  industriously  attributed 
a  democratic  or  revolutionary  design  to  all  his  movements, 
whether  Christian  or  philanthropic.  One  of  these  "  calumnies" 
gave  rise  to  a  curious  correspondence  with  a  distinguished 
Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  Edinburgh.  To  insert  the 
whole  of  it  might  be  tedious.  But  as  Professor  Robison's  reply 
to  Mr.  Haldane's  first  letter  contained  the  oflFer  of  "satisfac- 
tion'' in  the  usual  way,  it  is  proper  to  observe  how  he  dealt 
with  this  challenge.  The  letters  are  to  be  found  in  Mr. 
Haldane's  "  Address  on  Politics,"  and  are  thus  introduced : — 

"While  there  remained  any  expectation  of  our  going  to 
Bengal  I  did  not  relinquish  the  object,  but  continued  to  use  all 
proper  means  for  that  purpose.  While  I  was  thus  engaged, 
a  very  unexpected  and  cruel  attack  was  made  upon  me  and 
my  associates,  in  a  well-known  book,  published  by  Professor 
Robison,  although  I  had  never  been  a  Freemason,  and  knew 
nothing  of  the  Illuminati.  The  first  calumny  was  afterwards 
retracted  by  him  in  the  new^spapers.  He  introduced  this  accu- 
sation by  calling  me  ^a  very  eminent  friend  and  abettor  of 
Dr.  Priestly;'  but  he  could  not  have  been  more  unfortunate  in 
his  epithet,  as  there  was  no  person  to  whom  I  stood  more 
opposed  in  religious  principles,  nor  did  I  ever  agree  with  him  in 
his  political  sentiments.  I  believe  Dr.  Priestly's  religious 
system  to  be  practical  Atheism,  and  that  it  will  lead  its  unhappy 
yotaries  to  eternal  destruction.  If  a  man  does  not  acknowledge 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  in  the  emphatic  language  of  Scripture,  he 
has  made  God  a  liar ;  whilst  the  idea,  set  up  in  the  mind,  is  a 
mere  caricature  of  the  imagination,  and  no  God." 


PROFESSOR   ROBISON's    CHALLENGE.  211 

No.  I. 

"  AiHhrey,  September  2Ut,  1797. 

"  Sir, — I  have  just  been  informed  that  a  book,  lately  published  by  you, 
contains  the  following  paragraph : — 

" '  I  grieve  that  he  (Dr.  Priestly)  has  left  any  of  his  friends  and 
abettors  among  us.  A  very  eminent  one  said  in  company  a  few  days 
ago,  "  that  he  would  willingly  wade  to  the  knees  in  blood  to  overturn 
the  establishment  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland.''  I  understand  that  he  pro- 
poses to  go  to  India,  and  there  to  preach  Christianity  to  the  natives.  Let 
me  beseech  him  to  recollect,  that  among  us  Christianity  is  still  considered 
as  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  that  it  strongly  dissuades  us  from  bathing  our 
feet  in  blood.' 

"  As  it  is  supposed  that  I  am  the  person  alluded  to  in  these  sentences, 
I  must  request  that  you  will  inform  me  whether  it  is  so  or  not. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  &c.,  &c., 
(Signed)  «  Robert  Haldane. 

"  To  Professor  JRobison:' 

No.  11. 
From  Professor  Hobison, 

"  Stirling,  29th  Sept,  1797. 

"  Sia, — ^I  received  your  favour  of  the  21st  inst.  on  "Wednesday,  in  the 
country,  where  I  have  been  confined  for  some  time  by  bad  health.  The 
moment  I  received  it,  I  set  off  for  this  place  to  give  you  all  the  satisfac- 
tion in  my  power ;  and  expected  to  find  here ,  to  whom  I  have  the 

pleasure  of  being  well  known.  His  absence  has  disappointed  my  hopes 
of  a  friend,  who  might  be  a  witness  of  what  passed  between  us. 

"  I  do  not  presume  to  judge  why  you  suppose  that  you  are  the  eminent 
disciple  of  Dr.  Priestly  alluded  to  in  the  passage  which  you  have  fairly 
quoted.  I  have  not  said  that  you  are ;  but  I  cannot  at  present  give  you  more 
satisfaction  by  answering  your  question,  which  I  am  sorry  for,  because  it 
is  required  with  politeness.  Could  I  have  found  a  proper  friend  to 
accompany  me,  I  should  have  had  an  interview;  but  having  had  the 
honour  of  serving  my  King  and  country,  as  an  officer  in  the  Koyal  Navy, 
for  several  years,  I  have  the  stronger  reasons  for  being  cautious  how  I 
act,  and  must  not  yield  to  my  wishes  to  give  you  more  satisfaction  at 
present. 

"  I  can  only  say,  that,  if  you  still  find  yourself  aggrieved,  I  am  ready 
with  my  life  to  give  you  that  satisfaction  which  one  gentleman  is  entitled 
to  require  of  another. 

**  Permit  me  to  say,  as  an  author,  that  inclination,  as  well  as  duty, 
makes  me  also  wish  to  correct  any  mistakes  that  I  have  fallen  into.    I 

p  2 


212  MR.  haldane's  reply. 

am  therefore  sparing  no  pains  to  come  at  the  truth  of  several  thingft 
which  were  repeated  to  me  as  the  current  talk  of  the  country,  hoth  here 
and  in  England ;  and  if  I  find  that  I  have  misrepresented  anything,  I  will 
rectify  it  in  the  most  public  manner  ^nthout  loss  of  time.  But  this  may 
require  a  few  days,  because  my  health  is  very  indifferent,  and  I  cannot 
bear  the  fatigue  of  travelling  without  a  little  interval  of  rest.  This  may 
retard,  but  shall  not  prevent  my  discharging,  to  the  utmost  of  ray  power, 
the  duty  that  I  owe  to  the  public.     I  am,  with  due  regard.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  humble  ser>'ant, 

(Signed)  "  John  Robison. 

"  To  Robert  Haldane,  Esq,,  of  Axrthreyr 

No.  III. 
Copy  of  the  Answer  to  the  above,  dated  Airthrey^  September  30M,  1797. 

"  Sir, — I  have  this  moment  received  your  letter,  dated  from  Stirling. 
You  say  you  do  not  presume  to  judge  why  I  suppose  .that  I  am  the 
discipl&of  Priestly  alluded  to  in  the  passage  I  quoted;  by  this  seeming  to 
insinuate  that  it  may  be  some  other  person.  I  certainly  could  have  no 
wish  to  apply  to  myself  such  a  charge  as  your  book  brings  against  one 
who  is  desirous,  you  say,  to  go  to  India  to  teach  Christianity  there,  were 
it  possible  for  either  me  or  my  friends  to  suppose  that  you  meant  any 
other.  It  was  upon  this  ground  that  my  supposition  was  founded.  If 
you,  however,  declare  that  I  was  not  the  person  alluded  to,  that  is  quite 
sufficient;  and,  on  this  supposition,  I  am  certainly  entitled  to  require 
and  expect,  that  you  make  this  declaration  (as  you  know  that  it  is 
generally  applied  to  me)  upon  every  principle  of  candour  and  justice. 

"  I  now  beg  leave  to  inform  you,  that  I  never  made  use  of  such 
expression  as  the  one  referred  to,  nor  ever  said  anything  at  all  like  it : 
that  the  sentiment  appears  to  me  shocking  in  itself,  and  the  most  remote 
possible  from  every  idea  I  entertain  on  the  subject  No,  Sir;  I  would 
not  spill  one  drop  of  human  blood  to  support  or  destroy  all  the  religious 
establishments  in  the  world.  I  should  consider  such  a  way  of  attempting 
to  advance  the  interests  of  Christianity  as  infinitely  mad  and  infinitely 
wicked.  I  have,  over  and  over  again,  declared  this,  both  in  public  and 
private;  and  it  is  well  known  by  all  my  friends,  and  those  who  are 
intimate  with  me,  to  be  my  decided  and  fixed  principle. 

"  I  observe  you  say,  that  if  you  find  you  have  misrepresented  anj'thing, 
you  will  rectify  it  in  the  most  public  manner,  without  loss  of  time.  This 
is  all  that  I  require ;  and  I  have  even  no  objection  to  your  taking  some 
days  to  gain  all  the  information  you  desire.  But  then  it  must  be  done  in 
the  most  explicit  manner.  No  name  should  be  mentioned,  as  there  is 
none  in  your  book ;  but  it  should  be  said,  after  quoting  the  sentence,  that 


MR.  haldane's  reply.  213 

the  author  finds,  upon  inquiry,  that  it  was  totally  void  of  foundation,  and, 
therefore,  that  he  takes  the  earliest  opportunity  of  contradicting  it.  This, 
or  something  equivalent,  must  be  put  into  the  Scotch  newspapers,  and  a 
note  must  also  be  written  to  the  reviewers,  lest  they  retail  it. 

"  I  feel  that  a  regard  to  myself  and  associates,  as  standing,  in  some 
measure,  on  public  ground,  requires  this.  Had  I  not  been  in  this 
situation  I  should  very  possibly  have  taken  no  notice  of  it,  but  should 
have  let  it  pass,  with  many  other  unfounded  calumnies  that  have  been 
repeated  against  me. 

'*  I  should  also  imagine,  that,  as  soon  as  you  are  satisfied  of  the  asser- 
tion being  unfounded,  your  own  candour  and  feelings  will  dictate  the 
very  course  here  pointed  out. 

"  As  to  your  saying,  that,  if  I  feel  myself  aggrieved,  you  are  ready  with 
your  life  to  give  that  satisfaction  vohich  one  gentleman  is  entitled  to  require 
of  another f  it  appears  to  me  a  very  strange  way  of  talking  in  this  business. 
If  you  have  publicly  repeated  a  false  calumny  against  one  who  never 
interfered  with  you,  ought  you  not  to  desire,  as  soon  as  possible,  even 
without  being  required,  to  make  him  reparation  by  as  publicly  contra- 
dicting it  ?  which  is  the  only  rational  satisfaction  that  can  be  obtained  or 
given  in  such  a  business.  If  you  mean  the  term,  however,  in  any  other 
acceptation,  I  must  beg  to  inform  you,  that,  whatever  the  maxims  of  the 
world  in  such  a  case  might  dictate,  Christianity,  which  I  consider  as  the 
gospel  of  peace,  has  taught  me  that  it  would  be  no  satisfaction  to  bathe 
either  my  feet  or  my  hands  in  your  blood. 

"  I  have  only  to  add,  that  I  think  an  interview  would  be  very  proper ; 
and  that  it  need  not  be  prevented  by  your  not  having  a  friend  to  accom- 
pany you.  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  you  here  this  day  if  you  find  it 
convenient.  I  am  persuaded  the  business  might  be  amicably  settled  in  a 
few  minutes.  It  is  not  in  my  power  to  call  upon  you,  as  I  am  confined 
to-day  by  a  cold  and  swelled  face.     I  am.  Sir, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 
(Signed)  <'  RoBEBT  Haldane. 

"  Profefisor  Rcbisotu 

"  P.S. — I  have  not  yet  seen  your  book,  but  am  happy  to  find  the 
passage  is  fairly  quoted." 

The  servant  who  carried  the  last  letter  brought  it  back^  with 
the  information  that  Professor  Robison  had  left  Stiriing  the 
day  before.  Mr.  Haldane^  therefore^  inclosed  it  in  a  short  note 
to  the  learned  gentleman's  country  residence,  Boghall,  near 
Glasgow.  Before  they  reached  the  Professor,  Mr.  Haldane 
received  the  following  letter : — 


214  PROFESSOR   ROBISOn's    EXPLANATION. 

No.  IV. 

"  Edinhtirgh,  October  2d,  1797. 

"  Sir, — I  have  not  lost  a  moment's  lime  in  my  endeavours  to  perform 
my  promise  in  my  letter  of  the  2l8t,  and  have  been  wheeled  from  place  to 
place,  tracing  back  my  authorities  for  the  passage  quoted  by  you  from  my 
publication,  till  I  am  quite  exhausted  and  obliged  again  to  take  to  my 
bed.  I  was  in  hopes  of  inserting  the  correction  of  my  mistake  in  the 
Edinburgh  papers  of  this  day,  but  the  particulars  of  an  eager  and  desul- 
tory conversation  are  so  twisted  and  transformed  in  every  repetition,  that 
hardly  two  accounts  agree  with  sufficient  precision.  I  have  been  at  half 
a  dozen  places,  at  a  considerable  distance  from  each  other,  in  chase,  and 
almost  in  sight,  of  the  person  with  whose  evidence  I  shall  finish  my 
inquiries,  and  it  will  be  on  Thursday  before  the  result  can  appear. 

"  To  Eobert  Haldaney  Esq,,  of  Airthrei/," 

In  the  meantime  the  Professor  promised  to  insert  in  the 
newspapers  an  advertisement,  containing  a  general  acknowledg- 
ment of  "  a  mistake  of  which  he  has  been  guilty  in  a  work 
just  published  by  him,  entitled,  '  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy/ '' 

To  this  Mr.  Haldane  replied,  telling  the  Professor,  that  if  he 
wished  to  make  reparation,  it  would  not  do  to  insert  such  a 
modified  retractation  as  would  leave  the  impression  that  there  was 
some  foundation,  however  slight,  for  the  calumny ;  but  that  he 
must  add,  that  "  nothing  could  be  more  abhorrent  from  the  ideas 
or  principles  of  the  gentleman  alluded  to  than  the  sentiments 
imputed  to  him/'  He  concludes,  "  I  am  sorry  that  you  have 
travelled  about  so  quickly  as  to  have  injured  your  health.  I 
would  much  rather  have  waited  some  days  before  the  explanation 
had  taken  place.'' 

To  the  handsome  terms  in  which  Mr.  Haldane  expressed 
himself  as  ready  to  save  the  Professor  from  the  shame  of  an 
ignominious  acknowledgment  of  his  calumny,  the  Professor 
writes : — "  Your  letter  most  agreeably  surprised  me ;  and  had  I 
known  what  Mr.  Haldane  could  do,  I  should  have  saved  myself 
and  him  some  trouble.''  ^Tiat  follows  places  the  tyranny  of 
the  world  and  the  immorality  of  duelling  in  a  striking  light. 
The  Professor's  reluctance  to  confess  his  error  arose  from  the 
dread  of  being  branded  as  a  coward.  AVlien  he  found  that  Mr. 
Haldane  had  no  intention  of  having  recourse  to  pistols,  the 


PRO]f£SSOR    ROBISON's    RETRACTATION.  215 

amiable   but  hasty  Professor  does   not  hesitate  to   make  his 
apology : — 

''  I  wa3  sensible  that  I  was  the  aggressor,  and  that  your  demand  was 
most  reasonable.  The  very  demand  made  me  suspect  that  I  had  misre- 
presented things.  Yet  I  could  not  answer  it  without  great  risk,  whatever 
might  be  my  determination  to  do  you  justice.  It  was  natural  to  expect 
that  my  refusal  would  draw  on  me  expressions  which,  by  the  t)Tannical 
rules  of  society,  I  could  not  bear  with  patience,  and  afterwards  show  my 
face  in  the  world,  and  my  wife  and  family  would  have  been  involved  in 
my  disgrace.  I  acknowledge  that  I  could  not  bear  that  thought,  and  no 
way  occurred  to  me  for  preventing  this  but  the  one  I  took,  and  qfterwardB 
to  vofiQi  you,  or  correspond  with  you,  in  sight  of  a  friend.  You  will,  I 
dare  say,  allow,  that  when  I  could  charge  you  with  the  sentiment  expressed 
in  my  book,  these  were  natural /ears.  But  I  would  gladly  hope  that  you 
did  not  misunderstand  me  when  I  said  that  I  would  give  you  what  the 
world  calls  the  sal isf action  of  a  gentleman.  I  can  only  give  you  my 
solemn  assurance  that  I  never  would  have  added  the  guilt  of  hurting  you 
to  that  of  slandering  you,  and  that  I  would  have  stood  your  passive  mark. 
I  beg  you  to  think  of  my  situation,  with  all  the  extenuating  circumstances 
that  attend  it.  Even  if  I  had  had  the  courage  to  bear  with  opprobrious 
names,  how  could  I  remove  the  distress  from  the  wife  and  children  of  a 
coward  in  the  eye  of  the  world  ?  I  did  not  know  you,  Sir,  and  my  ignor- 
ance was  innocent,  for  you  were  much  misrepresented.  Allow  me  to  say, 
further,  that  you  might  do  more  service,  perhaps,  and  have  as  great 
probability  of  success,  if  you  would  try  to  win  over  the  infidels  among 
ourselves.  Also,  one  of  these  would,  by  his  influence,  be  of  more  value 
than  fiily  Hindoos.  Let  me  beseech  you  not  to  give  up  this  thought. 
There  are  yet  remains  of  religion  among  us,  and  I  imagine  there  are  still 
more  obstacles  in  your  way  in  India.  The  division  into  castes  is  next  to 
insurmountable;  for  a  religion  which  asserts  the  equality  of  all  in  the 
sight  of  God,  will  be  called  rebellion  or  sedition.  But  I  ask  your  pardon. 
You  have  no  doubt  reflected  deeply  on  it.  I  can  only  pray.  May  God  be 
with  you,  and  give  you  comfort.  I  am,  with  sincere  wishes  for  your  health 
and  happiness.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

(Signed)        "John  Robison. 

**  BobL  Haldam,  Esq,,  of  Airthrey,"" 

The  Professor's  final  retractation  of  his  error  was  not  so  hand- 
some and  complete  as  he  had  promised.  He  was  ashamed  to  pro* 
claim  to  the  world  the  full  extent  of  the  error  into  which  he  had 
been  betrayed^  by  collecting  promiscuous  gossip^  and  publishing 


216  REV.  ROWLAND    UlLL. 

it  under  the  title  of  "  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy."  It  may  give 
some  idea  of  the  times,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Pro- 
fessor's book  was  then  actually  held  in  high  repute.  But  he  was 
not  the  only  person  who  urged  the  importance  of  encountering 
Infidelity  at  home  rather  than  Paganism  abroad.  Whether  all 
were  as  sincere  in  their  exhoi-tations  as  this  learned  and  amiable 
but  hot-tempered  philosopher,  may  well  be  doubted.  But,  at 
all  events,  the  advice  was  not  thrown  away  either  on  Mr.  Haldane 
or  bis  younger  brother;  and  like  Mr.  James  Ilaldane's  tour  to 
the  north,  Mr.  Rowland  Hill's  visit  to  Scotland  had  been  one  of 
its  results.  The  expi'ess  object  of  his  coming  was  to  open  the 
Circus  of  Edinburgh  as  a  place  of  preaching.  It  had  been  for 
some  time  used  by  a  congregation  belonging  to  the  Relief  Seces- 
sion while  their  own  chapel  was  rebuilding.  During  this  interval 
the  preaching  of  their  minister,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Struthers,  had 
attracted  much  attention,  and  the  novelty  of  the  place,  as  well 
as  his  eloquence,  had  drawn  around  him,  out  of  all  classes  of  the 
community,  many  who  had  not  been  previously  accustomed  to 
listen  to  the  Gospel.  Mr.  Haldane's  own  account  of  the  opening 
of  the  Circus  may  be  found  in  his  "Address,"  so  often  cited. 
The  following  is  an  extract : — 

"  The  next  thing  that  took  place  among  those  plans  which 
seemed  to  have  caused  alarm,  was  the  employment  of  the  Circus 
as  a  place  of  worship,  after  it  had  been  left  by  the  Relief  con- 
gregation, who  first  used  it  as  such.  A  few  persons,  who  wished 
to  see  the  interests  of  religion  more  extended  in  Edinburgh, 
conversed  together  about  forming  a  Tabernacle  there, — a  thought 
suggested  by  a  minister  from  England  (Mr.  Simeon,  it  is  believed), 
when  on  a  visit  to  this  place,  not  upon  my  invitation,  but 
employed  in  preaching  in  the  Established  Churches.  The  general 
idea  affixed  to  these  houses  called  Tabernacles  is  that  of  large 
places  of  wcrship,  where  as  great  variety  as  possible  is  kept  up 
in  the  preaching,  by  employing  different  ministers,  in  otder  to 
excite  and  maintain  attention  to  the  Gospel,  especially  in  such  as 
are  living  in  open  neglect  of  rchgion.  Such  are  the  different 
Tabernacles  in  London,  to  which,'  when  they  were  erected  about 


REV.  ROWLAND    HILL   OPENS   THE    CIRCUS.         217 

fifty  years  ago^  very  great  opposition  was  niade^  and  great  alarm 
excited.  Those  of  us  who  met  to  consult  about  this  business 
were  uncertain  how  such  a  plan  might  answer  in  Edinburgh. 
We  therefore  invited  from  England  only  three  ministers  at  first. 
The  Circus^  as  being  a  large  and  commodious  place^  was  engaged 
for  a  few  months^  and  Mr.  Rowland  Hill^  so  well  and  so  long 
known  in  England  as  a  successful  and  able  preacher  of  the 
Gospel^  opened  the  place.  The  multitudes  that  heard  him^  and 
the  spirit  of  attention  that  seemed  to  be  excited^  encouraged  ua 
to  go  on.'' 

It  was  on  his  way  to  open  the  Circus  that  Mr.  Rowland  Hill 
met  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman  at  Langholm.  He  left 
them  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  July^  and  on  the  day  following 
his  Journal  announces  his  arrival.  Mr.  Haldane  having  then  no 
residence  at  Edinburgh^  Mr.  Hill  was  received^  as  he  says,  ^'  at  the 
hospitable  abode  of  Mr.  James  Haldane,  in  George-street,*  where 
nothing  was  wanting  but  more  gratitude  and  thankfulness  on 
my  part  for  such  a  kind  and  affectionate  reception.''  Mi-s.  James 
Haldane  fully  appreciated  the  woith  of  the  honoured  guest, 
whom  in  her  husband's  absence  she  entertained,  and  always 
spoke  with  peculiar  pleasure  of  this  memorable  visit.  Next 
morning  Mr.  Hill  opened  the  Circus, — a  fact  which  he  thus 
announces  in  his  Journal : — 

*'  Lord^S'day,  July  29. — Preached  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Circus.  The  building  is  large,  and  supposed  to  contain  above 
2,500  people.  It  gave  mc  pleasure  to  find  that  expoundmg,  or 
lecturing,  as  it  is  there  called,  is  the  general  practice  in  Scotland. 
The  richness  and  glory  that  rest  upon  the  language  of  inspira- 
tion are  peculiar  to  itself;  and  I  have  always  found  that  weighty, 
warm,  applicatoiy  remarks  immediately  therefrom  come  with  a 
peculiar  influence  to  the  heart.  Surely,  therefore,  nothing  less 
than  a  whole  chapter,  or  at  least  a  considerable  portion,  should 
be  selected  for  these  occasions.     We  are  never  so  assured  that 

•  In  the  adjoining  house,  No.  14,  George-street,  there  resided  at  that 
time  Henry  Brougham,  the  future  Lord  Chancellor  of  Britain.  He  was 
then  in  his  twentieth  year,  having  been  horn  in  1778,  in  the  house  where 
J3avid  Hume  died,  in  St.  David-street,  so  named  afler  the  historian. 


218  ME.  hill's    tour   with    MR.  HALDANE. 

we  make  people  wise  unto  salvation  as  when  we  lead  them  to  the 
pure  Word  of  God  itself. 

*'  My  morning  subject  was  the  prayer  of  Moses^  *  If  thy 
presence  go  not  with  me,  carry  us  not  up  hence.^  (Exodus  xxxiii. 
15.)  I  preached  to  the  people  the  feelings  of  my  heart.  I  felt 
the  call  to  this  city  to  be  solemn  and  important.  Without  our 
God  we  can  do  nothing.  A  much  larger  congregation  attended 
the  evening  service,  and  I  took  another  subject  just  suited  to 
the  frame  of  my  own  mind,  1  Cor.  i.  22 — 24 ;  and  I  employed 
some  time  in  showing  Paul's  method  of  treating  his  proud 
Corinthian  hearers.^' 

On  the  Thurdday  Mr.  Hill  preached  to  2,000  people  at  Leith, 
in  the  open  air.  His  text  was,  ''  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost;''  and  he  adds,  '^ Plain 
language  is  the  only  profitable  language  for  sinners  like  these." 
On  Friday,  he  preached  to  4,000  on  the  Calton  Hill.  He 
observes,  **  The  loveliness  of  the  situation,  the  stillness  of  the 
evening,  and  the  seriousness  of  the  people,  produced  all  that 
was  desirable.  Oh,  for  more  of  the  life  and  unction  and  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  on  my  soul,  that  I  may  not  disgrace  the 
blessed  cause  I  wish  to  uphold." 

Such  was  the  commencement  of  the  preaching  in  the  Cireus, 
which  produced  so  much  excitement,  but  was  so  little  intended 
to  interfere  with  the  stated  places  of  worship  that  the  early 
service  at  first  began  in  the  morning  at  seven  o'clock,  and 
another  in  the  evening  at  six  o'clock. 

It  was  arranged,  however,  that  Mr.  Hill  should  not  be  idle 
during  the  week,  and  "  Mr.  Haldane,"  says  the  Journal,  "  kindly 
commenced  my  companion  in  travel."  Stirling  was  the  first 
place  to  which  Mr.  Hill  was  conducted  by  his  friend,  who  had  then 
scarcely  left  his  own  place  in  the  neighbourhood.  Criefi*,  Dun- 
keld,  and  Perth  were  the  next  towns  where  Mr.  Hill  preached  in 
this  their  first  circuit.  At  Perth  he  met  his  old  friend,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Gar)',  at  one  time  the  chaplain  to  the  excellent  Lady 
Glenorehy,  of  whom  Mr.  Hill  observes  :  "  He  is  a  man  univer- 
sally respected,  not  being  less  pure  and  holy  in  his  life  and 
conversation  than  evangelical  and  sacred  in  his  views  of  the 


GLASGOW    CATHEDRAL.  219 

Gospel/'  He  bad  been  licensed  as  a  probationer  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland^  but  was  not  permitted  to  enjoy  its  preferments. 
Through  the  recommendation  of  two  noblemen^  he  was  presented 
to  the  Crown  living  of  Brechin^  but  his  evangelical  sentiments 
and  holy  life  rebuked  the  levity  and  indifference  of  the  Moderate 
ministers.  His  sentiments  were  therefore  opposed,  and  he  was 
ultimately  rejected  by  the  General  Assembly,  on  the  pretext  he 
had  not  passed  through  the  seven  years'  academical  attendance 
then  required  at  the  Scotch  universities.  This  case  produced  a 
strong  sensation.  It  was  the  means  of  inducing  the  purchase  of 
the  chapel  for  the  use  of  Mr.  Gary,  and  was  also  one  of  the 
occasions  of  the  Tabernacle  secession. 

From  Perth  the  itinerants  proceeded  to  Kinross,  where  Lord 
and  Lady  Balgowny  were  amongst  those  who  listened  to  Mr. 
Hill,  as  he  preached  to  a  large  congregation  under  a  rising 
ground  on  the  banks  of  liochleven.  Having  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh on  the  Saturday  after  this  rapid  tour,  he  preached  again 
in  the  Circus,  and  set  off  with  Mr.  Haldane  on  Monday  morning, 
so  as  to  be  in  time  to  preach  in  the  evening  in  the  churchyard 
of  the  old  cathedral  of  Glasgow.  "The  scene,''  he  remarks, 
"  was  solemn.  The  old  cathedral  stands  externally  in  perfectly 
good  repair ;  and  much  it  is  to  the  honour  of  the  city  that  it 
should  so  stand,  as  it  is  the  only  one  left  in  a  perfect  state  of 
preservation  in  that  part  of  the  kingdom."  "  Underneath,"  he 
adds,  "were  the  remains,  I  may  venture  to  say,  of  millions 
waiting  for  the  resurrection.  Here  I  stood  on  a  widely-extended 
space,  covered,  or  nearly  covered,  with  the  living, — all  immortals, 
5,000  I  should  suppose,  at  least.  Wliat  solemn  work  to  address 
such  multitudes !  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  I 
attempted  to  illustrate  that  passage,  Isaiah  ix.  19,  ^Thy  God 
thy  glory.'  Could  we  but  explain  to  sinners,  and  make  them 
feel  that  God,  a  God  in  Christ  is  their  glory,  and  that  it  is  their 
privilege  to  glorify  God  in  return,  we  should  have  more  than 
abundant  recompense  for  all  our  little  toil  in  a  work  so  glorious." 

The  above  passage  discloses  something  of  the  secret  of  Mr. 
Hill's  usefulness  as  a  preacher.  Those  who  have  merely  amused 
themselves  with  anecdotes  illustrative  of  his  humour  and  eccen- 


220        PEEACHES  ON  THE  CALTON  HILL. 

tricities  knew  nothing  of  the  man^  nor  of  the  power  that  accom- 
panied the  word  that  he  proclaimed.  Near  the  spot  on  which 
that  sermon  was  preached  by  Rowland  Hill  is  the  vault  which 
now  contains  all  that  was  mortal  of  Robert  Haldane.  His  dust 
reposes  within  the  walls  of  that  cathedral  which  Rowland  Hill 
then  smTcyed  with  admiration^  whilst  he  spoke  with  so  much 
feeling  of  the  millions  of  the  dead  who  were  there  awaiting  the 
trump  of  the  archangel. 

He  finally  returned  to  Edinburgh^  on  Saturday  evening,  in  time 
to  preach  at  the  Circus,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  again 
at  eleven  o'clock,  and  in  the  evening,  under  the  canopy  of  heaven. 
*'  It  was  now,''  he  says,  "  quite  out  of  the  question  to  preach 
within  doors  on  the  Lord's-day  evenings.  On  the  Calton  Hill 
I  addressed  the  most  solemn  congregation  I  have  seen  for  many 
years — ^fifteen  thousand,  on  the  most  moderate  computation,  were 
said  to  attend,  some  suppose  a  larger  multitude.  I  know  on 
these  occasions  one  principal  aim  should  be  to  alarm  the  sinners. 
This  I  attempted  from  Mark  viii.  36,  37,  from  the  consideration 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  awfulness  of  eternity." 

Mr.  Hill  had  now  officiated  for  three  Lord's-days  at  the  Circus, 
but  he  was  disposed  to  make  another  tour  through  Fife  to 
Dundee,  returning  by  St.  Andrew's.  "  Hitherto  I  was  favoured 
with  Mr.  Haldane  as  my  companion  in  travel.  His  brother, 
Mr.  James  Haldane,  was  the  kind  friend  who  next  conducted 
me  to  other  parts  of  the  country.  Our  first  visit  was  to  Melville 
House,  the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Leven,  who  scarcely  three  months 
before  had  lost  his  venerable  Countess."  On  the  Lord's-day  he 
again  preached  in  the  Circus  and  on  the  Calton  Hill  to  great 
congregations,  the  latter  supposed  to  amount  to  15,000  or 
20,000.  On  the  following  Tuesday  he  was,  from  fatigue, 
unable  to  preach  at  Musselburgh.  "  Mr.  James  Haldane,"  he 
rays,  "  kindly  imdertook  that  office  on  my  behalf."  His  account 
of  his  last  Lord's-day  in  Edinburgh  is  a  picture  of  Rowland  Hill, 
his  earnestness,  his  sincerity,  and  zeal,  his  quaintness,  and  yet 
his  realizing  views  of  eternity,  and  his  dedication  of  himself  to 
Christ : — 
'<  LortTi-day,  Somber  2<^.— My  last  Sabbath  in  Edinburgh.     The 


MR.    hill's    last    SUNDAY    IN    EDINBURGH.         221 

Circus  could  scarcely  contain  the  early  or  noon  congregation.  I 
conceived  the  most  serious  part  of  the  hearers  came  together  like  those  of 
old,  *  Early,  my  God,  will  I  seek  thee.*  I  therefore  dealt  with  them  from 
that  fine  prayer  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Ephesians  iii.  16 — 19.  Reader,  mark 
that  prayer ;  who  can  tell  the  worth  of  a  Bible,  if  it  were  only  for  the 
sake  of  those  four  verses — who  can  describe  the  blessedness  of  the  man 
who  feels  and  enjoys  its  sacred  contents  ? 

*'  At  the  second  service,  I  preached  from  Genesis  xlviii.  22,  23,  24,  on 
Joseph's  blessing.  I  thought  the  subject  would  well  suit  the  lecture.  It 
is  time  that  simple-hearted  ministers  should  bestir  themselves.  Once  was 
I  young,  but  now  I  begin  to  be  old.  I  never  had  too  much  of  the  Seraph, 
but  always  too  much  of  the  snail,  having  been  shot  at  by  many  an  angry 
archer ;  though  I  fell  so  short,  I  was  willing  to  encourage  a  young  Society 
to  itinerate  far  and  wide.  May  their  zeal,  guided  by  the  Saviour's  wisdom, 
surprise  the  north :  that  many  a  dry  formalist  may  blush  for  shame  under 
the  humiliating  reflection,  how  little  has  been  done  by  them,  while  so 
much  has  been  accomplished  by  instruments  they  so  completely  despise ! 
May  these  be  blessed  with  the  boldness  of  the  lion — the  meekness  of  the 
lamb — the  wisdom  of  the  serpent — and  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

'*  On  the  evening  of  the  day  I  preached  my  last  sermon  save  one  in  this 
vicinity  on  the  Calton  Hill  (to  18,000).  Shame  forbade  me  a  thousand 
times  to  take  a  text,  once  the  language  of  Paul,  Acts  xx.  24.  I  believe, 
however,  that  a  spark  was  felt  of  the  same  flame  which  he  enjoyed,  there- 
fore I  ventured.  Had  I  a  thousand  lives,  I  trust  they  would  be  spent  in 
the  Lord's  blessed  work.  I  dare  not  be  fettered  by  human  laws  while  I 
am  under  a  Divine  command  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  *and 
to  spend  and  be  spent  for  Jesus  Christ.' 

"  I  have  been  somewhat  a  sufiercr  by  such  a  conduct,  but  laws  like 
these  appear  to  me  not  better  than  the  statutes  of  Omri,  and  I  dare  not 
renounce  the  Lord's  standing  rule  Xo  all  his  ministers,  while  under  the 
conjoined  promise,  'I  am  with  you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world.' " 

On  the  3d  of  September  he  set  oflT  for  England,  "favoured 
with  the  company  of  Mr.  Haldane.^'  At  Dunbar,  after  he  had 
preached  in  the  Methodist  meeting-house,  ''Mrs.  Cunning- 
ham,'^ he  proceeds,  ''  came  to  meet  us  on  that  occasion,  and  took 
us  home  in  her  carriage.  Mr.  Cunningham,  though  a  gentle- 
man of  fortune,  dedicated  himself  to  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
and  for  many  years  has  laboured  in  connexion  with  the  Anti- 
burghers.  We  found  the  order  of  the  house  to  be  hospitality 
and  friendship  to  the  very  utmost/' 


222  ANECDOTE    AT   DUNBAR. 

It  was  on  this  occasion  and  at  this  place,  that  a  circumstance 
occurred,  which,  with  many  exaggerations  and  embellishments, 
has  been  related  as  an  illustration  of  the  eccentricities  of  Rowland 
Hill.     The  story  shall  be  told  as  related  by  Mr.  Haldane,  with 
his  usual  accuracy.     On  the  Wednesday  moniing,  after  spending 
the  preceding  night  at  Mr.  Cunningham's,  they  were  about  to 
proceed  southward,  when  Mr.  HilPs  carriage  being  brought  to 
the  door,  his  horse  was  found  to  be  dead  lame.     A  farrier  was 
sent  for,  who,  after  careful  examination,  reported  that  the  seat  of 
the  mischief  was  in  the  shoulder ;  that  the  disease  was  incurable, 
and  that  they  might  shoot  the  poor  animal  as  soon  as  they 
pleased.     To  this  proposal  Mr.  Hill  was  by  no  means  prepared 
to  accede.     Indeed,  it  seemed  to  Mr.  Haldane  as  precipitate  as 
the  conduct  of  an  Irish  sailor  on  board  the  Monarch,  who, 
on  seeing  another  knocked  dowTi  senseless  by  a  splinter,  and 
supposing  his  comrade  to  be  dead,  went  up  to  Captain  Duncan, 
on  the  quarter-deck,  in  the  midst  of  the  action,  and  exclaimed, 
''  Shall  we  jerk  him  overboard.  Sir  ?"     On  that  occasion  the 
sailor  revived  in  a  short  time,  and  was  even  able  to  work  at  his 
gun.     In  the  present  instance  the  horse,  too,  recovered,  and  was 
able  to  carry  his  master  on  many  a  future  errand  of  mercy. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  travellers  availed  themselves  of  Mr. 
Cunningham^s    hospitality,    and    remained  for  two  days  more 
at  his  place,  near  Dunbar.     In  the  evening  Mr.  Hill  conducted 
prayers  at  family  worship,  and  after  the  supplications  for  the 
family,  domestics,  and  friends,  added  a  feiTcnt  prayer  for  the 
restoration  of  the  valuable  animal,  which  had  carried  him  ao 
many  thousands  of  miles,  preaching  the  everlasting  Gospel  to  his 
fellow-sinners.     Mr.  Cunningham,  who  was  remarkable  for  the 
staid  and  orderly,  if  not  stifiF,  demeanour,  which  characterized 
the  Anti-burghers,  was  not  only  surprised  but  grieved,  and  even 
scandalized  at  what  he  deemed  so  great  an  impropriety.     He 
remonstrated  with  his  guest.     But  Mr.  Hill  stoutly  defended 
his  conduct  by  an  appeal  to  Scripture,  and  the  superintending 
watchfulness  of  Him  without  whom  a  sparrow  falls  not  to  the 
ground.     He  persisted  in  his  prayer  during  the  two  days  he 
continued  at  Dunbar,  and  although  he  left  the  horse  in  a  hopeless 


MR.  hill's  horse.  223 

state,  to  follow,  in  charge  of  his  servant,  by  easy  stages,  he 
continued  his  prayer  night  and  morning,  till  one  day,  at  an 
inn  in  Yorkshire,  while  the  two  travellers  were  sitting  at  break- 
fast, they  heard  a  horse  and  chaise  trot  briskly  into  the  yard, 
and,  looking  out,  saw  that  Mr.  HilFs  servant  had  arrived, 
bringing  up  the  horse  perfectly  restored.  Mr.  Hill  did  not 
fail  to  return  thanks,  and  begged  his  fellow-traveller  to  consider, 
whether  the  minuteness  of  his  prayers  had  deserved  the  censure 
which  had  been  directed  against  them. 

At  Berwick,  Alnwick,  Newcastle,  Dunbar,  Leeds,  Rotherham, 
and  Sheffield,  Mr.  Hill  successively  preached,  sometimes  in 
chapels,  sometimes  in  churches,  and  sometimes  in  the  open 
air,  especially  at  Newcastle,  where  thousands  congregated  near 
the  city  walls.  From  Sheffield  they  went  by  Derby,  Coventry, 
Warwick,  Painswick,  Wotton-under-Edge,  in  Gloucestershire, 
which  was  Mr.  HilFs  home  during  the  six  months  in  the  year 
that  he  spent  out  of  London. 

During  his  journey  with  Mr.  Hill  through  Scotland  and  into 
Gloucestershire,  Mr.  Haldane  had  been  deeply  pondering  on  all 
that  he  saw  and  heard  with  reference  to  Mr.  Whitfield^s  plans  for 
the.  revival  of  the  Gospel  in  England.  It  became  more  and 
more  his  desire  to  attempt  something  of  a  decided  character  for 
Scotland.  His  brother's  movement  in  the  previous  year,  and 
the  increasing  success  which  was  attending  him  as  a  preacher,  stiU 
further  stimulated  Mr.  Haldane's  zeal,  and  passing  through 
London,  he  therefore  proceeded  to  Gosport,  to  consult  his  old 
friend.  Dr.  Bogue,  as  to  the  aspect  of  affairs  in  relation  to  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  and  his  own  future  operations.  The  Indian 
Mission  was  fully  and  finally  abandoned,  and  plans  for  building  a 
number  of  chapels  throughout  Scotland  and  educating  preachers, 
were  resolved  on  and  discussed,  as  is  shown  by  Mr.  Haldane's 
correspondence,  and  the  events  which  soon  afterwards  took 
place.  Nor  were  the  poor  African  children  overlooked,  as 
appears  from  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Campbell  at  this  time, 
in  consequence  of  a  communication  which  that  good  man  had 
received  from  Mr.  Macaulay : — 


224  AFRICAN    CHILDREN. 

"  Goaport,  Octobet-  i\th,  1798. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  was  favoured  with  your  letter  of  the  24th 
September,  which  had  Iain  some  days  here  before  I  arrived,  and  it  gives 
me  great  joy  to  be  informed  of  its  contents.  I  trust  the  Lord  indeed 
intends  to  use  us  as  instruments  in  this  business ;  and,  oh !  that  he  may, 
by  means  of  it,  glorify  Himself  by  giving  these  children  the  adoption  of 
sons  and  daughters  in  his  own  family,  and  in  making  use  of  them  to 
awaken  and  enlighten  others  who  are  sitting  in  great  darkness  and  under 
the  black  shadow  of  death  in  their  own  country. 

"  Mr.  Macaulay's  letter  is  a  very  sensible  one,  and  he  seems  cordially 
to  enter  into  the  plan,  and  also  to  think  this  time  the  fittest  that  could  be 
chosen.  Indeed,  how  could  it  be  otherwise,  if  (as  I  trust)  it  has  been 
fixed  by  Him  who  does  all  things  well  ? 

**  I  think  it  a  favourable  circumstance  that  he  has  most  of  the  children 
with  him,  as  he  will  be  best  able  to  judge  of  natural  tempers  and  disposi< 
tions,  which  it  is  of  great  consequence  to  be  attended  to.  I  forget  the 
age  we  fixed  upon,  but  think  about  twelve  years  old  the  best ;  and  he 
seems  to  say  the  same,  towards  the  end  of  his  letter.  Were  they  to  come 
much  earlier  they  might  forget  their  native  tongue,  which  I  should 
consider  a  great  loss.  It  will  be  of  the  greatest  consequence  that  most  of 
them  be  the  children  of  the  chief  people  in  the  country,  and  who  are  most 
likely  to  succeed  in  the  Governments,  as  they,  in  the  course  of  Provi- 
dence, will  have  much  more  in  their  power  in  diffusing  the  knowledge, 
both  of  Divine  truth  and  of  civilization,  than  a  great  number  of  any  other 
rank.  They  may  make  as  good  smiths  and  carpenters  at  Sierra  Leone  as 
at  Edinburgh,  but  the  manners  of  civilized  life,  which  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel,  can  be  best  learned  here.  I 
am  persuaded  Mr.  M.  must  be  very  sensible  of  this.  Tell  him,  by  no 
means,  if  possible,  to  fall  below  the  number  fixed,  but  rather  to  exceed  it. 
I  do  not  think,  however,  that  the  number  of  girls  should  be  much 
increased,  as  there  are  many  temptations  in  their  way,  and  it  would 
increase  the  expenses,  as  the  mode  of  their  education  must  differ.  As  to 
inoculation,  my  reason  for  having  it  done  there  was,  that  no  blame 
might  attach  if  any  of  the  children  .should  die  under  it,  so  as  to  prevent 
others  from  coming  home  ;  but  this,  it  seems,  cannot  bo  done  there,  but 
must  be  as  Mr.  M.  proposes. 

"  If  possible,  there  should  be  some  provision  for  ten  or  twelve  following 
every  year,  to  make  a  regular  rotation  and  keep  it  up;  but  all  these 
things  we  must  leave  to  Mr.  M.,  and  it  is  happy  we  are  in  so  good  hands. 
At  all  events,  I  repeat  it,  he  may  exceed,  hut  let  him  not  come  short  of  the 
number.     So  much  for  Africa. 

"  You  say  that  churches  were  provided  in  Glasgow.  It  would  he  much 
better  if  you  would  provide  fields. ^^ 


MR.  HIIJ/S    ADDRESS    TO    MR.  J.  A.   HALDANE.      225 

Mr.  Campbell^  in  his  "Autobiography/'  states,  that  "for 
two  long  years  he  heard  not  a  syllable  from  Africa."  But  this 
only  shows  how  little  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on  history, 
depending  on  the  mcinorj'  of  an  individual.  The  letter  from 
Mr.  Haldane,  guaranteeing  the  payment  of  all  the  charges,  still 
exists,  and  is  dated  30th  March,  1798.  Within  six  months 
from  that  date  Mr.  Macaulay's  reply  to  Mr.  Campbell  had 
arrived,  and  it  will  presently  be  seen  that  Mr.  Campbell  found 
the  children  in  London  in  the  month  of  June,  1799. 

Soon  afterwards  a  journal  of  Mr.  Hill's  tour  was  pubUshed 

by  that  zealous  clergyman,    which  gave   great  offence.     This 

little  volume  consisted  of  two  parts ;  the  first  of  which  contained 

the  dedication  to  "Robert  Haldane,  Esq.,''  as  the  person  at 

whose  invitation  he  both  ventured  on  his  visit  to  Scotland  and 

now  printed  his  "  Journal."     It  concludes  thus : — 

"  I  trust,  my  dear  Sir,  it  is  the  prayer  of  my  heart  that  you  may  he 
blessed  with  the  most  abundant  success  in  all  your  attempts  to  promote 
the  glor}'  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  mankind.  And  may  your  brother 
and  his  worthy  colleague,  Mr.  Aikman,  in  their  disinterested  zeal  and  the 
devotedness  of  their  spirits,  continue  to  preach  Jesus  among  thousands  in 
those  parts  where  multitudes  are  perishing  in  complete  ignorance,  till 
tliey  are  crowned  with  all  the  success  their  hearts  could  wish. 

**  I  am,  with  much  affection, 
**  Yours,  in  the  love  and  fellowship  of  the  Gospel, 

"  Rowland  Hill.** 

The  second  part,  which  contained  his  strictures,  both  on  the 

Established  and  Secession  Churches  in  Scotland,  was  that  which 

gave   most  umbrage;    and   it  was  prefaced   by  the  following 

characteristic  dedication,  which  embodies  so  much  of  eccentric 

humour  with  solemn  seriousness  as  to  afford  a  better  portraiture 

of  the  mind  and  character  of  Rowland  Hill  than  many  of  the 

elaborate  efforts  of  affectionate  biographers.     It  is  addressed, 

"  To  James  Haldane,  Esq, 
"  My  dear  Sir,— Or  rather,  my  much  respected  brother  and  fellow- 
labourer  in  the  Gospel  of  God  our  Saviour !  Directed  by  my  high  esteem 
of  your  brother,  I  ventured  on  the  publication  of  my  *  Journal.*  From 
my  respect  to  your  ministerial  labours,  I  am  now  hap])y  to  address  these 
remarks  on  my  visit  to  Scotland  to  your  more  immediate  attention.  I 
am  now  an  old  stager  in  the  itinerant's  work,  and  I  bless  God  for  the  line 

Q 


226     MR.  hill's   ADDRBSS   to   MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE. 

in  which  I  have  been  called,  being  assured  I  have  followed  the  will  of 
God  therein ;  and  I  am  satisfied  the  salvation  of  many  souls  has  been 
promoted  thereby. 

''  In  preaching  through  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales,  I 
always  conceived  I  stuck  close  to  my  parish.  We  are  to  '  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world.*  Go  on,  my  dear 
Sir,  be  the  maul  of  bigotry,  and  of  every  sectarian  spirit  among  all 
denominations ;  declare  vengeance  against  the  unscriptural  innovations  of 
narrow-minded  bigots,  who,  finding  the  Word  of  God  uncompliant  to 
designs  like  theirs,  have  combined  together  to  support  their  dogmas, 
according  to  certain  rules  of  their  own  creating ;  and  all  these  as  contrary 
to  the  sacred  designs  of  God,  that  all  Christians  should  be  brethren  and 
love  as  such,  as  the  designs  of  Christianity  can  be  to  those  of  Mahomet, 
the  Pope,  or  the  devil. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  my  beloved  brother,  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
in  your  hand  and  the  life  of  God  in  your  heart,  pursue  those  hideous 
monsters  even  unto  death. 

"  But  you  have  given  sufiicient  evidence  how  much  you  respect  the 
Christian  wheresover  you  find  him  and  however  disfigured,  not  only  by 
the  wart,  but  by  the  wen  of  bigotry. 

"  I  will  not  say  that  to  a  fraction  all  my  obser^'ations  on  this  subject 
may  correctly  comport  with  yours,  though  I  flatter  myself  you  and  I  are 
pretty  near  the  mark,  if  we  differ.  I  am  sure  we  cannot  disagree.  Our 
hearts,  I  am  persuaded,  are  congenial,  though  our  original  calling  was 
completely  difierent. 

"  You  were  educated  for  the  maritime  life,  and  from  a  situation  credit- 
able and  lucrative,  commenced  a  peddling  preacher,  crying  your  wares 
from  town  to  town  at  a  low  rate,  indeed  *  without  money  and  without 
price,'  and  scattering  religious  tracts  as  you  travel  from  place  to  place ; 
while  it  was  my  lot  to  be  bred  to  the  trade  and  to  serve  a  regular  appren- 
ticeship for  the  purpose ;  but,  being  spoilt  in  the  manufacturing,  I  never 
received  but  forty  shillings — a  story  too  trivial  to  relate — by  my  own 
occupation  as  a  Churchman.  Affluence  is  a  snare ;  a  decent  independent 
competence  is  a  blessing, — a  blessing,  indeed,  if  thereby  we  can  preach 
Jesus  freely,  and  prove  to  the  poor  of  the  flock  that  we  can  sacrifice  our 
own  profit  if  we  can  be  profitable  to  them. 

*'  Let  it,  then,  be  our  glory  to  suffer  shame  and  contempt  for  the  sake 
of  Him  who  '  hid  not  his  face  from  shame  and  spitting  '  for  our  redemp- 
tion ;  '  holding  forth  the  Word  of  life  amidst  the  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins ;'  meekly  contented  to  suffer  even  *  the  loss  of  all  things,'  should  we 
meet  with  such  a  day  of  tribulation,  provided  we  are  but  enabled  *  to  win 
Christ '  and  are  blessed  *  with  souls  for  our  hire.' 

''  With  much  sincerity  of  affection,  I  am,  and  ever  hope  to  remain, 
your  affectionate  brother  and  fellow-labourer  in  the  Gospel  of  our  salva- 
tion, «  RowL.\ND  Hill." 


MR.  hill's  journal.  227 

Mr.  Hill  was^  by  education  and  by  principle^  attached  to  an 
Established  Churchy  and  esteemed  the  Church  of  England,  with 
its  Articles,  Liturgy,  and  Formularies,  far  beyond  any  other 
denomination ;  but  it  was  such  "  a  reduced  Episcopacy ''  that 
he  desired  ''as  was  recommended  by  the  Archbishops  Usher 
and  Leighton.''  He  greatly  preferred  it  to  Scottish  Presbytery ; 
and,  referring  to  the  Cameronians,  denounced  the  old  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  as  containing  more  of  bigotry  and  perse- 
cution than  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  He  then  glances  at  the 
Secession  Church,  founded  by  the  two  Erskines;  afterwards 
divided  amongst  themselves  into  Burghers  and  Anti-burghers, 
with  reference  to  the  lawfulness  and  unlawfulness  of  the  Burgess 
oath.  Next,  the  Relief  Secession  comes  under  review ;  a  body 
that  arose  out  of  the  grievance  of  patronage,  and  which  then 
contained  sixty-seven  congregations,  whilst  the  Burghers  had 
123,  and  the  Anti-burghers  125. 

Having  dealt  somewhat  roughly  with  the  peculiarities  and 
''  bigotry "  of  all  the  Presbyterian  bodies,  he  devotes  a  passing 
note  to  the  Scottish  Episcopalians,  which  was,  of  course,  at  that 
time  anything  but  compUmentary.  He  describes  them  as  allied 
to  the  Moderates  in  their  evangelical  doctrine,  and  adds,  ''  As  a 
proof  of  this,  that  good  and  truly  spiritual  and  respectable 
man,  Mr.  Simeon,  of  Cambridge,  being  asked  to  preach  but 
once  in  their  chapels,  after  one  sample  given  was  asked  no 
more,  though  he  strictly  adhered  to  a  most  regular  conduct,  so 
far  as  only  preaching  in  the  Established  churches  deserves  that 
name.  And,  if  the  prevailing  whisper  be  true,  he  is,  on  the 
next  Meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  likely  to  meet  with  a 
very  coarse  compliment  for  his  regularity.  Not  that  the 
thunder-bolt  of  their  high  priestly  indignation  will  be  levelled 
directly  against  him, — a  slant  stroke  will  do  the  business  the 
most  eflFectually.^' 

Having  also  lashed  "  the  Moderates ''  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, describing  them  as  '' moderate  in  religion"  " moderate  in 
their  notions  of  Christ,^^  "  moderate  in  their  use  of  their  Bibles/' 
''  moderate  in  their  love  to  Gk>d,''  and  practically  teaching  the 
people  to  be   ^^  moderate  in  their  morality/'   he  next  assaila 

Q  2 


228  MR.  HILL    ON    LAY    PREACHING. 

the  Baptists  and  Independents,  concerning  whom,  as  his 
'*  brethren/^  he  expresses  his  thankfulness  that  they  had  never 
been,  as  yet,  favoured  with  the  "  civil  sword,"  and  therefore 
never  tempted  to  persecute.  He  considers  Congregationalism 
to  be  a  modem  innovation,  which  took  its  first  rise  in  the 
Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  good 
men,  disgusted  with  the  turbulent  political  preachers  of  the 
times,  were  induced  to  retire  from  the  strife  and  congregate 
amongst  themselves. 

Scarcely  has  he  done  with  the  faults  of  his  "Independent 
and  Baptist  brethren"  than  Mr.  Hill  turns  roimd  once  more  on 
the  High  Church  Episcopalians,  blames  their  unwarrantable 
pretensions  to  apostolic  succession,  and  states  the  advantage  of 
reviving  the  apostolic  injunction :  "  Exhort  one  another  daily 
while  it  is  called  to-day."  "  By  this  primitive  mode  of  pro- 
cedure," he  adds,  "  a  great  number  of  very  valuable  ministers 
have  been  raised  up,  some  from  the  army,  others  from  the 
navy.  We  bless  God  for  the  names  of  a  Captain  Scott  and 
a  Captain  Joss;  for  captains  may  have  tongues  and  brains 
and  grace  as  well  as  doctors,  and  men  of  inferior  ranks  in  the 
same  line,  if  not  superior,  have  been  equal  to  them  in  a  wise 
conduct,  a  holy  walk,  and  extended  usefulness  in  the  ministry 
of  the  word.  Others  also  shall  I  mention?  Stonemasons, 
butchers,  tailors,  shopkeepers,  and  shoemakers,  and  a  certain 
tinker,  who  lived  a  century  and  a-half  ago  (the  Right  Rev. 
Bishop  Bunyan,  the  apostle  of  Cambridgeshire  and  Bedford- 
shire, and,  though  a  Baptist,  admitted  all  to  communion  with 
him  whom  he  believed  to  be  children  of  God), — all  of  whom 
gave  evidence  that  grace,  good  sense,  and  knowledge  of  the 
Word  of  God,  may  so  far  possess  the  minds  of  plain  mechanics, 
as  to  render  them  abundantly  useful,  at  least  in  their  own 
sphere/'  &c. 

Having  thus  launched  out  into  a  variety  of  animadversions  on 
Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians,  Baptists  and  Independents, 
all  of  whom  he  considers  as  having  some  shred  of  Popery, 
which  he  terms  the  "incurable  abomination,"  Mr.  Hill  pro- 
ceeds to  give  his  advice  as  to  what  should  be  done  for  Scotland. 


RECOMMENDS    THE    ERECTION    OF   TABERNACLES.    229 

'^  If/'  he  says,  in  Edinburgh,  "  another  place  of  worship  should 
be  built,  what  should  be  its  glory  ?  Let  it  embrace  all  who 
love  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  be  the  centre  of  union  among  them 
who  are  now  disunited.  Let  it,  then,  be  called  the  Union 
Church,  and  let  her  prove  she  deserves  the  name.  Let  her 
pulpit  be  open  to  all  ministers  who  preach  and  love  the  Gospel^ 
and  her  communion  equally  open  to  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus 
in  sincerity.  I  would  allot  at  least  half  the  area  of  the  church 
to  the  poor,  that  they  may  attend  it  with  as  much  freedom  as 
they  attend  a  field  preaching." 

Other  admonitions  he  gives  as  to  an  ideal  Church,  which  was 
to  be  a  kind  of  Evangelical  Alliance  of  all  the  disciples  of 
Christ.  It  was  in  joumejring  with  Mr.  Hill  that  Mr.  Ualdane 
conceived  the  idea  of  opening  other  places  of  worship  at  Glasgow 
and  Dundee  as  well  as  at  Edinburgh.  So  far  as  these  schemes 
were  confined  to  the  conversion  of  sinners,  they  were  blessed 
in  a  way  which  commended  them,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
to  the  approbation  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Newton,  Mr.  Simeon, 
and  Mr.  Scott.  But  so  far  as  they  involved  a  new  system  of 
ecclesiastical  polity,  in  the  end  they  signally  failed.  To  the 
poor  the  Gospel  was  preached;  sinners  were  saved,  and  Christ 
was  glorified.  But  when  new  Churches  were  established  on  the 
fancied  model  of  primitive  times,  they  only  flourished  for  a  time. 
In  1799  they  braved  the  artillery  of  the  General  Assembly's 
pastoral  admonition,  fulminated  against  them  like  a  Bull  from 
the  Vatican,  and  they  rose  unscathed  by  the  anathemas  levelled 
at  them  by  the  Presbyterian  seceders.  It  was  when  opposition 
from  without  died  away  that  the  internal  instability  appeared. 
The  sequel  of  this  narrative  will  exhibit  the  self- devoted  zeal  of 
men  of  God,  and  may  stimulate  others  to  multiply  City  Missions 
and  Scripture-readers.  But  probably  it  will  rather  tend  to  abate 
the  ardour  of  those  who,  like  Rowland  Hill  in  1798,  think  it  as 
easy  to  reform  wisely  as  to  censure  sharply,  to  apply  the  anti* 
dote  as  well  as  to  indicate  the  disease,  whether  practical  or 
theoretic,  in  any  system  of  ecclesiastical  polity. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MR.  HALDANE'S  SEMINARY  FOR  THE  EDUCATION  OP 
PREACHERS,  AND  A  PLAN  FOR  ERECTING  PLACES  OF 
WORSHIP  IN  THE  CHIEF  TOWNS  OF  SCOTLAND  — MR. 
EWINO  RESIGNS  HIS  POST  AS  A  MINISTER  OF  THE 
CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND— FORMATION  OF  THE  TABER- 
NACLE CHURCH  — MR.  JAMES  HALDANE  UNANIMOUSLY 
SOLICITED  TO  BECOME  THE  PASTOR— ACCOUNT  OF  HIS 
ORDINATION— BLESSING  ON  THE  CIRCUS  AND  TABER- 
NACLE PREACHING— OPENING  OF  THE  GLASGOW  CIRCUS 
—  MR.  HALDANE'S  CLASSES,  OR  SEMINARIES,  FOR 
PREACHERS. 

[1799.] 

Th£  plan  for  educating  the  children  of  African  chiefs  was  but 
an  episode  in  the  midst  of  Mr.  Haldane's  efforts  for  the  extension 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  His  correspondence  on  his  journey 
with  Mr.  Hill  shows  how  his  mind  was  directed  towards  the  objects 
and  welfare  of  the  Circus  and  of  the  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  at  Home.  Mr.  Parsons^  of  Leeds,  Mr.  Boden,  of  Shef- 
field, Mr.  Burder,  of  Coventry,  Mr.  Slatterie,  of  Chatham,  Mr. 
Simpson,  of  Hoxton,  Mr.  Taylor,  of  Ossett,  Mr.  Griffin,  of  Port- 
sea,  are  amongst  the  names  of  those  who  were  invited  to  preach 
in  the  Circus.  The  difficulty,  however,  of  obtaining  a  regular 
supply  of  ministers  was  considerable,  and  for  the  Society  suit- 
able Evangelists  could  not  easily  be  found.  It  was  under  these 
circumstances  that,  when  in  England  in  the  year  1798,  Mr. 
Haldane  conceived  the  idea  of  educating  a  number  of  pious 
young  men  for  the  ministry,  who  might  be  selected,  as  in  primi- 
tive times,  from  the  various  occupations  of  life,  on  account  of 
their  piety  and  promising  talents,  and  receive  instruction  with  a 
view  to  the  ministry.     Natural  ability  was  to  be  one  requisite. 


MR.  HALDANE   PLANS    A   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.    231 

but  evidences  of  a  state  of  grace  were  to  be  the  first  and 
indispensable  consideration.  With  the  exception  of  his  brother, 
the  only  person  to  whom  he  at  first  communicated  his  intention 
was  Mr.  Campbell;  and  at  the  end  of  the  letter,  dated  Gth 
October,  1798,  already  cited,  relative  to  the  African  children, 
he  thus  writes : — "  I  intend  to  give  one  yearns  education  to  ten 
or  twelve  persons,  of  any  age  that  may  be  fit  for  it,  under 
Mr.  Bogue,  with  a  view  to  the  ministry.  Will  you  and  my 
brother  be  looking  out  for  suitable  persons  to  be  ready  by  the 
time  I  return  ?"  This  marks  the  origin  of  those  seminaries  for 
preparing  Evangelists,  which  were  afterwards  carried  out  by 
Mr.  Haldane  on  so  great  a  scale. 

But  there  was  another  circumstance  connected  with  Mr. 
Haldane's  visit  to  England  which  was  contemporaneous  and 
associated  with  the  institution  of  the  Seminary,  namely,  the 
erection  of  places  of  worship,  after  the  manner  of  Whitfield's 
tabernacles,  in  difierent  parts  of  Scotland.  He  reckoned  that 
he  might  certainly  calculate  on  h}g  brother  to  supply  the  Edin- 
burgh tabernacle,  whilst  possibly  Mr.  Ewing  and  Mr.  Innes 
might  occupy  two  other  chapels,  the  one  to  be  provided  or 
erected  in  Glasgow,  the  other  in  Dundee. 

The  announcement  of  Mr.  Haldane's  determination  to  erect 
tabernacles,  after  the  Whitfield  model,  in  the  great  towns  in 
Scotland,  was  followed  by  events  which  added  to  the  prevailing 
excitement  in  the  public  mind.  No  sooner  had  he  returned 
from  Gosport,  than,  after  fully  conferring  with  his  brother,  he 
next  proposed  his  plans  to  Mr.  Ewing  and  Mr.  Innes.  On  the 
29th  of  November  a  sermon  was  preached  by  Mr.  Ei^ing,  in 
Lady  Glenorchy's  Chapel,  Edinburgh,  on  the  duty  of  implicit 
obedience  to  human  authority  in  civil  matters,  although,  in 
regard  to  religion.  Christians  ought  only  to  obey  God;  and  on 
the  Saturday  following,  December  1st,  Mr.  Ewing  resigned  his 
charge,  and  retired  from  the  communion  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  Next  Lord's-day  that  minister  remained  in  retire- 
ment, but  on  the  14th  of  December  he  undertook  a  short  tour 
to  Dunkeld,  from  which  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  just  returned. 


232  CIRCUS    CHUHCH. 

beaiing  the  tidings  of  a  large  spiritual  ban  est.  Mr.  Ewing^s 
secession,  although  thus  sudden  at  the  last,  was  not  wonder- 
ful; for  no  one  can  even  now  peruse  his  earliest  contributions 
to  the  "  Missionary  Magazine"  without  seeing  that  his  prin- 
ciples in  regard  to  Ecclesiastical  polity,  like  those  of  his  Baptist 
friend.  Dr.  Stuart,  strongly  tended  to  Congregationalism.  The 
stomi  that  had  been  excited  against  Mr.  Simeon,  Mr.  Hill,  the 
Itinerants,  and  the  Circus,  quickened  his  movements,  and  his 
adhesion:  to  Mr.  Hal  dances  plan,  in  regard  to  Glasgow,  was 
sealed  by  the  resignation  of  his  place  in  the  Establishment. 
A  few  days  afterwards,  about  twelve  of  the  parties  principally 
interested  in  the  Circus  and  the  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  at  Home,  including  the  two  brothers,  Mr.  Ewing,  Mr. 
Aikman,  Mr.  Campbell,  Mr.  George  Gibson,  and  Mr.  John 
Ritchie,  began  to  meet  in  private  for  consultation,  when,  after 
prayer  and  deliberation,  they  resolved  to  form  themselves  into  a 
Congregational  Church.  Mr.  Ewing,  as  most  familiar  with 
such  matters,  was  requested  to  draw  out  a  plan  for  its  govern- 
ment, and,  after  repeated  conferences,  they  with  one  voice 
invited  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  to  be  their  pastor.  Hithei-to  he  had 
aspired  to  no  other  office  than  that  of  an  Evangelist,  preaching 
in  the  villages  round  Edinburgh,  occasionally  making  distant 
and  extensive  tours,  and  more  recently,  drawing  around  him 
crowds  of  attentive  listener  on  the  Calton  Hill.  But  having 
given  himself  wholly  to  the  study  of  the  word,  "  meditating 
upon  these  things,"  he  had  become  "  mighty  in  the  Scrip- 
tures;" "  his  profiting  had  appeared  to  all;"  whilst  his  unction 
in  prayer,  the  solemn  and  unpretending  eloquence  of  his  pointed, 
direct,  and  telling  addresses,  his  persevering  zeal  and  remark- 
able success,  his  unwearied  attendance  on  the  sick,  and  his 
spotless  consistency  of  practice,  seemed  to  mark  him  out  as 
"  a  man  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  well  qualified  for 
the  pastoral  office.  It  was  not,  however,  without  deliberation 
that  he  accepted  the  call,  nor  until  he  had  explained  that  he 
considered  his  own  gifts  to  be  better  adapted  for  the  office  of  an 
Evangelist.     But  the  call  being  persisted  in,  he  yielded  to  what 


MR.  airman's  account  OF  IT.  233 

he  deemed  the  voice  of  Providence,  and  assumed  a  post  from 
the  labours  and  responsibilities  of  which  he  never  shrunk  for 
the  remaining  years  of  his  active  and  eventful  life. 

Mr.  Aikman,  who  was  one  of  the  few  who  composed  the 
original  Circus  Church,  and  was  afterwards  himself  ordained 
co-pastor,  has  given  the  following  account  of  the  principles  on 
which  it  was  formed : — 

"  The  chief  principle  which  influenced  the  minds  of  the  brethren  who, 
I  believe,  constituted  the  majority  of  the  small  company  first  associated 
for  observing  Divine  ordinances  in  the  Circus,  was  the  indispensable 
necessity  of  the  people  of  God  being  separated  in  religious  fellowship 
from  all  such  societies  as  permitted  visible  unbelievers  to  continue  in  their 
communion.  This  was  a  yoke  under  which  we  had  long  groaned ;  and 
we  hailed,  with  gratitude  to  God,  the  arrival  of  that  happy  day  when  we 
first  enjoyed  the  so  much  wished  for  privilege  of  separating  from  an 
impure  communion,  and  of  uniting  exclusively  with  those  whom  it  was 
meet  and  fit  tliat  we  should  judge  to  be  all  the  children  of  God.  Some  of 
our  dearest  brethren,  however,  did  not  unite  with  us  on  this  principle. 
They  were  attached,  indeed,  to  the  fellowship  of  the  saints,  and  would  by 
no  means  consent  to  the  admission  of  any  amongst  us  who  did  not  appear 
to  be  such ;  yet  they  were  not  then  convinced  of  the  absolute  unlawful- 
ness of  their  continuing  in  connexion  with  societies  confessedly  impure. 
Our  brethren  were  well  aware  of  our  decided  difference  of  sentiment,  not 
only  respecting  the  great  inconsistency,  but  also  unlawfulness,  of  any 
persons  connected  with  us  continuing  to  go  back  to  the  fellowship  of 
those  societies  from  whibh  they  had  professed  to  separate,  and  they  knew 
that  our  forbearance  did  not  imply  any  approbation  of  this  conduct. 
Persuaded,  however,  that  they  did  not  intend  by  this  to  countenance 
anything  they  judged  to  be  contrary  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  we  deemed  it 
our  duty  to  forbear,  in  the  hope  that  that  Saviour,  whom  we  trusted 
it  was  their  supreme  desire  to  serve  and  to  please,  would  grant  us  the 
happiness  of  being  likeminded  in  this  as  in  our  other  views  of  promoting 
the  honour  of  His  adored  name.** 

The  simplicity  of  the  motives  which  influenced  these  holy 
men  can  never  be  disputed  by  those  who  marked  their  public 
course,  or  more  narrowly  watched  their  private  walk  with  God 
But  whether  the  attempt  succeeded, — whether  it  indeed  secured 
that  purity  of  communion  after  which  they  panted, — is  a  ques- 
tion which  it  might  not  be  difficult  to  answer,  but  one  which  it 
is  not  the  object  of  these  pages  to  discuss. 


234  THE   NEW    CHURCH. 

Nearly  three  years  subsequent  to  the  opening  of  the  Circus 
as  a  place  of  worship,  Mr.  Haldane  gives  the  following  account 
of  it  in  his  "  Address  to  the  Public  ;^' — 

"  After  some  time  a  Church  was  formed,  of  which,  at  first,  we  had  no 
intention.  The  Gospel  continues  to  be  preached  in  tlie  Circus  to  this 
day  in  an  earnest  and  faithful  manner.  With  respect  to  the  doctrines 
taught,  they  are  essentially  the  same  as  those  contained  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  and  in  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  preached  by 
those  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  denominated  Evangelical  or  Gospel 
ministers.  The  form  of  Church  government  is  what  has  been  called 
Congregational,  a  form  long  known  and  acted  upon  in  England.  A  strict 
discipline  is  maintained.  The  characters  of  all  persons  admitted  as  Church 
members  are  particularly  examined,  and  great  numbers  have  been  rejected, 
either  from  ignorance  of  the  Gospel,  or  from  not  appearing  to  maintain  a 
becoming  walk  and  conversation.  Disloyalty,  as  being  one  of  those  things 
which  are  contrary  to  the  express  precepts  of  Scripture  and  to  the  spirit 
of  Christianity,  would  be  a  complete  disqualification,  and  some  have  been 
rejected  on  this  verj'  ground.  The  Church  members  are  exhorted  to 
watch  over  each  other  in  love ;  if  any  one  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  he  is 
reproved,  but  if  convicted  of  departing  from  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  of 
deliberate  immorality,  or  allowed  and  continued  indulgence  in  sin,  he 
is  put  away,  and  restored  only  upon  credible  proofs  of  repentance.  Such 
regulations  we  beUeve  to  be  according  to  Scripture,  and  calculated  to  pro- 
mote edification. 

'*  After  a  trial  for  a  considerable  time,  I  must  say  I  rejoice  in  this  Insti- 
tution. Many  advantages,  I  think,  have  attended  it.  At  the  Circus  the 
aeats  are  free  to  all ;  the  ministers  at  present  who  officiate,  either  statedly 
or  occasionally,  as  those  from  England  in  summer,  receive  no  pay  for 
their  labours,  and  all  sorts  of  people  are  welcome,  without  either  expense 
or  inconvenience.  By  this  means  many  in  Edinburgh,  I  believe,  have 
attended  the  worship  of  God,  who,  although  they  could  afford  it,  would 
not  have  been  at  the  trouble  to  procure  a  seat  in  any  church  where  they 
are  let.  I  have  heard  of  several  such  people  coming  first  from  curiosity, 
or  because  they  got  a  place  without  difficulty  or  expense,  who  afterwards 
have  become  sensible  of  the  value  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  I  have 
heard  of  others  who  had  been  violent  in  their  political  sentiments,  and 
abusive  against  the  Government  (not  belonging  to  the  Circus  Church,  for 
such  would  not  be  admitted  there,  but  among  the  hearers),  who,  after 
attending  there  some  time,  have  learned  to  respect  lawful  authority,  *  to 
forbear  speaking  evil  of  dignities,'  and  to  turn  their  attention  from  other 
men's  faults  to  the  corruptions  of  their  own  hearts.  I  have  understood 
that  ale-houses  had  been  emptied  and  shut  up,  which  used  to  be  full  on 
the  Loid's-day,  by  the  frequenters  of  them  going  to  the  Circus.    There 


THE    CIRCUS    CHURCH.  235 

are,  besides,  many  serious  people  vfho  attend  regularly,  from  deliberate 
preference  of  it  to  other  places.  In  the  evenings,  also,  a  large  place  is 
thus  open  yihen  most  other  churches  are  shut,  and  many  stragglers  occa- 
sionally drop  in.  Upon  the  other  hand,  I  am  often  grieved  when  I  think 
of  the  difficulty  of  procuring  seats,  almost  to  the  total  exclusion  of  the 
poor,  in  many  churches  of  Edinburgh ;  and  that  so  many  of  these,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  collegiate  charges,  are  shut  up  in  the  evenings,  when 
they  might  be  occupied,  and  the  seats  free.  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  happy, 
as  I  often  declare,  to  see  the  Circus  thinned  in  the  evenings,  by  more 
places  of  worship  being  opened.  If  good  be  done,  and  sinners  converted 
to  Jesus  Christ,  I  care  not  where  it  may  be." 

The  Tabernacle,  or  Circus  Church,  having  been  constituted  in 
the  month  of  January,  1799,  no  less  than  310  persons  almost 
immediately  signified  their  desire  to  unite  in  its  communion.  Of 
these,  however,  thirty  continued  members  of  the  Establishment, 
and  only  desired  to  be  admitted  occasionally  to  the  Lord^s  table 
by  their  Circus  brethren.  Not  a  few  of  these  310  were  persona 
who  were  first  led  to  behold  Christ  as  their  Saviour  by  the 
preaching,  in  and  aroimd  Edinburgh,  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane 
himself,  or  of  Mr.  Rowland  Hill.  But  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber were  old  established  Christians,  who  had  grown  up  imder 
the  admirable  teaching  of  Dr.  Erskine,  Mr.  Black,  Dr.  Col- 
quhoun,  Dr.  Walter  Buchanan,  and  other  faithful  ministers  of 
the  Established  Church,  who  could  not  be  expected  to  look  with 
satisfaction  on  this  secession. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  ordination  took  place  on  the  3d  February, 
1799,  being  the  Lord's-day.  It  was  an  occasion  memorable  for 
its  solemnizing  influence,  and  the  impression  it  produced  upon 
crowds  of  spectators.  A  sketch,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Ewing,  i» 
given  of  this  event  in  the  "  Missionary  Magazine,^'  from  which 
the  following  extracts  are  taken  : — 

**  On  Sabbath,  the  3d  of  February,  Mr.  James  Haldane  was  ordained  in 
the  Circus  of  this  city  to  be  pastor  of  a  Church  which  has  been  recently 
formed  here  on  the  Congregational  plan,  and  in  connexion  with  the 
institution  of  a  Tabernacle.  By  desire  of  the  Church,  the  service  was 
conducted  by  Messrs.  Taylor,  of  Osset,  Yorkshire ;  Garie,  of  Perth ;  and 
Ewing,  of  Edinburgh,  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  Mr.  Taylor  began  by 
giving  out  a  part  of  Psalm  cxxii.  He  then  prayed,  and  read  the  following 
portions  of  Scripture,  as  suited  to  the  peculiar  occasion  of  the  meeting. 


236  MR.   J.   A.   HALDANE's    OllDlxNATlON. 

viz.,  Isaiah  Ixii.,  Ezek.  xxxiii.  1—11,  1  Tim.  iii. ;  after  which  he  gave  out 
the  remainder  of  Psalm  cxxii.  He  next  introduced  the  solemn  business 
of  the  day  hy  preaching  an  appropriate  sermon  from  John  xviii.  36, — 
•  Jesus  answered.  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world ;  if  my  kingdom  were 
of  this  world,  then  would  my  servants  fight,  that  I  should  not  be  delivered 
to  the  Jews ;  but  now  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence/ 

"  After  sermon,  Mr.  Ewing  gave  out  the  64th  hymn  of  the  second  book 
of  Dr.  Watt8*s  hymns,  entitled  *  God  the  glory  and  the  defence  of  Sion.* 

"  *  Happy  the  Church,  thou  sacred  place, 
The  seat  of  thy  Redeemer's  grace  ; 
Thine  holy  courts  are  His  abode, 
Thou  earthly  palace  of  our  God. 

"  *  Thy  walls  are  strength,  and  at  thy  gates 
A  guard  of  heavenly  warriors  waits ; 
Nor  shall  thy  deep  foundations  move, 
Fix'd  on  His  counsels  and  His  love.'  &c.,  &c. 

"  Mr.  Garie,  of  Perth,  next  went  into  the  pulpit,  and  after  prayer  and  a 
short  introduction,  solemnly  asked  Mr.  Haldane  the  following  questions : — 

*•  Ist.  As  an  unconverted  ministry  is  allowed  to  be  a  great  evil,  will 
you.  Sir,  be  pleased  to  favour  us  with  some  account  of  the  dealing  of  God 
with  your  soul  ? 

"2dly.  Will  you  inform  us  what  are  the  circumstances  and  motives 
which  have  led  you  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  to  desire  to  engage  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry  ? 

"  3dly.  Will  you  favour  us  with  your  views  of  the  leading  truths  of  the 
Gospel  ? 

"  4thly.  Will  you  explain  your  views  and  purposes  respecting  the  duties 
and  trials  before  you  in  the  pastoral  office  ? 

"  To  these  questions  Mr.  Haldane  replied  at  considerable  length,  and 
in  a  manner  that  seemed  to  make  a  very  deep  and  general  impression. 
His  account  of  the  dealings  of  God  with  him  contained  a  historical  sketch 
of  his  whole  life,  in  which  there  appears  to  have  been  many  remarkable 
displays  of  providential  mercy,  as  well  as  the  most  satisfying  evidence  of  a 
saving  change.  His  account  of  the  circumstances  and  motives  which 
concurred  in  leading  him  to  preach  the  Gosptl,  were  such  as,  in  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  Church,  and  of  many  others,  established  a  very 
clear  call  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  The  declaration  of  his  faith  was 
scriptural,  explicit,  and  uncommonly  striking.  His  views  and  purposes 
as  to  the  work  before  him  showed  a  strong  sense  of  insufficiency,  and  a 
becoming  dependence  on  promised  Divine  aid.  Mr.  Haldane  here 
expressed  his  intention  of  endeavouring  to  procure  a  regular  rotation  of 
ministers  to  assist  him  in  supplying  the  Tabernacle.  He  declared  his 
willingness  to  open  his  pulpit  for  the  occasional  labours  of  ever)-  faithful 


ORDINATION    SERVICE.  237 

preacher  of  the  Gospel,  of  whatever  denomination  or  country  he  might  be. 
He  signified  his  approbation  of  the  plan  of  the  Church  which  had  chosen 
him  for  their  pastor,  as  being  simple  and  scriptural,  but  disavowed  any 
confidence  in  it  as  a  perfect  model  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  others.  Ue  wished  to  remember  himself,  and  ever  to  remind  his 
hearers,  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  not  meat  and  drink,  but  right- 
eousness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Finally,  he  declared 
that  he  meant  not  to  confine  his  exertions  to  that  Church,  but  to  devote  a 
portion  of  his  time,  every  year,  to  the  labours  of  itinerancy,  to  which  he 
conceived  himself,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  be  especially  called." 

Thus  far  the  "  Missionary  Magazine.''  Happily,  the  notes  of 
Mr.  James  Haldane's  answers  to  the  ordination  questions  were 
found  among  his  papers  in  a  di*awer  where  they  had  lain  undis- 
turbed for  nearly  forty  years.  The  substance  of  his  reply  to  the 
first  question,  concerning  "  God's  dealings  with  his  soul,"  has 
been  already  inserted  in  the  account  given  of  his  early  life  and 
conversion  to  God.  The  answer  to  the  second  question,  as  to 
his  motives  in  engaging  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  is  shorter. 

"  For  some  time  after  I  knew  the  truth,  I  had  no  thoughts 
towards  the  ministry.  My  attention  was  directed  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  other  religious  books,  for  my  own  improve- 
ment, and  because  I  found  much  pleasure  in  them.  When  I 
first  lived  in  my  own  house,  I  began  family  worship  on  Sabbath 
evenings.  I  was  unwilling  to  have  it  more  frequently,  lest  I 
should  meet  with  ridicule  from  those  with  whom  I  was  acquainted. 
A  conviction  of  duty  at  length  determined  me  to  begin  to  have 
it  every  morning,  but  I  assembled  the  family  in  another  room 
for  some  time,  lest  any  one  should  come  in.  I  gradually  got 
over  this  fear  of  man,  and  being  desirous  to  instruct  those  who 
lived  in  my  family,  I  began  to  expound  the  Scriptures.  I  foimd 
this  very  pleasant  and  edifying  to  myself,  and  this  has  been  one 
chief  mean  by  which  the  Lord  prepared  me  for  speaking  in 
public.  About  this  time,  some  of  my  friends  remarked  that  I 
would  by  and  by  become  a  preacher.  A  person  asked  me 
whether  I  did  not  regret  that  I  had  not  been  a  minister,  which 
made  a  considerable  impression  on  my  mind.  I  began  secretly 
to  desire  to  be  allowed  to  preach  the  Gt)spel,  which  I  considered 
as  the  most  important,  as  well  as  honourable,  employment.    I 


238  ORDINATION    SERVICE. 

began  to  ask  of  God  to  send  me  into  his  vineyard,  and  to  qualify 
me  for  the  work.  This  desire  continued  to  increase,  and  although 
I  had  not  the  most  distant  prospect  of  its  being  gratified, — and 
sometimes  in  prayer  ray  unbelieving  heart  suggested  it  could  not 
be, — I  had  then  no  idea  of  going  to  the  highways  and  hedges, 
and  telling  sinners  of  the  Saviour.  However,  I  entertained  some 
distant  hope  that  the  Lord  would  direct.  Some  things  which 
passed  in  conversation  tended  to  increase  my  expectation,  and  a 
journey  I  proposed  to  undertake  to  the  north,  with  a  view  of 
establishing  Sabbath  schools,  at  length  opened  a  prospect  of 
being  allowed  to  speak  for  Jesus.  The  success  of  a  journey  to 
the  west  country  increased  my  desire  of  going  through  the 
north,  not  to  preach,  but  to  establish  schools,  while  I  was  to  be 
accompanied  by  a  minister  from  England  (Mr.  Rate),  who  should 
preach  in  the  towns  and  villages.  Before  we  set  out,  our  plan 
was  enlarged.  Another  brother  (Mr.  Aikman),  with  whom  I 
had  become  particularly  intimate  in  a  prayer  meeting,  who  had 
studied  for  the  ministry,  agreed  to  accompany  us,  and  both  he 
and  I  began  to  preach  in  a  neighbouring  village  about  the  same 
time.  The  journey  to  the  north  is  pretty  generally  known,  and 
ever  since  the  Lord  allowed  me  to  speak  of  him  to  others,  I  have 
found  increasing  pleasure  in  the  work,  and  seen,  I  hope,  more  of 
the  inward  workings  of  my  corrupt  heart,  while  I  have  found 
His  grace  sufficient.  The  Church  which  has  been  lately  formed 
were  pleased  to  invite  me  to  be  their  pastor.  The  charge  I 
would  accept,  in  dependance  on  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  not, 
however,  relinquishing  the  idea  of  labouring  as  an  itinerant,  to 
which  I  think  the  Lord  has  especially  called  me.^^ 

Mr.  Ewing  states  that  the  answers  to  the  third  question,  in 
regard  to  views  of  doctrine,  were  uncommonly  striking,  but  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  notes  are  exceedingly  scanty.  Their 
brevity  indicates  how  firmly  the  speaker  already  felt  himself 
established  in  an  acquaintance  with  the  great  truths  of  Scrip- 
ture. 

''  The  Scriptures  reveal  God.  Three  bear  witness  in  heaven, 
might  be  known  by  his  works,  man  perfect,  now  lost,  root 
unholy,  prone  to  evil.    Enmity  against  God.    Willingly  ignorant. 


ORDINATION    SERVICE.  239 

God  pitied.  The  Gospel  preached.  In  the  fulness  of  time 
God  sent  forth  Word  made  flesh.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  true 
Grod  as  well  as  man;  suffered  wrath  due  to  us;  died^  rose, 
ascended^  ever  liveth.  The  necessity  of  regeneration  produced 
by  Holy  Spirit,  which,  shed  on  us  through  Christ;  he  had 
received  the  Spirit  beyond  measure,  and  all  his  members  are 
partakers.  Baptism,  Lord^s  Supper,  Justification,  Santification, 
Election.'' 

These  brief  notes  sufficiently  indicate  his  views  of  doctrine, 
which  he  consistently  held,  without  swerving,  to  the  end  of  life. 
The  notes  of  his  answer  to  the  fourth  question  are  as  follows: — 
'^  I  consider  the  Christian  life  as  a  warfare.  There  is  a 
constant  struggle  between  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit,  and  renewed 
supplies  of  strength  are  constantly  necessary  from  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  peculiarly  the  case  in  the  ministerial  work.  No  man  is 
8u£Scient  for  these  things.  A  minister,  in  an  especial  manner, 
should  habitually  cherish  a  spirit  of  humility  and  dependance  on 
the  general  head  of  the  Church.  His  situation  and  temptations 
are  peculiar ;  he  must  not  only  keep  his  body  under,  and  bring 
it  into  subjection,  lest,  preaching  to  others,  he  be  himself  cast 
away ;  but  he  must  watch  over  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  made  him  overseer,  as  one  who  would  give  an  accoiuit. 
I  do  not  expect  my  trials  to  be  few,  but  to  meet  with  many 
difliculties,  especially  if  the  Ix)rd  should  honour  me  in  the 
work.  I  should  desire  to  give  myself  much  to  the  Word  of 
God  and  prayer,  to  study  the  Scriptures  with  attention,  that 
my  doctrine  may  ever  be  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and 
that  I  may  rightly  divide  it,  giving  a  portion  to  all  who  may 
attend  my  ministry.  It  should  be  my  study  to  comfort  the 
feeble-minded,  and  to  lead  the  weak  to  the  rock  of  ages.  I 
should  endeavour  to  alarm  the  careless,  reprove  the  backsliders, 
and  to  edify  the  body  of  Christ.  To  instruction,  I  should 
desire  to  add  my  example  yi  every  Christian  grace,  never 
rendering  railing  for  railing,  but  in  meekness,  instructing  those 
who  oppose  the  truth.  I  should  wish  to  act  with  tenderness 
to  all  who  profess  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  to  possess  much  of 
that  love,  which  thinketh  no  evil,  and  which  covereth  a  multi- 


240  ORDINATION    SERVICE. 

tude  of  sins.  To  bear  with  those  who  arc  weak  in  tlie  faith', 
and  may  manifest  an  improper  spirit  on  any  occasion,  to  point 
out  their  error  in  love  and  meekness,  and  to  be  patient  and 
gentle  towards  all  men.  To  study  to  get  acquainted  with  the 
cases  of  those  amongst  whom  I  minister,  tliat  I  may  speak  to 
them  a  word  in  season,  in  pubHc  or  private.  To  visit  the  sick 
and  afflicted,  and  sympatliize  with  all,  but  especially  with  the 
friends  of  Jesus,  as  members  of  the  same  body.  To  study  to 
maintain  the  ordinances  of  Christ  pure.  To  study  that  discipline 
be  maintained,  without  prefemng  one  above  another.  To 
exhort  or  reprove,  agreeably  to  the  commands  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles,  and  especially  to  endeavour  to  cultivate  a  spirit 
of  love,  not  only  amongst  our  own  membere,  but  in  myself  and 
them  towards  every  disciple  of  Jesus.  I  consider  all  Christians 
as  members  of  one  body,  and  that  schisms  and  divisions  consist 
in  giving  way  to  or  cherishing  a  narrow  party  spirit.  I  consider 
the  constitution  of  this  Church  to  be  plain  and  scriptural ;  but 
I  dare  not  turn  my  back  on  those  who,  holding  the  head,  diifer 
in  lesser  matters.  I  would  desire  to  remember  that  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness;  and 
that  the  Christian  who  is  most  spmtually-minded  is  acting  most 
agreeably  to  the  will  of  his  Father  in  heaven.  I  value  purity  of 
communion  as  calculated  to  promote  much  spirituality ;  but  can 
easily  suppose,  what  often  happens,  that  men,  while  gazing  on, 
admiring,  and  adjusting  the  scaffolding,  forget  the  building.  I 
shall  cheerfully  bid  every  minister  of  Christ  God  speed,  and 
hope  our  pulpits  shall  never  be  shut  against  any  who  teach  the 
apostles^  doctrine.  Agreeably  to  our  rules,  I  shall  gladly  receive, 
as  an  occasional  communicant,  every  brother  in  Christ,  whether 
he  be  of  the  Establishment,  or  of  any  other  denomination  of 
Christians.  I  shall  endeavour  to  point  out  to  parents,  children, 
subjects,  and  others,  their  respective  duties,  and  ever  to  maintain 
the  necessary  connexion  of  a  knqjv'ledge  and  belief  of  the  truth 
with  purity  and  holiness.  Finally,  as  it  is  ])roposcd  that  a 
tabernacle  should  be  united  with  the  Church,  I  shall  study  to 
get  supplies  of  such  ministers  as  may  be  most  calculated  to 
rouse  the  careless,  and  edify  believers.     This  will,  of  course. 


ORDINATION    SERVICE.  241 

afford  me  time  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  highways  and 
hedges,  which,  I  trust,  I  shall  gladly  embmce,  testifying  to  all 
repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
I  lay  my  account  with  trials  and  difficulties  in  the  undertakings 
but  would  desire  to  commit  myself  in  well-doing  to  the  (rod 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  pray  that,  with 
all  boldness,  I  may  speak  his  word  with  success.  Such  are 
some  of  the  important  duties  to  which  I  think  myself  called. 
While  I  would  consider  myself  bound  to  spend  and  be  spent 
for  Jesus,  that  I  might  win  souls,  I  would  remember  that  a 
special  relation  subsists  between  me  and  the  Church  now 
present.  I  would  willingly  account  myself  their  servant,  for 
Jesus^  sake.  I  would  crave  their  counsel,  their  love,  and  their 
prayers.  I  would  put  them. in  mind  of  the  apostle^s  advice 
to  the  Church  at  Colosse,  that  they  should  say  to  their  minister, 
in  a  spirit  of  love.  Take  heed  to  the  ministry  that  thou  hast 
received  (voia  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfil  it.  After  what  I  have 
said,  I  confess  my  unfitness  for  the  work,  and  request  the 
earnest  prayers  of  my  brethren  in  Christ,  that  I  may  find  the 
grace  of  Jesus  and  his  strength  sufficient  for  me." 

The  narrative  in  the  "  Missionary  Magazine  '^  proceeds : — 

"  Having  heard  these  full  and  edifying  answers  from  Mr.  Haldane,  Mr. 
Garie  turned  to  the  Church,  who  were  all  seated  round  the  pulpit,  and 
asked  an  account  of  the  steps  they  had  taken  in  order  to  establish  a 
pastoral  relation  between  Mr.  Haldane  and  themselves.  Mr.  Aikman, 
one  of  the  members,  having  been  appointed  by  the  Church  to  answer  this 
question,  in  the  name  of  his  brethren,  rose,  and  stated.  That  it  had  long  been 
the  desire  of  several  serious  persons  in  this  place,  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
Christian  fellowship  on  a  scriptural  plan,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  avoid 
that  contracted  spirit,  which  would  exclude  from  the  pulpit,  or  from 
occasional  communion,  any  faithful  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  or  sincere 
lover  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;  that  some  time  ago,  a  number  of  the  members 
present  had,  after  frequent  prayer  and  conference,  agreed  upon  certain 
regulations,  which  appeared  to  them  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God ;  and 
had  thereupon  formed  themselves  into  a  Church,  by  solemn  prayer ;  giving 
themselves  to  the  Lord,  and  to  one  another,  to  walk  in  Christian  fellow- 
ship, and  to  observe  all  the  ordinances  appointed  by  Jesus  Christ  ,*  that 
they  then  proceeded  to  the  election  of  a  pastor,  and  had  unanimously 

R 


242  ORDINATION    SERVICE. 

chosen  Mr.  James  Haldane,  one  of  their  number,  to  that  office,  and 
appointed  his  ordination  to  take  place  on  that  day,  the  3d  of  February. 

"  Mr.  Garie  then  addressed  the  Church  again,  and  desired  that  if  they 
still  adhered  to  their  choice  of  Mr.  Haldane,  and  their  desire  that  he 
■hould  be  their  pastor,  they  should  now  signify  that  desire,  by  holding  up 
their  right  hand.  This  being  accordingly  done  by  the  members,  Mr. 
Garie  asked  Mr.  Haldane,  after  what  he  had  heard  and  seen  of  the  desire 
of  his  brethren  respecting  him,  whether  he  would  now  finally  declare  his 
acceptance  of  their  call  ?  This  question  being  answered  by  Mr.  Haldane 
in  the  affirmative,  Mr.  Ewing  gave  out  Psalm  cxxxii.  12,  17,  while  Mr. 
Garie  descended  from  the  pulpit,  in  order  to  engage  in  the  ordination 
prayer.  Mr.  Haldane  was  then  solemnly  set  apart  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  and  to  the  pastoral  office  in  that  church,  by  prayer  and  imposi- 
tion oi  hands. 

"  After  prayer,  and  giving  Mr.  Haldane  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  Mr. 
Garie  gave  out  the  following  hymn,  entitled  *  The  People's  Prayer  for  their 
Minister :' — 

"  1  With  heavenly  power,  0  Lord,  defend 
Him  whom  we  now  to  thee  commend ; 
His  person  bless,  his  soul  secure, 
And  make  him  to  the  end  endure. 

**  2  Gird  him  with  all  sufficient  grace, 
Direct  his  feet  in  paths  of  peace ; 
Thy  truth  and  faithfulness  fulfil. 
And  help  him  to  obey  thy  will. 

"  3  Before  him  thy  protection  send ; 
0  love  him,  save  him  to  the  end ! 
Nor  lot  him  as  thy  pilgrim  rove. 
Without  the  convoy  of  thy  love. 

"  4  Enlarge,  inflame,  and  fill  his  heart, 
In  him  thy  mighty  power  exert ; 
That  thousands  yet  unborn  may  praise. 
The  wonders  of  redeeming  grace ! 

*'  During  the  singing  of  this  hymn,  Mr.  Ewing  went  to  the  pulpit,  and, 
after  prayer,  preached  a  sermon  from  1  Peter  v.  1 — 4,  *The  elders  which  are 
among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  elder,  and  a  witness  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ,  and  also  a  partaker  of  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed :  Feed 
the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the  oversight  thereof,  not  by 
constraint,  but  willingly;  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind; 
Neither  as  being  lords  over  God*s  heritage ;  but  being  ensamples  to  the 
flock.    And  when  the  chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,  ye  shall  receive  a 


ORDINATION    SERVICE.  248 

erown  of  gloiy,  that  fadeth  not  away/  At  the  conclusion  of  this  sermon, 
he  addressed  himself  particularly  to  the  pastor,  to  the  church,  and  to  the 
congregation ;  and  then  closed  the  service  in  the  usual  manner.  After 
the  last  prayer,  he  gave  out  three  verses  of  the  fiftieth  hymn  of  the  second 
book  of  the  Olney  Hymns,  entitled  *  A  Prayer  for  Ministers.' 

"  The  service  lasted  near  five  hours,  during  all  which  time  a  crowded 
audience  showed  the  deepest  attention,  and  some  seemed  much  affected. 
We  hope  this  was  a  token  for  good,  and  the  beginning  of  many  happy 
days  to  this  new  formed  Church,  while  it  may,  perhaps,  have  been  the 
blessed  occasion  of  awakening  some  who  may  yet  be  added  to  it." 

Mr.  James  Haldane  never  aspired  to  be  the  leader  of  a  sect.  His 
ambition  was  of  a  higher  and  holier  order.  But  he  was  the  first 
minister  of  the  first  church  formed  amongst  the  new  Congrega- 
tionalist  Churches  of  Scotland.  The  biographer  of  Mr.  Ewing^ 
who  has  written  her  fathei^^s  Life  with  filial  affection^  bears  the 
following  pleasing  and  truthful  testimony,  derived  from  contem- 
poraries, as  to  '^  the  state  of  things  in  Edinburgh,  particularly  in 
connexion  wiih  the  congregation  and  services  of  the  Circus  :'* — 

"  With  many  souls  it  was  the  season  of  first  love ;  and  even  those  who 
had  long  known  the  grace  of  God  in  truth,  looked  back  to  it  ever  after,  as 
a  time  of  life  from  the  dead.  There  was  a  fervour  of  spirit ;  a  love  to 
each  other  for  the  truth's  sake ;  a  delight  in  all  the  ordinances  of  the 
Gospel,  which  makes  it  resemble  more  perhaps  the  Pentecostal  period 
in  Jerusalem,  than  any  that  has  succeeded  it.  The  fear  of  singularity, 
and  the  love  of  the  world,  seemed  alike  for  the  time  to  have  lost  their 
power.  The  work  of  God  in  seeking  the  conversion  of  sinners,  was  made 
the  business  of  life."  ..."  The  multitudes,  also,  who  crowded  to  the  Circus, 
the  zeal  and  activity  of  those  engaged  in  Sabbath-schools,  and  various 
other  useful  institutions ;  the  intelligence  received  from  others,  sent  forth 
to  more  distant  labours :  all  these  were  animating  in  the  highest  degree. 
They  furnish  in  abundance  topics  for  the  most  improving  conversation, 
while  they  became  alike  the  source  of  thanksgiving  and  encouragement  to 
prayer."  ...  "To  warn,  to  beseech,  or  to  exhort  their  fellow-sinners,  was  a 
spontaneous,  delightful  employment ;  to  describe  the  blessedness  of  *  peace 
with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  was  but  to  express  the  overflow- 
ings of  their  actual  experience.  And  to*  crown  all,  they  were  at  peace 
among  themselves." — Life  of  Greville  Hwinp,  p.  186. 

It  would  be  delightful  to  linger  over  the  memory  of  '^thoee 
times  of  refreshing,''of  which  the  recollection  was  so  long  cherished 
by  those  associated  with  the  Edinburgh  Circus.     As  yet  them 

R  2 


244  REV.  CIUIISTOPHER   ANDERSON. 

were  no  discussions  about  the  order  of  primitive  churches,  about 
their  discipline,  about  modes  of  baptism,  or  those  other  perplex- 
ing questions,  which  afterwards  necessarily  arose,  and  seiTed  to 
divert  the  force  of  that  artillery,  which  was  at  first  exclusively 
concentrated  against  the  strongholds  of  Satan.  There  are  now 
but  few  survivors  to  speak  from  personal  remembrance  of  that 
memorable  season.  There  is  but  one  testimony,  borne  both  by 
tile  living  and  the  dead,  as  to  the  fervour  of  devotion  and  the 
overflowing  of  Christian  love,  which  marked  the  period.  These 
were  not  the  characteristics  of  a  few  fleeting  weeks  or  months. 
They  continued,  more  or  less,  for  years,  and  the  description  of 
them  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  those  who  were  present  at 
the  commemoration  of  Mn  J.  A.  Haldane's  Jubilee,  in  1849, 
as  given  by  the  late  Rev.  Christopher  Anderson.  That  venerable 
minister,  who  has  now  gone  to  his  rest,  then  stated  that  numbers 
were  awakened  or  converted  by  almost  every  sermon,  whilst  even 
those  who  had  themselves  known  the  truth,  looked  back  to  the 
period  as  one  of  revival  from  spiritual  deadness  to  a  quickening 
life.  The  Circus  first,  and  then  the  Taberaacle,  were  crowded 
by  thronging  multitudes,  hanging  upon  the  preacher^s  Ups, 
joining  with  earnestness  in  the  prayera,  singing  the  praises  of 
the  Lord  with  their  whole  hearts,  remaining  during  long  semces 
without  wearying,  and  retiring  in  solemn  silence,  afraid,  as  it 
were,  to  desecrate  the  place  where  the  Lord  himself  was  present, 
and  that  presence  was  felt.  Those  tokens  of  a  work  of  grace, 
extended  far  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  a  sectarian  inclosure. 
The  impulse  vibrated  throughout  Scotland,  and  served  to  reani- 
mate the  expiring  flame  of  that  noble  Church,  whose  chosen 
emblem  is  still  the  bush  that  burned,  but  never  is  consumed. 

Immediately  after  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  agreed  to  officiate  in 
Edinburgh,  his  brother  proceeding  on  his  original  plan,  next 
purchased  the  Circus  in  Jamaica-street,  Glasgow,  at  a  cost  of 
3000/.,  and  converted  it  into  a  Tabernacle  for  a  congregation,  of 
which  Mr.  Ewing  was  to  be  the  pastor.  From  Glasgow,  Mr. 
Haldane,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Ewing,  proceeded  to  Stirling,  to 
propose  to  Mr.  Innes  the  arrangement  with  regard  to  Dundee. 
Mr.  Innes  did  not,  at  once,  see  it  to  be  his  duty  to  leave  the 


GLASGOW    CIRCUS.  245 

Church  of  Scotland,  but  having  been  ordered,  by  a  majority  of 
the  General  Assembly  to  assist,  personally,  in  the  ordination  of  a 
minister,  who  was  a  profane  swearer,  and  charged  as  such  in 
open  congregation,  he  left  the  communion  in  which  he  could  no 
longer  continue  with  a  good  conscience,  and  availed  himself  of 
the  offer  made  by  Mr.  Haldane,  although  the  exchange  involved 
not  only  prospective  but  immediate  pecuniary  loss. 

"  The  Tabernacle  of  Glasgow,^'  says  Mr.  Haldane,  ^'  was  to 
be  put  into  Mr.  E wing's  hands  during  his  incumbency.  I 
promised  to  execute  a  deed  for  this  purpose,  and  to  fix  his 
salary  at  200/.  a  year,  to  arise  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  house. 
In  order  to  make  this  salary  the  more  secure,  I  was  to  become 
bound,  in  case  of  a  short-coming,  to  pay  the  pew  duty,  or 
ground  rent,  the  ordinary  expenses,  and  the  necessary  repaurs. 
On  the  Ist  of  December,  after  all  the  foregoing  business  was 
arranged,  Mr.  Ewing  left  Lady  Glenorchy's  Chapel,  and  began, 
January  2d,  to  teach  the  first  class  of  students.  In  May,  1799, 
he  removed  to  Glasgow,  and,  in  the  month  of  July  following, 
I  delivered  to  him  the  above-mentioned  deed.'*  It  is  necessary 
to  add,  that  the  surplus  to  arise  from  the  Tabernacles  at  Glasgow 
and  Dundee  was  not  to  belong  to  Mr.  Haldane,  but  to  be 
applied  to  the  training  and  education  of  young  men  for  the 
ministry  of  the  Gospel  in  Scotland,  under  the  superintendence 
of  the  two  brothers,  in  unison  with  Mr.  Innes  and  Mr.  Ewing. 
As  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  stood  in  need  of  no  salary,  the  whole  of 
the  income  of  the  Edinburgh  Tabernacle,  after  payment  of 
expenses,  was  devoted  to  the  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel. 

It  was  Mr.  Haldane's  intention  to  have  established  his  first 
seminary  at  Gosport;  an  intention  which,  had  it  been  accom* 
plished,  would  have  been  far  more  agreeable  to  his  own  feelings 
and  conducive  to  Mr.  Ewing's  future  usefulness  and  comfort. 
In  the  prospect  of  the  Mission  to  India,  Dr.  Bogue,  in  his  ]mvate 
correspondence,  stated,  that  he  considered  his  own  long  acquaint- 
ance  and  friendship  with  its  chief,  as  indispensable  to  the  stability 
of  the  plan.  Mr.  Haldane  had,  from  boyhood,  been  famiUar  with 
Dr.  Bogue,  and  regarded  the  veteran  champion  of  the  Gospel 


246  REV.    DR.    BOGIE. 

almost  with  filial  affection.  The  friendship  thus  begun  was 
cemented  by  Christian  principle,  and  never  was  interioipted. 
Both  were  men  of  ardent  mind,  shrewd  observation,  strong 
intellect,  and  determined  will.  Each  was  conscious  of  his  own 
strength,  remarkable  for  self-reliance,  confidence  in  his  own 
opinion,  and  a  disposition  rather  to  lead  than  to  follow.  But 
each  was  imbued  with  much,  also,  that  was  kind  and  gentle,  as 
well  as  with  a  feeling  of  mutual  respect,  esteem,  and  forbearance. 
There  was  also  on  both  sides  great  command  of  temper,  and  a 
tact  which  teaches  a  wise  man  how  to  maintain  his  independ- 
ence, without  showing  jealousy  lest  it  should  be  unintentionally 
assailed.  Mr.  Haldane  knew  the  points,  in  regard  to  which 
Dr.  Bogue^s  scholastic  theology  and  other  attainments  gave  him 
an  advantage.  But  Dr.  Bogue  also  knew  the  strength  of  his 
younger  friend,  as  well  as  Mr.  Haldane's  superior  acquaintance 
with  the  world,  and  his  advantages  of  position.  There,  con- 
sequently, was  no  jealousy  between  them,  but,  acting  towards 
each  other  in  the  spirit  of  mutual  esteem  and  Christian  forbear- 
ance, they  were  enabled  to  journey  on  to  the  close  of  life,  exhi- 
biting, in  relation  to  each  other,  how  good  men  can  even  differ 
in  opinion  and  still  preserve,  unbroken,  the  ties  of  fiiendship. 

It  was,  however,  ordered,  that  the  young  men  should  not  go 
to  Gosport.  During  the  visit  made  to  Glasgow  and  Stirling  for 
the  purpose  of  completing  the  arrangements  about  the  Taber- 
nacles, it  was  represented  by  Mr.  Garie,  and,  with  greater  force, 
by  Mr.  Swing,  that  if  the  students  were  sent  to  Hampshire, 
the  friends  of  the  new  movement  in  Scotland  would  be  exposed 
to  that  obloquy  which  attached  to  the  exaggerated  representa- 
tions made  of  Dr.  Bogue^s  liberal  politics.  Politics  wei-e  the 
bugbear  of  the  age;  Mr.  Haldane^s  had  been  attacked.  Mr. 
Ewing  was  then  without  occupation,  and  the  Glasgow  circus 
could  not  be  opened  for  six  months.  The  objections  .to  Dr. 
Bogue  were  plausible,  and,  with  less  than  his  usual  caution, 
Mr.  Haldane  yielded  a  decided,  though  reluctant,  consent  to 
the  remonstrances  of  his  two  fellow-travellers ;  and  an  immediate 
arrangement  as  to  the  students  was  deemed  so  urgent,  that  he 
agreed  to  place  the  first  class  under  Mr.  Ewing  before  he  had 


MR.  EWING    SUBSTITUTED    FOR   DR.  BOGUE.         247 

the  opportunity  of  even  consulting  his  brother.  It  was  unfor- 
tunate^ both  for  Mr.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Ewing,  who  were  not  at 
all  calculated  for  such  mutual  co-operation.  If  anything  were 
wanted  to  enhance  the  character  of  Dr.  Bogue,  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact^  that^  although  conscious  of  his  own  superior  scholar- 
ship and  experience^  and  by  no  means  acquiescing  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  reasons  which  dictated  this  change  of  purpose,  he  nobly 
merged  all  idea  of  personal  advantage  in  the  importance  of  the 
sacred  object  which  both  had  at  heart.  Mr.  Haldane  did,  how- 
ever, endeavour  to  make  compensation  for  the  disappointment, 
by  procuring  the  institution  of  another  class  for  students,  to  be 
educated  under  his  venerable  friend,  for  the  ministry  in  England. 
Partly  through  his  influence,  and  partly  by  his  pecuniary  aid, 
ten  young  men  were  placed  under  the  tuition  of  Dr.  Bogue, 
whose  own  future  character  and  usefulness,  as  the  tutor  of  the 
London  Missionary  Seminary,  proved  a  sufficient  refutation  of 
the  objections  with  which  he  was  at  first  so  often  assailed. 
When  the  name  of  the  Rev.  John  Angell  James,  of  Birmingham, 
is  mentioned  as  one  numbered  amongst  those  whom  Dr.  Bogue 
always  termed  ''Mr.  Haldane^s  students,^'  at  Gosport,  it  will 
be  seen  that  Dr.  Bogue's  political  disqualifications  were  more 
imaginary  than  real.  Of  the  Scotch  students,  the  first  class 
was  placed  under  Mr.  Ewing's  care,  in  Edinburgh,  within  a 
month  after  he  ceased  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land and  assistant  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jones.  It  commenced  with 
twenty-four  (according  to  Mr.  Campbell,  afterwards  increased 
to  about  thirty),  all  of  these  being  Presbyterians,  and  none 
Congregationalists,  in  sentiment.  ''  Some  of  us,^^  says  Mr. 
Munro,  of  Knockando,  ''belonged  to  the  National  Establish- 
ment, others  to  the  Relief,  and  not  a  few  were  Burghers  and 
Anti-burghers.  The  only  qualifications  for  admission  to  the 
seminary  were,  genuine  piety,  talents  susceptible  of  cultivation, 
and  a  desire  to  be  useful  to  our  fellow-sinners  by  preaching  and 
teaching  the  words  of  eternal  life.  The  grand  object  proposed 
by  the  zealous  originators  ^  of  the  scheme  was,  to  qualify  pious 

•  The  worthy  writer  of  the  above  extracts,  in  using  the  word  "  ortgina- 
torSf^'  seems  to  imply  that  the  origin  of  this  benevolent  scheme  was  to  be 


248  THE    FIRST    CLASS    AT    GLASGOW. 

young  men  for  going  out  literally  to  the  highways  and  hedges 
to  preach  the  Gospel,  unconnected  with  the  peculiarities  of  any 
denomination/'  "  Such/'  continues  Mr.  Munro,  "  were  the 
materials  placed  under  Mr.  Ewing's  tuition;''  but  he  adds, 
with  great  naivete,  "  before  the  termination  of  our  prescribed 
course  of  study,  we  found  ourselves  decided  and  intelligent 
Congregationalists.'^ 

To  this  class  the  excellent  Mr.  Cowie,  of  Iluntly,  sent  "  four 
of  his  spiritual  children."  One  of  the  first  students  was  the 
Bev.  Mr.  Maclay,  who  went  out  as  a  missionary  to  America, 
and  became  a  very  useful  and  popular  Baptist  minister  in  New 
York.  His  eldest  son  is  an  eminent  lawyer  and  Member  of 
Congress  in  the  United  States. 

The  students  were  all  maintained  at  Mr.  Haldane's  expense, 
according  to  a  scale  for  each  married  and  unmarried  student, 
drawn  up  at  the  time  by  those  well  acquainted  with  such 
matters  at  Gospoii;  and  Rotherham.  Before  their  admission 
they  underwent  a  strict  examination  as  to  their  abihties  and 
qualifications.  But,  next  to  the  importance  of  engaging  in  the 
work  on  purely  Christian  principles,  nothing  was  more  strongly 
impressed  upon  their  minds,  than  the  assurance  that  there  was 
no  design  to  elevate  them  in  their  social  position;  that  it  was 
not  intended  to  make  gentlemen  of  such  among  them  as  were 
mechanics,  but  catechists  or  preachers;  and  that,  after  theii* 
term  of  study  was  over,  they  must  not  look  to  their  patron  for 
support,  but  to  their  own  exertions  and  the  leadings  of  Provi- 
dence. That  this  caution  was  needful  must  appear  obvious  to 
every  observer  of  the  ways  of  the  world,  and  Mr.  llaldane  after- 
attributed  to  several.  Mr.  Haldane  never  looked  for  human  applause,  or 
for  any  earthly  reward,  and  therefore  was  not  disappointed  when  his 
benevolence  was  either  overlooked  or  unappreciated  by  those  who  expe- 
rienced it.  But  it  is  due  to  his  memory  to  state,  that  he  was  the  sole 
originator  of  these  academies.  It  was  by  him  alone  that  the  idea  was  first 
conceived,  when  away  from  Scotland.  It  was  through  his  exclusive 
liberality  that  it  was  carried  out.  But  for  him  years  might  have  elapsed 
before  it  would  have  been  attempted.  And,  when  his  bounty  ceased  to 
flow  in  this  direction,  it  was  long  before  anything  systematic  was  done  in 
the  same  way  by  the  Congregational  Union. 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  AFRICAN  CHILDREN.      249 

wards  found  that  all  his  munificence  was  insufficient  to  protect 
him  from  the  charge  of  covetousness.  The  Dundee  Tabernacle 
was  not  opened  till  the  19th  of  October,  1800;  but,  during  the 
interval,  Mr.  Haldanc  collected  another  class  of  missionaiy 
students  and  catechists,  whom  he  placed  under  Dr.  Innes, 
intending  that  these  should  also  go  to  Glasgow  to  be  instructed 
by  Mr.  Ewing  for  fifteen  additional  months.  Their  tutor,  the 
venerable  Dr.  Innes,  thus  writes :  "  ITie  second  class  was  placed 
under  my  care  for  the  first  year,  at  Dundee,  in  which  the  number 
was  about  forty,  Tliis  class  was  transferred,  in  the  second 
year  of  their  studies,  to  Mr.  Ewing,  at  Glasgow.  The  third 
class  was  also,  for  the  first  year,  under  my  care.  The  number 
was  twenty-two.  This  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  singularly 
liberal,  I  would  say,  magnificent  scale,  on  which  Mr.  Haldane 
undertook  to  promote  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  as  all  of 
these  students  were  supported  entirely  at  his  own  expense/' 

Dr*  Innes  adds,  ^'  In  the  Tabernacle  at  Dundee  it  was  pro- 
posed, that  whilst  the  first  part  of  the  proceeds,  to  a  certain 
amount,  should  go  to  the  minister,  yet  the  surplus,  if  any, 
should  be  devoted  to  the  education  of  young  men  for  the 
ministry.  On  one  or  two  occasions  the  funds  of  the  Tabernacle 
fell  somewhat  short  of  the  amount  specified,  and  I  think  it  due 
to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Haldane  to  say,  that  that  deficiency, 
though  not  a  part  of  our  agreement,  he  made  up.'' 


Whilst  these  arrangements  were  in  progress  Mr.  Macaulay 
aiTived  in  England,  bringing  with  him  twenty-four  African 
children.     The  following  is  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Campbell : — 

"  At  length,"  says  Mr.  Campbell,  writing  of  the  month  of  June,  1799, 
'*  a  letter  reached  me  one  Monday  morning,  from  Governor  Macaulay^ 
dated  Portsmouth,  informing  me  of  his  arrival  there,  and  that  he  had 
twenty  boys  and  four  girls  on  board ;  and  he  expected  that,  by  the  time 
the  vessel  got  round  to  London,  I  should  be  there  to  take  them  off  his 
hands.  I  hastened  with  this  intelligence  to  Mr.  Haldane.  In  thirty 
hours  after  receiving  the  information  of  the  children's  arrival,  I  found 
m}'self  seated  in  the  London  mail-coach,  galloping  to  the  south. 


250  AFRICAN    CHILDREN. 

"  I  found  that  the  African  children  had  arrived  a  few  days  before  me, 
and  were  lodging  in  a  house  behind  a  tavern  at  Clapham,  where  I  soon 
visited  them,  and  found  there  were  twcnt}'  boys  and  four  girls,  all  jet  black, 
cheerful  and  happy.  I  walked  with  them  across  the  Common  to  Mr. 
Henry  Thornton's.  While  going  along,  they  scattered,  chased  and  pushed 
each  other,  diverting  themselves  in  the  same  way  as  a  similar  number  of 
English  boys  would  have  done.  On  reaching  Mr.  Thornton's  gate  I 
counted  their  number,  and  found,  as  was  uniformly  the  case  afterwards  on 
similar  occasions,  some  were  missing.  It  arose  from  companies  dining  in 
the  neighbouring  mansions,  astonished  to  see  a  cloud  of  young  Africans, 
■ending  out  their  men-servants  to  try  and  catch  some  of  them,  and  bring 
them  before  them.  When  they  observed  me  returning  in  search  of  the 
strayed,  they  always  sent  servants  with  them  to  meet  me.  People  being 
pleased  to  look  at  them  as  curiosities,  they  fancied  all  were  their  friends, 
and  most  willingly  went  with  any  who  asked  tliem. 

"  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  late  Joseph  Hardcastle,  of  whom 
I  was  to  take  coimsel  in  anything  relating  to  the  Africans,  and  we  almost 
settled  for  their  passage  to  Edinburgh  in  a  Leith  smack.  It  was  well  we 
had  not  finished  the  bargain,  for  the  next  time  I  met  Messrs.  Thornton 
and  Macaulay,  I  found  they  had  learned  that  the  small-pox  was  in  Clap- 
ham,  which  rendered  it  indispensably  necessary  to  have  the  children  all 
inoculated,  lest  they  should  take  it  when  on  board  of  ship,  and  their 
lives  be  lost.  Such  a  detention  in  London  was  very  unexpected  by  me, 
but  Mr.  Hardcastle  and  I  both  saw  the  importance  of  the  measure  recom- 
mended ;  wherefore  I  consented  to  wait  till  they  should  recover  from  the 
inoculation.  They  were  soon  all  received  into  the  Small-pox  Hospital  at 
St  Pancras." 

It  is  to  Mr.  Macaulay^s  characteristic  caution  that  the  inocula- 
tion of  the  children  is  to  be  attributed.  He  had  mentioned 
inoculation  to  their  parents,  through  ignorance  of  the  superior 
safety  of  vaccination,  and  he  preferred  running  a  considerable 
risk,  of  which  he  had  given  notice,  to  a  much  smaller  one,  which 
he  had  not  mentioned.  But,  in  truth,  the  delay  in  sending 
down  the  children  to  Edinburgh  proved  to  have  in  it  something 
more  diplomatic  than  a  dread  of  the  small-pox.  Mr.  Macaulay 
had  no  doubt  become  alarmed  at  the  ecclesiastical  aspect  of 
affairs  in  Edinburgh,  and  nvdshed  to  detain  the  children  at  Clap- 
ham.  He  therefore  objected  to  their  education  being  under  Mr. 
Haldane's  sole  management.  The  objection  might,  under  the 
circumstances,  have  appeared  to  some  equitable.  Not  so  the 
attempt  to  fix  Mr.  Haldane  with  the  sole  expense.    Mr.  Macaulay 


MR.  haldane's  letter.  251 

evidently  mistook  the  character  of  Mr.  Ualdane^  who  was  not 
simply  an  amiable  philanthro{)ist^  but  a  cool  reasoner  and  a 
shrewd  man  of  business.  On  the  first  intimation  of  a  design  so 
unceremoniously  to  take  the  education  of  the  children  out  of  his 
hands^  whilst  he  was  expected  to  pay  the  entire  cost^  he  thua 
wrote  to  Mr.  Campbell,  with  his  usual  decision : — 

'*  As  to  the  other  proposal,  I  confess  I  am  not  a  little  surprised  at  it. 
The  gentlemen  were  surely  not  exercising  their  usual  consideration  when 
they  made  it.  It  seems  proper,  however,  distinctly  to  state,  what  might 
have  been  understood,  that  I  shall  intrust  no  part  of  the  children  to  any 
but  those  who  act  under  me,  and  that  this  was  my  intention,  as  you  know, 
from  the  first,  when,  upon  the  promise  of  your  assistance,  I  commissioned 
you  to  write  for  them  to  Africa.  Mr.  Macaulay,  in  none  of  his  letters, 
expressed  the  smallest  expectation  of  any  other  result  Indeed,  this 
seems  only  reasonable,  when  I  am  to  be  at  the  sole  expense  of  their  educa- 
tion in  Britain.  ...  I  consider  this  a  very  solemn  and  important  charge, 
and  hope  the  Lord  will  enable  me  to  act  to  those  children,  while  placed, 
in  the  course  of  His  providence,  under  my  care,  with  all  the  regard,  solici- 
tude, and  affection  which  I  could  exercise  towards  my  own." 

Mr.  Macaulay  was  too  sagacious  not  to  discover,  very  shortly, 
the  mistake  he  had  made  in  trying  to  make  Mr.  Haldane  a 
cypher  in  the  management  of  the  children,  for  whom,  according 
to  the  new  plan,  he  was  to  have  the  privilege  of  paying  a  sum 
estimated  at  7000/.  But  he  did  what  he  could  to  retain  the 
children,  and  yet  secure  the  aid  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  purse.  A 
modified  proposal  was  therefore  made,  both  as  to  expense  and 
management.  But  although  Mr.  Haldane  distinctly  stated  that 
he  had  always  intended  to  advise  with  others,  and  ^^  especially 
with  Mr.  Macaulay,^^  he  peremptorily  declined  coming  under 
any  such  engagement  as  a  matter  of  bargain. 

In  a  letter,  dated  June  18,  1799,  he  thus  expresses  his 
feelings : — 

"  I  must  say  that  this  is  a  very  extraordinary  business.  However,  I  am 
satisfied.  The  Lord  seems  to  intend  a  different  plan  for  the  childreiL 
His  will  be  done !  I  am  sure  my  intentions  were  right  in  the  business. 
Conscientiously,  and  to  the  best  of  my  power,  it  was  my  resolution, 
through  His  grace,  to  educate  these  children,  and  tenderly  to  have  cared 
for  them. 

'^  At  to  Mr.  Macaulay  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  Company,  who  knew 


252  AFRICAN    CHILDRExV. 

the  mrhole  for  nearly  eighteen  months,  and  never  even  hinted  what  they 
now  desire,  till  after  the  children  were  in  England  and  you  in  London,  I 
think  it  would  be  much  better  for  them  to  say,  in  plain  terms,  that  they 
have  altered  their  minds,  than  to  make  such  proposals.  That  I  should  be 
at  the  whole  or  greatest  part  of  the  expense,  and  be  allowed  to  be  an  over- 
seer under  a  Committee,  and  this  under  another  in  London,  or  that  I 
should  act,  according  to  Mr.  Macaulay*s  undefined  plan,  ^  in  concert  with 
other  gentlemen,  they  adding  to  my  subscription  what  was  deficient,  and 
I  having  my  due  weight  in  directing,*  &c.,  are  proposals  singular  in  the 
extreme,  which  now  come  too  late,  and  which,  if  they  were  in  my  circum- 
stances, they  would  not  themselves  agree  to.  I  distinctly  meant,  from  the 
first,  that  I  should  have  the  sole  management^  and  in  consequence  pledged 
myself  to  the  sole  expense, 

"  Mr.  Thornton,  Mr.  Grant,  and  Mr.  Hardcastle  knew  this,  and  there 
was  time  enough  for  Mr,  Macaulay  to  have  known  it  too,  and  I  rather 
think  he  did  know,  from  your  letter  to  Sierra  Leone,  informing  him  that 
the  children  were  to  be  educated  at  Edinburgh,  from  funds  wholly  pro- 
Tided  there ;  and  if  he  had  entertained  any  suspicion,  he  should  have 
stated  his  objections  before  he  left  Africa,  and  inquired  more  minutely  into 
it  ...  But  it  is  needless  to  say  more  on  the  subject,  except  to  put  him 
right  in  one  particular.  Had  I  died,  the  burden  of  the  children  could  not 
have  fallen  on  the  Company,  but  funds  to  complete  their  education  would 
have  been  found  amply  provided  by  my  will.  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  and  Mr. 
Ewing,  to  whom  I  have  communicated  your  letters,  and  also  Mr. 
Macaula/s,  coincide  with  me  in  my  opinion  of  the  whole.** 

In  fact,  there  was  little  room  for  serious  difference  of  opinion 
amongst  candid  men,  and  Mr.  Macaulay  found  that  Mr. 
Haldane's  views  were  adopted  even  by  some  of  the  most  influen- 
tial Directors  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Company,  and  very  decidedly 
by  Mr.  Hardcastle,  one  of  the  leading  Directors,  to  whom  Mr. 
Macaulay  at  that  time  considered  himself  under  personal  obliga- 
tions. Had  it  been  otherwise,  the  attempt  to  restrict  Mr. 
Haldane's  powers  to  the  privilege  of  continuing  to  pay,  whilst  he 
ceased  to  direct,  would  assuredly  have  failed ;  for  he  finally  wrote 
to  Mr.  Campbell,  in  most  distinct  tenns,  warning  him  not  to 
undertake  the  care  of  the  children  without  a  written  avowal  on 
the  part  of  the  ex-Governor,  that  the  manner  and  direction  of 
the  children's  education  were  to  be  free  from  any  control  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Macaulay  or  the  Company.  "  We  will  not,''  says 
Mr.  Haldane,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Macaulay,  ^^  we  will  not  so  mix 


AFRICAN    CHILDREN.  .  253 

the  work.  Either  you  or  I  shall  have  the  whole  charge."  For 
fifteen  months  Mr.  Haldane  had  been  allowed  to  act,  on  the 
assumption  that  he  was  to  be  solely  responsible.  Under  this 
impression,  he  had  taken  the  lease  of  a  house  in  the  King's 
Park,  Edinburgh,  afterwards  used  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Asylum,  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  immortalized  in  his  Heart 
of  Mid-Lothian  as  that  of  "  the  Laird  of  Dumbiedykes.^'  He 
had  painted  it,  furnished  it,  and  made  all  the  other  arrange- 
m^ts  needful  for  the  comfortable  reception  of  the  children,  who 
were  to  be  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Campbell,  whose 
judgment  and  prudence  were  held  in  such  esteem  that  Mr. 
Macaulay  had  himself  entrusted  to  him  the  guardianship  of  his 
four  unmarried  sisters.  If  there  had  been  a  mistake  at  the 
beginning,  it  was  too  late  to  remedy  it,  except  by  a  frank  avowal 
of  the  error,  and  an  offer  to  exonerate  Mr.  Haldane  from  all 
past  or  future  charges.  But  funds  were  at  last  found  by  the 
Company,  and  the  friends  of  Mr.  Wilberforce  and  Mr.  Thornton, 
for  the  education  of  the  children ;  and  although  they  were  not 
taught  as  Mr.  Haldane  had  advised,  and  more  attention  was 
paid  to  their  secular  than  religious  education,  yet  some  good  was 
accomplished.  They  carried  out  with  them  to  Africa  many  of 
the  arts  of  civilized  life.  Whilst  at  Clapham,  they  convinced 
Mr.  Pitt  that  the  African  race  is  not  naturally  inferior  to  the 
European.  It  may  also  be  mentioned,  to  the  credit  of  Mr. 
Macaulay,  that  in  after  years,  both  in  public  and  private,  he 
expressed  his  respect  for  the  character  and  talents  of  Mr.  Hal- 
dane. One  of  his  sisters  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the 
Church,  under  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  pastoral  care,  and  was  the 
occasion  of  frequent  communication  with  Mr.  Macaulay.  Mr. 
Campbell's  biographer,  in  dismissing  the  subject  of  the  African 
children,  observes  :  "  But  although  Mr.  Campbell's  African 
School,  like  Whitfield's  Orphan  School,  came  to  nothing,  it 
pledged  his  own  heart  to  Africa,  and  revealed  in  his  friend,  Mr. 
Robert  Haldane,  a  depth  of  benevolence  which  he  never  forgot 
nor  ceased  to  imitate  in  his  subsequent  zeal  for  Africa." 


CHAPTER  XL 

OPPOSITION  TO  THE  NEW  PLANS— PASTORAL  ADMONITION- 
OPPOSITION  OP  BELIEF  CHURCH,  AND  OP  THE  ANTI- 
BURGHERS— DEPOSITION  OP  THE  REV.  GEORGE  COWIE, 
OP  HUNTLY,  POR  ATTENDING  PREACHING  BY  MR.  J.  A. 
HALDANE  AND  MR.  HILL— CHARACTER  OP  MR.  COWIE— 
HIS  TESTIMONY  TO  MR.  JAMES  HALDANE— SECOND  TOUR 
TO  THE  NORTH ;  JOINED  BY  MR.  INNES  AND  MR.  AIRMAN 
—VISITS  THE  ORKNEYS  AND  SHETLANDS— PREACHES  AT 
FULAH,  THE  ULTIMA  THULE  OF  THE  ROMANS— RETURNS 
TO  CAITHNESS,  INVERNESS,  EDINBURGH. 

[1799.] 

The  visit  of  the  celebrated  Charles  Simeon^  of  Cambridge^  had, 
in  1796^  been  only  intended  as  a  tour  of  recreation.  Its  effects 
at  Moulin  had^  however^  considerably  discomposed  the  Moderates 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland^  many  of  whom  were  doing  the  work 
and  adopting  the  language  of  David  Hume  and  his  successors. 
Their  "  death-like  silence ''  and  their  ^'  dread  repose  "  had  been 
still  more  rudely  disturbed  the  following  year,  by  the  first  tour 
to  the  north  by  Mr.  Simeon's  companion  in  travel,  Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane,  in  company  with  Mr.  Aikman  and  Mr.  Rate.  But  the 
second  visit  of  Mr.  Simeon,  in  1798,  to  some  of  the  very  places 
where  Mr.  James  Haldane  had  already  produced  so  great  a  sen- 
sation, followed  as  that  visit  was  by  the  tour  of  Mr.  Rowland 
Hill,  and  free  strictures  of  his  Journal,  brought  matters  to  a 
crisis. 

For  a  long  time  the  leaders  of  the  Moderates  had  been  medi- 
tating a  blow  at  the  itinerants.  They  had  rejoiced  to  see  Mr. 
Simeon  excluded  from  the  Nonconformist  Episcopalian  Chapels, 
and  were  determined  that  the  Gospel  which  he  preached  should 
no  longer  find  a  refuge  in  the  pulpits  of  the  Established  Presby- 


PASTORAL    ADMONITION.  255 

terian  Church  of  Scotland.  The  Grcneral  Assembly  holds  its 
annual  sittings  in  May^  and  the  friends  of  the  Gospel  looked 
with  well-founded  alarm  on  its  convention  in  1799,  whilst  the 
muttering  of  the  coming  storm  did  not  prevent  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
and  his  companions  from  setting  out  on  a  new  tour,  and  one  more 
extended  than  ever. 

The  "  Edinburgh  Advertiser  '*  of  that  week  announces,  under 
the  head  of  Tuesday,  May  28,  1799,  "Overtures  from  the 
Synod  of  Aberdeen,  and  that  of  Angus  and  Meams,  respecting 
vagrant  teachers  and  Sunday-schools,  irreligion  and  anarchy.^' 
A  strange  medley  is  this  announcement,  and  in  our  days  ludi- 
crous ;  but  it  is  added :  "  The  Assembly  unanimously  agreed  to 
the  overtures,  and  prohibited  all  persons  from  preaching  in  any 
place  under  their  jurisdiction,  who  were  not  licensed  as  above ; 
and  also,  those  who  are  from  England,  or  any  other  place,  and 
who  had  not  first  been  educated  and  licensed  in  Scotland.  And 
resolved  that  a  pastoral  admonition  be  addressed  by  the  Assembly 
to  all  the  people  under  their  charge/^ 

The  declaratory  acts  of  the  Assembly  passed  on  this  occasion, 
the  one  against  "vagrant  teachers,^'  and  the  other  against 
unauthorized  teachers  of  Sabbath-schools,  were,  in  May,  1842, 
rescinded  by  the  unanimous  act  of  the  last  General  Assembly 
held  before  the  Disruption  in  1843.  Dr.  Cunningham,  who 
moved  the  overture,  spoke  of  it  as  "  eminently  discreditable  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland.^'  He  said,  "  It  was  passed  for  tem- 
porary purposes,  and  upon  motives  and  grounds  which,  he 
believed,  were  now  regarded  by  a  great  majority  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  as  of  the  most  erroneous  and  improper  kind,  and  as 
amoimting  to  nothing  less  than  a  hatred  to  the  cause  of  evan- 
gelical truth."  Another  noble  champion  of  the  Gospel,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Guthrie,  declared  that  he  looked  upon  the  Act  of  1799  "a« 
one  of  the  blackest  acts  the  Church  of  Scotland  ever  passed ; 
and  he  rejoiced  with  all  his  heart  that  such  an  overture  had 
been  made  as  that  introduced  by  Dr.  Cunningham.  The  Act 
was  passed  not  to  exclude  heresy  from  our  pulpits,  but  to  exclude 
truth.^^  Dr.  Candlish  added  the  weight  of  his  great  name  and 
character  to  this  condemnation,  and  remarked  that  it  was  notorious 


256  DR.  HUGH    BLAIR. 

that  that  Act  was  framed  for  the  very  purpose  of  excluding  from 
the  pulpits  of  the  Church  men  whom  it  would  have  been  an 
honour  to  any  Church  to  employ  in  preaching  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ.  Such  is  the  contrast  between  the  spirit  which 
animated  the  Blairs,  the  Carlyles,  the  Moodies,  and  the  Hills  of 
1799,  and  that  which  characterized  the  majority  which,  in  1842, 
rallied  round  the  illustrious  Chalmers,  the  heavenly-minded 
Gordon,  and  their  other  distinguished  compeers. 

On  the  day  after  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  1799,  a  Com- 
mittee, appointed  for  the  purpose,  presented  to  the  Assembly, 
on  the  3d  of  June,  a  pastoral  letter  relative  to  missionary  and 
itinerant  preachers,  which  was  carried,  after  a  feeble  resistance 
by  a  minority  overborne  by  numbers  and  authority.  Four 
thousand  copies  were  ordered  to  be  printed  and  circulated,  and 
it  was  appointed  to  be  read  from  the  pulpit  of  every  parish  on 
the  first  Sunday  after  being  received.  The  same  Committee 
also  gave  in  a  report  hostile  to  Sunday-schools,  which  was  also 
adopted,  but  of  it  only  1,600  were  ordered  for  the  use  of  the 
Church. 

The  whole  of  these  proceedings  were  worthy  of  the  period 
when  David  Hume  said  that  the  Scottish  Church  was  more 
favourable  to  Deism  than  any  other  religion,  a  period  which 
Dr.  Cunningham  termed  "one  of  the  most  deplorable  of  the 
Church's  history.^'  The  pastoral  letter  was  signed  by  Dr. 
Moodie,  but  was  said  to  be  the  composition  of  Dr.  Hugh  Blair, 
whose  intimacy  with  the  unbelieving  philosophers  of  his  day, 
significantly  contrasts  with  his  aversion  to  enthusiasm  in  reli- 
gion. A  mutual  admiration  of  genius  and  intellect  was  in  his 
case,  as  in  others,  considered  to  be  a  bond  of  friendship  sufficient 
to  overbear  any  objections  which  sprung  from  any  difiference  of 
sentiment  in  regard  to  Grod  or  to  eternity.  The  admonition  has 
no  merits  in  point  of  composition^  and  does  as  little  credit 
to  the  intellectual  as  to  the  moral  qualities  of  the  Professor  of 
Rhetoric  and  Belles  Lettres. 

The  Procurator  of  the  Church  was,  in  the  next  place,  autho- 
rized to  proceed  legally  against  unauthorized  teachers  of  Sunday 
Schools,  on  the  strength  of  some  obsolete  Acts  of  the  Scottish 


DR.  ERSKINE    AND    DR.  BALFOUR.  257 

Parliament  directed  against  ^'Papists  and  malignants.^'  In 
short,  itinerants  and  Sunday-school  teachers  were  delivered  over 
to  the  hands  of  the  civil  power,  and  it  was  not  through  any 
forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  Assembly,  that  this  power  was  not 
exercised  in  the  form  of  open  persecution. 

In  a  letter  written  at  the  time  by  Miss  Stuart,  of  Duneam,  to 
her  friend.  Miss  Aikman,  it  is  said :  '^  You  will  probably  have 
heard  of  the  pastoral  admonition  which  is  to  be  read  in  all 
the  churches,  warning  their  congregations  against  the  Circus 
preachers.  Mr.  Balfour  (the  late  eminent  Dr.  Balfour,  of 
Glasgow)  was  one  of  the  Committee  appointed  to  draw  it  up. 
I  saw  him  for  a  few  minutes  after  it  was  done.  He  appears  in 
great  distress  about  it.  He  says  that  he  smoothed  as  many 
rough  comers  as  possible,  but  that  none  of  us  will  find  out  that 
when  we  see  it.  My  grandfather  (Dr.  Erskine,  of  Camock) 
and  he  agree  that  they  are  doing  all  they  can  to  build  up 
the  cause  they  meant  to  destroy.  I  wonder  what  the  ministers 
will  do,  who  are  known,  Uke  them,  in  the  main  to  approve  the 
design.  It  really  brings  them  to  the  trial.  Oh  I  may  God 
grant  them  to  be  faithful  to  light  received,  should,  I  think,  be 
the  prayer  of  all  at  present." 

The  pastoral  admonition  attacked  by  name  the  ^'  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  at  Home,"  and  charged  the  itinerant 
teachers  with  "intruding  into  parishes  without  any  call," 
"  erecting  in  several  places  Sunday  Schools,"  and  "  connecting 
these  schools  with  certain  secret  meetings,"  "censuring  the 
doctrine  of •  the  minister,"  as  "  opposed  to  the  Ecclesiastical 
Establishment  of  the  land,'^  and  acting  "  as  if  they  alone  were 
possessed  of  some  secret  and  novel  method  of  bringing  men  to 
heaven.'^  The  people  are  further  warned  not  to  follow  up  and 
down  a  sect  of  men  "whom  you  know  not  whence  they  be  J* 
When  Mr.  Haldane  read  their  Bull,  he  quietly  remarked,  that 
the  venerable  Assembly  did  not  seem  to  be  aware  that,  in  using 
these  words,  they  were  unintentionally  appropriating  to  them- 
selves the  words,  as  well  as  the  character  of  Nabal,  when  he  sent 
his  railing  message  to  David  in  the  wilderness. 

The  anticipations  of  Dr.  Erskine  and  Dr.  Balfour  were,  how« 

s 


258  REV.  ROWLAND    HILL. 

ever,  realized^  and  the  bigotry  of  the  Moderates  only  tended  to 
the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel.  Rowland  Hill  arrived  at  Edin- 
burgh the  following  Friday,  and  found,  as  he  says,  ^'all  the 
city  quite  thunderstruck  at  the  fulminating  Bull  which  had 
been  issued/'  "But/'  he  said,  in  his  own  quamt  way,  "we 
shall  shine  all  the  brighter  for  the  scrubbing  we  have  got  &om 
the  Greneral  Assembly/'  He  adds,  in  a  note  to  his  second 
Journal :  "  Three  reasons  alone  can  be  assigned  for  their  con- 
duct ;  these  are  madness,  malice,  or  an  attempt  to  discover  our 
treasonable  plots ;  and  the  first  of  these  reasons  should  seem  the 
most  probable,  the  pastoral  admonition  being  dated  on  the  day 
of  the  full  moon!"  Mr.  Hill  assailed  the  Assembly,  both  in 
print  and  in  his  sermons,  with  all  the  weapons  of  sarcasm  and 
ridicule  which  so  abundantly  filled  his  quiver.  But  it  too  much 
engrossed  his  mind,  and  for  the  time  injured  his  usefulness.  It 
was  often  remarked  by  Mr.  Campbell,  that  he  never  heard  of 
any  conversion  as  the  fruit  of  this  tour,  and  he  attributed  this 
to  the  effect  of  the  Assembly's  Bull,  in  distracting  the  good 
man's  mind,  disturbing  the  solemnity  of  his  feelings,  and  lead- 
ing him  to  launch  out  against  the  bigotry  of  the  Moderates,  to 
the  exclusion  of  that  Gospel  which  he  so  much  loved  to  preach. 
This  is  a  fact  worthy  of  record,  told  as  it  is  of  a  man  whose 
whole  career  was  so  eminently  useful.  It  was  otherwise  with 
Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  Mr.  Innes,  and  Mr.  Aikman,  who,  in  the 
islands  of  the  tax  north,  thought  little  of  the  Bull  that  was 
fulminated  against  themselves,  but  much  of  the  destitute  people 
who  hung  upon  their  lips  and  drank  in  the  words  of  eternal 
life. 

Many  answers  were  published  to  the  Assembly's  Manifesto 
besides  that  by  Mr.  Rowland  Hill.  Probably  the  best  was  a 
plain  but  telling  letter  in  the  newspapers  &om  the  Rev.  George 
Burder,  who  was  then  supplying  at  the  Circus,  and  which  he 
addressed  in  self-defence  to  the  newspapers.  A  few  sentences 
will  suffice. 

"  It  has  been  my  practice  in  England,  for  more  than  twenty  years,  to 
itinerate  on  the  week-days,  as  far  as  the  duties  of  a  settled  charge  would 
admiti — a  practice  not  new  in  the  South.    Good  Matthew  Henry,  author 


REV.  GEORGE   BURDER.  259 

of  the  '  Commentary  on  the  Bible/  and  many  other  vahiable  men,  fol- 
lowed the  same  course.  In  the  tolerant  country  of  England,  and  under 
the  benign  influence  of  the  Toleration  Act,  vre  have  enjoyed  this  liberty 
\mmolested,  except,  occasionally,  by  *  certain  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort,*  who  have  been  generally  excited  to  persecution  by  envious  men  who 
believed  not  the  truth.  But  it  was  reserved  for  me  to  find  in  Scotland 
men,  sustaining  the  ministerial  character,  who  scruple  not  to  brand  their 
brethren,  of  both  countries,  with  the  name  of  vagrant  teachers ;  and  to 
insinuate  that  they  are  all  enemies  to  the  State,  because  they  presume  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  perishing  sinners  without  their  authority ;  though  it 
is  now  with  an  ill  grace  that  they  complain  of  our  preaching  out  of  doors, 
when  they  have,  by  their  late  act,  shut  the  doors  of  all  their  churches 
against  all  the  world  but  their  own  body.  Nor  is  this  all.  Threats  have 
been  thrown  out,  that  if  the  good  people  of  Scotland  will  not  regard  their 
high  admonition, — ^if  they  will  still  assert  their  liberty  to  hear  whom  they 
please,  and  to  judge  of  religious  matters  for  themselves, — and  if  the  good 
work  of  instructing  poor  children,  and  converting  poor  sinners,  shall  yet 
make  '  an  alarming  progress,* — then  they  will  apply  to  his  Majesty  for 
assistance.  What  is  this  but  the  avowal  of  an  intention  to  persecute,  a 
resolution  to  solicit  the  civil  power  to  suppress  religious  liberty  ?  .  .  . 
For  myself  and  my  brethren  I  beg  leave  to  say,  *  We  depart  from  this 
Council,  rejoicing  that  we  are  counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the 
name  of  Jesus,  and  determined,  wherever  we  have  opportunity,  to  teach 
and  preach  Jesus  Christ.*  '* 

But  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland  was  not  singular  in 
its  efforts  to  crush  the  itinerant  preachers.  In  1796^  the  Anti- 
burghers^  or  General  Assembly  Synod^  had  passed  a  Resolution 
against  the  constitution  of  Missionary  Societies^  and  testified 
against  co-operating  with  persons  in  religious  matters  against 
whose  opinions  they  were  opposed  as  a  Church.  The  Came- 
ronians  at  Glasgow  declared  some  of  their  body^  who  had 
attended  a  missionary  sermon  preached  by  Dr.  Balfour^  to  be 
guilty  of  conduct  ^'  sinful  and  offensive/^  and  this  censure  not 
being  acquiesced  in^  they  proceeded  to  actual  excommunication. 
The  Belief  Synod,  at  their  Meeting  in  1798,  forgetting  that 
their  founder,  Gillespie,  had  finished  his  theological  education 
at  Dr.  Doddridge's  academy,  decreed,  "  that  no  minister  shall 
give,  or  allow  his  pulpit  to  be  given,  to  any  person  who  has  not 
attended  a  regular  course  of  philosophy  and  divinity  in  some  of 

82 


260  REV.  MR.  COWIE,    OP    HUNTLY. 

the  Universities  of  the  nation,  and  who  has  not  been  regularly 
licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel/'  This  was  levelled  at  the 
English  ministers  and  itinerants,  who  thinned  their  chapels. 
''But/'  says  Dr.  Strathers,*  "this  illiberal  act  was,  in  1811, 
allowed  to  drop  out  of  their  code  of  regulations,  as  something  of 
which  they  were  ashamed.'' 

To  the  same  eflFect,  in  1798,  the  Anti-burgher  Synod  passed 
a  decree  against  ''attending  upon,  or  giving  countenance  to, 
public  preaching,  by  any  who  are  not  of  our  communion ;" 
and  in  1799,  they  went  so  far  as  to  bring  to  their  bar,  and 
finally  to  depose  and  excommunicate,  one  of  the  brightest  orna- 
ments that  ever  adorned  their  Church,  the  Rev.  George  Cowie, 
of  Huntly,  of  whom  it  has  been  eloquently  said  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Morrison,  who  knew  him  well, — 

**  He  had  no  competitor,  no  equal  in  the  north  of  Scotland.  He  was  a 
man  of  genius,  bold  and  fearless  in  all  his  movements,  and,  in  his  feelings 
of  charity  and  liberality,  half  a  century  at  least  before  the  ecclesiastics  of 
his  day.  In  the  pulpit  Mr.  Cowie  was  truly  great.  His  appearance  was 
that  of  dignified  simplicity.  He  could  declaim,  and  he  could  he  pathetic. 
His  discourses  partook  of  the  colloquial.  He  had  studied  human  nature, 
and  he  knew  how  to  approach  it  at  every  avenue.  The  power  he  had 
over  an  audience  was  great  beyond  description.  He  could  make  them 
smile  or  weep.  His  appeal  to  the  conscience  was  unceremonious  and 
direct.  He  never  lost  sight  of  the  theme  of  the  pulpit.  All  things  were 
by  him  counted  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
his  Lord.  He  was  a  stern  reprover  of  sin ;  but  he  melted  with  tenderness 
over  the  sinner,  beseeching  him  to  be  reconciled  unto  Qod.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  dissolved  in  tears  under  his  ministry,  and  I  have  wept  from  pure 
sympathy  when  I  was  too  yoimg  to  understand  the  message." 

Such  was  the  man  whom,  in  September,  1799,  the  Associate 
Synod  deposed  ^'  for  coimtenancing  the  ministrations  of  what 
are  called  missionary  preachers,  by  hearing  them  preach,  and  in 
various  other  ways."  Mr.  Cowie,  on  being  asked  whether  he 
had  heard  the  itinerant  preachers,  declined  to  answer ;  but  in  a 
fipeech  made  on  the  occasion,  he  voluntarily  acknowledged  that 
he  had  heard  both  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Rowland  Hill, 
•  Strather's  "  History  of  the  Relief,"  p.  465. 


REV.  MR.  COWIE,    OF    HUNTLY.  261 

and  said  that  he  considered  the  conduct  of  the  Synod  as  a 
species  of  persecution,  and  as  joining  with  the  General  Assembly 
in  their  opposition  to  a  great  work  of  God.  Other  proceedings 
were  taken  upon  this  confession,  the  result  of  which  was  that  in 
April,  1800,  he  was  deposed  from  the  oflSce  of  the  ministry, 
and,  with  his  whole  Kirk  Session,  formally  excommunicated. 
This  intolerant  and  monstrous  sentence,  which  now  almost  pro- 
vokes a  smile,  was  publicly  intimated  at  Huntly,  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Mitchell,  on  the  18th  May,  1800. 

In  relating  this'  affair,  Mr.  Kinniburgh  remarks  : — "  Mr. 
Cowie,  when  deposed  and  excommunicated,  wrote  thus  to  a 
friend :  '  This  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  been  excommunicated 
by  men  upon  earth,  and  richly  do  I  deserve  to  be  for  ever 
excommunicated  by  Him  whom  I  have  offended  more  than  any 
other;  but  instead  of  frowning  on  me  when  the  world  have,  he 
meets  me  in  love,  as  he  did  my  brother  the  blind  man  of  old.' 
His  Church  adhered  to  him  almost  like  one  man,  and  his  popu- 
larity was  not  impaired.^' 

The  testimony  of  this  holy,  venerable,  and  eloquent  preacher 
to  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  preaching,  has  been  already  noticed.  It 
may  be  added,  that  although  deposed  for  countenancing  him, 
yet,  on  the  first  occasion  when  Mr.  J.  Haldane  visited  Huntly 
in  1797,  Mr.  Cowie  would  not  go  into  the  chapel,  but  sat  at 
the  windows  of  the  contiguous  manse,  where  he  could  hear 
distinctly.  Mr.  James  Haldane  preached  a  solemn  and  striking 
sermon  from  John  v.  28,  29 :  "  Marvel  not  at  this :  for  the 
hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,''  &c.  Mr.  Cowie  was  so  overcome 
by  the  earnestness,  the  power,  and  the  unction  with  which  the 
unlicensed  Evangelist  then  spoke,  that  he  felt  ashamed  of  his 
backwardness,  and  could  no  longer  resist  holding  out  to  him 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  He  exclaimed,  that  such  a  preacher 
"  carried  his  credentials  with  him,''  accompanied  him  into  the 
chapel  in  the  evening,  and  from  that  hour  lent  to  the  preaching 
of  the  Itinerants  the  sanction  of  his  official  character  and  influ- 
ence. In  manuscripts  which  he  left  behind  him,  he  records 
the  impressions  on  different  occasions  made  on  him  by  Mr. 
Haldane^s  sermons^  sometimes  speaking  of  himself  as  at  once 


262  SECOND    TOUR   TO    THE   NORTH. 

"humbled  and  inspired  by  the  unction  from  the  Holy  One" 
which  attended  the  preacher^  and  at  another  declaring  that  after 
such  a  sermon  he  felt  "  as  if  he  could  never  again  ascend  his  own 
pulpit-stair/^ 


SECOND  TOUR  TO  THE  NORTH. 

When  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  undertook  the  pastoral  care  of  the 
Circus  Churchy  in  Edinburgh,  he  expressly  stipulated  that  this 
should  not  prevent  his  labouring  as  an  evangelist  in  "  the  high- 
ways and  hedges."  Before  this  event,  the  summer  and  autumn 
of  1797  had  been  memorable  for  his  tour,  with  Mr.  Aikman,  to 
Caithness  and  the  Orkney  Islands.  In  the  summer  of  1798  he 
had  traversed  the  west  and  the  south  of  Scotland;  and,  after 
his  return,  again  visited  Dunkeld  and  other  places  in  Perthshire, 
where  his  preaching  had  been  greatly  blessed.  In  1799  he 
determined  to  make  a  second  tour  to  the  north  with  Mr. 
Aikman.  Accordingly,  Tuesday,  the  7th  of  May,  was  appointed 
for  their  departure  from  Edinburgh,  a  short  time  before  the 
issuing  of  the  Meeting  of  the  General  Assembly.  A  sketch  of 
this  tour  is  recorded  in  the  '^  Missionary  Magazine,"  from  which 
it  appears  that  he  set  out  alone,  Mr.  Aikman  being  at  first 
detained  at  home  by  severe  indisposition.  Beginning  at  Dun- 
fermline, and  going  on,  through  Kinross,  to  Perth,  he  preached 
twice  in  each  place  to  large  congregations,  which  assembled  in 
spite  of  unfavourable  weather,  and  was  welcomed  with  much 
cordiality  by  those  who  heard.  On  the  Saturday  he  arrived  at 
Dundee,  where  he  preached  on  the  Lord^s-day  in  his  native 
town,  in  the  Relief  Presbyterian  chapel,  to  overflowing  congre- 
gations. "  Many,"  he  says,  "  were  obliged  to  go  away."  He 
adds,  ^^  The  spirit  of  hearing  in  this  place  is  remarkable.  May 
they  not  be  forgetful  hearers,  but  doers  of  the  Word."  During 
the  week-days  intervening  between  the  next  Sunday,  he  preached 
at  Kerrymuir,  Forfar,  Glamis,  Brechin,  and  Montrose.  On  the 
Lord's-day  he  preached,  by  request,  at  Inchture,  in  the  Carse 
of  Gowrie,  near  Rossie  Priory,  the  beautiful  seat  of  Lord  Kin- 
naird.     There,  in  this  country  village,  not  less  than  a  thousand 


JOINED    BY    MR.  INNES.  263 

people  assembled  in  the  afternoon  to  hear  the  Word;  after 
which  he  returned  to  Dundee^  and  preached  in  the  open  air  in 
the  evening  to  a  vast  multitude.  Thousands  occupied  the 
ground^  listening  in  silence  with  solemnised  feelings  and  deep 
attention. 

Before  Mr.  J.  Haldane  left  Edinburgh  he  had  received  a 
letter  from  Meigle^  expressing  the  determination  of  the  people  to 
hear  no  more  itinerants  and  accept  of  no  more  tracts.  Accord- 
ingly^  he  went  thither  on  Monday^  when  ^^  all  the  village  turned 
out  to  hear^  and  the  people  expressed  their  strong  disapprobation 
of  the  letter.''  It  had  been  signed  by  several  under  the  pressure 
of  strong  influence^  but  they  now  declared  their  earnest  desire 
to  hear  the  (Gospel  and  receive  tracts. 

On  Tuesday^  accompanied  by  Mr.  Innes^  who  joined  him  at 
Dundee^  he  preached  at  Arbroath.  After  sermon  they  were 
overtaken  by  Mr.  Aikman^  who^  having  lost  his  place  in  the 
mail-coach  on  the  Monday^  did  not  arrive  at  Dundee.  This 
accident  is  marked  as  providential^  for^  had  he  accomplished 
his  purpose  on  the  Monday,  Mr.  Innes  would  not  have  gone 
further;  a  circumstance  which,  as  matters  turned  out,  might 
have  prevented  the  tour  to  the  Shetland  Islands.  It  was  now 
determined  that  they  should  aU  continue  their  route  together, 
travelling  in  a  post-chaise  towards  the  north.  At  a  small 
village,  near  Lawrence  Kirk,  they  were  amused  by  the  bellman's 
refusal  to  announce  sermon.  He  gave  two  reasons:  the  one, 
that  he  was  himself  a  Jacobite ;  the  other,  that  he  understood 
the  preachers  to  be  Latitudinanans.  Being  asked  the  meaning 
of  this  long  word,  he  said,  that  it  was  preaching  gratuitously, 
or,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  for  Grod's  sake,''  of  which  he  disap- 
proved. They  proceeded  to  Aberdeen  and  Banff,  preaching  as 
they  journeyed,  both  in  the  open  air  and  in  chapels,  to  large 
congregations.  But,  on  this  occasion,  to  adopt  the  words  of 
Mr.  Robert  Haldane,  remonstrating,  in  a  letter  to  his  younger 
brother,  against  his  excessive  labours,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane 
received  a  practical  intimation  that  "his  strength  was  not  of  iron, 
nor  his  bones  of  brass."  Although  he  had  been  out  only  four 
weeks,  he  had  preached  more  than  sixty  times,  often  in  the 


264  IIUNTLY. 

open  air  to  great  multitudes ;  and  continued  exertion^  as  well  as 
exposure  to  the  rainy  weather,  brought  on  a  sore  throat,  which 
at  last  confined  him  to  his  inn,  at  Huntly.  His  fellow-labourers, 
waiting  for  his  recovery,  preached  in  some  of  the  neighbouring 
towns  and  villages,  where  they  spent  the  following  Lord's-day. 
On  their  return  to  Huntly,  they  found  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  so  ill 
that  he  had  determined  to  return  home  next  morning.  His 
portmanteau  was  packed,  and  a  post-chaise  bespoke  for  the  next 
morning  to  carry  him  to  Aberdeen.  About  ten  o'clock  the 
same  evening  the  quinsy  burst  and  gave  instant  relief.  No 
sooner  was  the  pressure  of  illness  removed,  than  his  plans  wei'c 
immediately  changed.  The  post-chaise  was  countermanded,  or, 
rather,  was  employed  to  carry  his  friends  the  next  day  to  Elgin 
and  Forres.  He  himself  remained  quiet  during  the  week ;  but 
on  the  following  Sunday  evening  he  actually  preached  in  the 
open  air,  at  Huntly,  to  a  very  large  congregation.  At  Forres  he 
rejoined  his  party,  and  accompanied  them  to  Inverness,  preach- 
ing, as  they  went,  to  multitudes  earnestly  drinking  in  the 
words  of  eternal  life. 

At  Inverness  they  heard,  on  the  Lord's-day,  "  The  Assembly's 
Bull ''  against  vagrant  preacJiers  read  in  the  church,  and  after- 
wards preached  on  the  hill  to  a  large  congregation,  from  the 
words  of  a  "  vagrant  preacher,''  foi-merly  well  known  in  Judea, 
Matt.  iii.  10.  On  the  30th  of  June  they  arrived  at  Wick  and 
Thurso,  where  they  had  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  blessing 
that  had  accompanied  the  former  tour.  On  the  following 
Tuesday,  2d  July,  they  crossed  the  Fentland  Frith  to  Walls, 
and  commenced  their  circuit  of  the  Orkneys.  Next  day  they 
went  by  sea  to  Kirkwall,  where  they  found  the  Gospel  flourish- 
ing. In  the  year  1798,  after  their  first  tour  to  Caithness,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  M^Crie,  the  celebrated  historian  of  John  Knox,  was 
sent  to  Kirkwall  to  ordain  a  minister.  The  impression  made  on 
his  mind  by  the  earnestness  of  the  people  and  their  interest  in 
the  Gospel  never  was  effaced,  and  is  said  to  have  altered  the 
tone  of  his  preaching  and  given  to  it  more  of  that  pointed 
simplicity  and  directness  of  personal  appeal  which  characterised 
the  preaching  of  Mr.  J.    Haldane   and   Mr.  Aikman.      The 


DR.  m'crie.  265 

following  is  an  extract  from  a  sermon  preached  to  Dr.  M'Crie's 

own  people,  in  1798 ;  it  is  taken  from  his  Life,  as  ^litten  by  his 

son,  who  inherits  the  talents  of  his  father : — 

"  In  the  country  from  which  I  have  lately  come,"  he  said,  "  thank  God, 
it  is  otherwise.  There  you  will  see  persons  hearing  as  those  who  have 
souls  which  must  he  saved  or  lost.  There  you  may  see  the  most  lively 
concern  depicted  on  every  face,  and  hear  the  important  question  put  from 
one  to  another,  *  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  *  Here  it  is  a  miracle  to 
see  one  in  tears  when  hearing  the  Gospel ;  and  if,  at  any  time,  we  witness 
the  solitary  instance,  we  are  tempted  to  think  the  person  weak  or  hypo- 
critical. ITiere  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  hundreds  in  tears,  not 
from  the  relation  of  a  pathetic  story,  nor  by  an  address  to  the  passions, 
but  by  the  simple  declaration  of  a  few  plain  facts  respecting  sin  and 
salvation.  Here  it  is  with  difficulty  that  we  can  fix  your  attention  on  the 
sublimest  truths  during  a  short  discourse.  We  must  contrive  to  amuse 
you  with  some  striking  form  of  address.  We  must  keep  you  awake  by 
mingling  amusement  with  instruction.  Theret  in  order  to  be  heard  with 
the  most  eager  attention,  one  has  only  to  open  his  mouth  and  speak  of 
Christ,  and,  after  he  is  done,  they  will  follow  him  to  his  house  and 
beseech  him  to  tell  them  more  about  Christ.  'Here  it  is  only  certain 
preachers  that  can  be  patiently  heard;  there^  so  far  as  we  know,  there 
has  not  been  one  from  whom  they  have  not  received  the  Word  gladly, 
nor  one  sermon  preached  that  has  not  brought  tears  from  the -eyes  of 
some.** 

At  Eorkwall  Mr.  Aikman  stopped,  being  disabled  by  inflamma- 
tion in  his  eyes,  and  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Innes  pro-* 
ceeded  towards  the  Shetlands,  preaching  at  several  islands  on 
their  way.  On  the  10th  of  July  they  reached  Fair  Island,  the 
first  of  the  Shetlands,  and  the  people  heard,  with  thankfulness, 
the  only  sermon  that  had  been  preached  there  for  six  years. 
From  the  Fair  Island  they  embarked  in  an  open  boat,  and  were 
out  all  night,  "most  of  the  time  in  heavy  rain.*'  On  such 
occasions,  and  in  all  his  tours,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  boat-cloak 
was  through  life  a  constant  companion.  He  used  to  say  that  it 
had  been  with  him  three  voyages  to  India,  and  often  proved  a 
friend  in  need,  although,  in  his  maritime  career,  he  had  then 
little  dreamed  of  the  nature  of  the  services  in  which  it  was  to  be 
afterwards  employed.  They  were  hospitably  received  on  the 
mainland  of  Shetland  by  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Ogilvy, 
and  commenced  their  labours  by  preaching  in  a  bam.     Thence 


M 


266  THE   SUETLANDS. 

they  proceeded  to  Lerwick,  the  principal  town  in  Shetland, 
where  they  spent  the  Lord's-day.  The  people  had  then  little 
connexion  with  Scotland,  and  a  respectable  woman  inquired  if 
Edinburgh  was  as  large  as  Lerwick.  Having  next  preached  in 
Nesting,  they  visited  the  islands  of  Whalsy,  Skerries,  Tettar, 
Unst,  and  North  Yell.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Mill,  a  venerable  clergy- 
man, of  eighty-eight  years  of  age,  gave  Mr.  J.  Haldane  his 
church  to  preach  in;  and  after  the  service  stood  up  and,  in  a 
commanding  tone,  warned  the  people  to  take  heed  to  the  words 
they  had  heard,  more  especially  as  this  visit  was  a  new  and 
unprecedented  occurrence  in  their  history.  At  Unst  they  found 
that  the  minister  had  been  captured  on  his  voyage  from  Leith 
and  carried  to  Bergen.  Having  next  gone  to  Mid  and  South 
Yell,  and  crossed  over  to  North-Maven,  preaching  especially  to 
the  fishermen,  who  were  very  eager  to  hear,  Mr.  Haldane  and 
Mr.  Innes  separated,  in  order  that  together  they  might  take  in 
a  wider  circuit.  Mr.  J.  Haldane  himself  went  to  Fulah,  which 
is  supposed,  both  from  situation  and  the  name,  to  be  the 
Ultima  Thule  of  the  Romans.  It  is  twenty  miles  from  the 
main  land,  contained  about  200  inhabitants,  and  had  no  resi- 
dent minister.  On  this  island  he  preached  four  times,  as  well 
as  in  the  parishes  of  Sandness  and  Walls ;  after  which  he  joined 
his  excellent  colleague  at  Scalloway,  and  returned  to  Lerwick, 
where  they  spent  five  days,  preaching  each  day,  both  in  the 
town  and  neighbouring  country.  At  Lerwick  one  of  them 
heard  the  Gospel  faithfully  preached  in  the  parish  church.  In 
the  account  of  the  tour  they  mentioned  the  great  kindness  they 
received  from  a  gentleman  to  whom  they  had  no  introduction, 
and  who  insisted  on  their  making  his  house  their  home.  This 
was  the  more  worthy  of  notice,  as  Mr.  Hay  was  not  himself,  at 
that  time,  much  interested  in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  but  he 
appreciated  their  motives  and  enjoyed  their  society.  Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane,  speaking  in  his  own  name  and  that  of  Mr.  Innes, 
says,  "They  express  the  highest  sense  of  gratitude  for  the 
hospitality  they  uniformly  received  from  Shetland."  ''They 
laid  their  account,^'  he  adds,  ''with  no  other  accommodation 
than  the  cottages  a£forded,  instead  of  which  they  were  kindly 


GENERAL    HOSPITALITY    IN    THE    8HETLANDS.       267 

received^  and  frequently  urged  to  accept  the  best  accommodation 
the  gentlemen  and  ministers'  houses  afforded.  There  was  one, 
and  but  one  exception,  which,  they  believe,  arose  from  misap- 
prehension  of  their  intentions,  and  which  they  would  never  have 
mentioned  had  they  not  imagined  prejudiced  persons  might 
have  misinterpreted  their  silence/' 

The  exceptional  case  alluded  to  was  one  of  which  both  the 
tourists  were  wont  to  speak  with  much  good  humour,  as  a  little 
incident  in  their  travels  which,  so  far  as  they  were  personally 
concerned,  only  afforded  matter  of  mirthful  recollection.  They 
had  landed  one  afternoon,  weary  and  famished,  at  an  island 
where  there  was  only  one  respectable  house,  which  was  near  the 
beach,  and  where  they  had  hoped  to  have  found  a  stranger's,  if 
not  a  prophet's,  welcome.  Here  they  were  very  coldly  received, 
with  a  strong  intimation  that  the  people  had  no  need  of  more 
than  the  occasional  preaching  which  was  already  provided. 
Leaving  Mr.  Innes  in  the  house,  Mr.  Haldane  had  gone  down 
to  disembark  from  their  boat  a  large  package  of  tracts  for 
distribution,  but,  on  returning  and  observing  the  same  frozen 
manner,  he  took  Mr.  Innes  aside,  told  him  that  it  was  time  to 
return,  and,  briefly  apologizing  to  the  inhospitable  group  for 
the  intrusion,  left  the  house  with  his  friend.  Soon  after  he 
preached  on  the  sea-shore,  when  some  of  the  party,  who  were 
themselves  visitors,  added  to  their  incivility  by  sending  for  their 
own  boatmen,  who  were  listening  to  the  sermon.  After  it  was 
over,  it  was  too  late  to  think  of  again  putting  to  sea,  but, 
having  obtained  shelter  in  a  fisherman's  hut,  they  procured 
some  salt-herrings  and  oat-cake  for  their  meal  and  a  dry  floor 
for  their  bed.  This  circumstance  occasioned  great  indignation 
amongst  the  upper,  as  well  as  the  lower,  classes  in  Shetland, 
and  not  only  brought  much  reproach  on  the  ungracious  family, 
but  induced  others  to  re-double  their  kindness  towards  the 
missionaries,  in  order  to  wipe  off  the  stain  which  had  been,  in 
their  estimation,  cast  on  the  hospitality  of  the  Shetlands. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  preached  his  last  sermon  at  Lerwick,  on 
the  7th  of  August,  to  "a  large  and  attentive  congregation," 
when  the  people  expressed  much  gratitude  and  a  strong  desire 


268  QUIT   THE    SHETLANDS. 

for  another  visit.  "  It  is  to  be  hoped/^  he  says,  ^'  that  the  seed 
sown  here,  as  well  as  in  more  distant  parts  of  the  country,  will 
not  be  in  vain/' 

Having  left  Lerwick,  they  came  to  Dunrossness,  preaching  on 
the  way  at  Coningsburgh,  Sandwich,  and  Bigton,  and  were 
again  received  with  much  aflfection  by  their  patriarchal  friend, 
Mr.  Mill.  On  Friday  and  Saturday  they  preached  to  large 
congregations,  and  on  Sunday,  the  11th,  one  went  to  Sandwich 
and  the  other  remained  at  Dunrossness.  The  Bull  of  the 
General  Assembly  was  powerless  in  this  distant  region,  and  the 
parish  church,  as  well  as  the  rocky  beach,  became  a  temple 
both  to  the  itinerants  and  the  inhabitants  of  this  district. 
They  were  now  only  waiting  for  a  fair  wind  to  return  to  the 
Orkneys,  but  were  detained  by  thick  and  rainy  weather  until 
the  Saturday,  when  they  could  not  resist  the  invitation  to  spend 
the  Lord's-day  in  a  place  where  their  preaching  was  so  much 
prized.  The  18th  of  August  saw  the  conclusion  of  their  labours 
in  Shetland.  They  had  spent  nearly  six  weeks  there,  but  still 
regretted  that  they  could  aflFord  so  little  time  to  those  who 
came  in  crowds  to  hear  and  were  such  earnest  listeners.  "  The 
people  were  often  much  aflfected,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped,"  says 
Mr.  J.  Haldane,  ^'that  lasting  impressions  have,  in  some 
instances,  been  made.  The  Lord's  word  cannot  return  to  Him 
void;  and  surely  He  did  not  send  it  in  this  unusual  way  to 
these  distant  islands,  without  having  purposes  of  mercy  to 
some.**  This  hope  was  not  to  be  disappointed.  In  going 
to  the  Shetlands,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  had  but  fulfilled  the  wish 
expressed  by  his  venerable  friend,  John  Newton,  that  the 
Norsemen,  belonging  to  these  remote  and  neglected  isles,  might 
not  be  forgotten,  whilst  we  were  sending  Missions  to  the  South 
Seas.  At  that  time  the  Shetlands  contained  a  population  of 
26,000,  occupying  thirty  scattered  parishes,  placed  under  the 
care  of  twelve  ministers,  of  whom  not  more  than  two  or  three 
preached  the  Gospel.  Long  before  the  close  of  his  own  life 
there  were  joyful  tidings  of  the  blessings  that  rested  on  these 
labours  in  Shetland.  The  rehgious  state  of  the  people  had 
been  previously  deplorable,  and  much  of  the  revival  of  rehgion 


ANECDOTE.  269 

^hich  then  took  place  may  be  distinctly  traced  to  the  Mission 
of  himself  and  Mr.  Innes.  To  adopt  the  words  of  a  recent 
writer,  ''the  earnest  and  rousing  addresses  of  our  brethren 
broke  in  upo%the  dangerous  repose  of  the  people,  exciting  a 
spirit  of  inquiry  there  before  unknown,  when,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  not  a  few  were  turned  to  righteousness.^'  * 

On  the  evening  of  the  Lord^s-day,  after  preaching  at  Sandwick 
and  Dunrossness,  they  embarked  in  a  six-oared  fishing  boat 
belonging  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Northern  Fisheries, 
hoping  to  reach  the  Fair  Island  before  dark,  and  cross  over  to 
Orkney  in  the  morning,  so  as  to  arrive  in  Kirkwall  in  time  for 
the  great  fair.  "  They  could  not,"  says  Mr.  James  Haldane, 
''  but  feel  regret  in  parting  with  their  kind  host  and  his  family. 
He  took  leave  as  one  who  was  to  meet  us  no  more  below,  but 
expressed  his  joy  in  the  prospect  of  meeting  in  the  presence  of 
Jesus,  no  more  to  part."  Their  voyage,  although  in  fact  pros- 
perous, was  not  unattended  with  some  anxiety,  and  was,  at  all 
events,  sufficient  to  try  a  landsman's  courage;  but  Mr.  Innes 
&It  he  was  in  the  path  of  duty,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  embark. 
Although  in  his  sketch  of  the  tour,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  speaks  of 
the  wind  as  fair  and  the  weather  fine,  the  swell  of  the  ocean  was 
lieavy,  and  the  embarkation  so  difficult  that  the  wives  of  the 
Ixiatmen  besought  their  husbands  not  to  venture  on  a  voyage  to 
which  it  appeared  they  were  not  accustomed,  and  which  was  so 
different  from  their  usual  fishing  excursions.  The  night  over- 
took them  before  they  reached  the  Fair  Island,  and  they  missed 
it  in  the  dark.  The  men  became  themselves  uneasy,  but  were 
cnoouraged  to  proceed,  whilst  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  took  the  helm, 
and,  guided  by  the  stars,  steered  for  North  Ronaldshay.  In  the 
fftey  of  the  morning,  one  of  the  boatmen,  anxiously  looking  out, 
intiinated  in  a  doubtful  tone  that  he  thought  he  saw  the  land. 
The  welcome  sound  was  at  first  received  with  incredulity, 
when,  as  Dr.  Innes  relates,  his  friend,  quitting  his  post  at  the 
helm  and  going  forward,  looked  for  a  few  moments  with  the 
practised  eye  of  a  seaman,  and  cheered  them  with  the  words, 
''YeSj  it  is."     It  was  the  height  on  which  stands  the  North 

•  "  Kinniburgh*s  Historical  Survey/*  p.  56. 


270  ORKNEYS CAITHNESS. 

Bonaldshay  light-house^  and  soon  afterwards^  the  boat  being 
steered  in  that  direction^  they  landed  on  the  Island  of  Sandy, 
after  a  run  of  fifty-four  miles.  The  missionaries  retired  to  bed, 
but  the  boatmen,  having  taken  counsel  among  themselves,  deter- 
mined to  lose  no  time  in  returning  to  Shetland.  Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane  was  called  up  in  order  to  pay  for  the  hire  of  the  boat, 
and  they  then  set  out,  contrary  to  his  urgent  advice,  as  the  wind 
was  not  favourable,  and  the  currents  in  these  seas  are  dangerous. 
The  result  was,  that  the  boat  being  no  longer  properly  steered, 
they  were  carried  out  of  their  course,  away  to  the  north-east  of 
Scotland,  where  they  were  picked  up  by  a  coasting  vessel,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Moray  Firth.  Being  unaccustomed  to  any  but 
fishing  excursions,  and  doubtful  as  to  their  course,  they  lost  all 
presence  of  mind,  and  such  was  their  panic,  that  in  their  haste 
to  get  on  board  the  friendly  ship  which  saved  them,  they  forgot 
to  make  fast  their  boat,  so  that  it  diifted  away  and  was  lost.  A 
futile  claim  was  made  on  the  tourists  by  the  Northern  Fishery 
Commissioners,  for  compensation  for  their  loss,  but  of  course  it 
covld  not  be  maintained,  and  was  almost  immediately  abandoned. 
On  Monday  evening,  the  29th  August,  the  itinerants  arrived 
at  KirkwaU,  where  they  found  Mr.  Aikman  at  his  post  engaged 
in  preaching.  He  had  itinerated  throughout  a  great  part  of  the 
Orkneys,  and  everywhere  had  been  kindly  received.  In  the 
ensuing  week  they  preached,  morning  and  evening,  during  the 
fair,  and  visited  several  of  the  islands,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
parishes  on  the  mainland.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  preached  the  last 
sermon  on  Sabbath,  August  25,  ^^to  a  very  large  congregation.^' 
On  Monday  they  went  to  Stromness,  on  Tuesday  to  Walls, 
preaching  twice  or  three  times  at  each  place,  as  well  as  at  South 
Ronaldshay  and  Flota.  On  Wednesday  they  crossed  the  Pent- 
land  Frith  in  safety,  and  once  more  were  gladly  welcomed  by 
their  friends  in  Caithness.     The  Journal  concludes  as  follows : — 

''They  also  saw  many  pleasing  fruits  of  their  labours  on  a  former 
tour.  The  desire  of  hearing  is  rather  increased  than  diminished  in 
Caithness ;  at  the  country  places  where  they  preached  they  always  found 
large  congregations.  Those  who  have  heen  already  gathered  in  seem 
only  to  be  a  kind  of  first  fruits  of  a  more  abundant  harvest  of  souls  in 


FRUITS   OP   ITINERANCIES.  271 

Caithness.  What  cause  of  thankfiUness  to  Him  who  has  raised  up  and 
placed  in  such  a  situation  two  ministers,  whose  desire  for  the  increase  of 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  leads  them  not  only  to  preach  in  their  churches,  but 
to  go  to  the  highways  and  hedges  to  compel  sinners  to  come  in. 

**  They  preached  at  seTeral  country  places  during  the  week,  as  well  as 
Thurso  and  Wick,  and  on  Sabbath  assisted  at  the  dispensation  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  in  Mr.  Ballantyne's  meeting-house.  It  is  large  and  com- 
modious, but  not  yet  finished.  The  number  of  communicants  was  about 
180,  including  upwards  of  eighty  from  Wick,  most  of  whom  have  been 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  since  the  itinerants  first  visited 
Caithness.  They  spent  a  most  comfortable  day ;  the  multitude  of  people 
who  attended  obliged  them  to  have  sermon  without  as  well  as  within,  and 
in  the  eyening  the  congregation  was  larger  than  any  they  had  seen  in 
Caithness.  By  desire  of  the  people,  Mr.  Haldane  preached  at  eight  next 
morning.  He  then  set  out  for  the  south,  leaving  his  brethren,  Messrs. 
Aikman  and  Innes,  who  were  to  remain  two  or  three  weeks  longer.  On 
Wednesday,  he  reached  Inverness,  preached  there  on  Thursday,  on  Friday 
and  Saturday  at  Nairn  and  Campbeltown,  and  spent  the  Sabbath  at  Inver- 
ness. The  congregation  in  the  evening  was  large,  although  the  weather 
was  threatening.  On  Monday  he  preached  at  Elgin,  on  Tuesday  at 
Huntiy,  on  Wednesday  at  Aberdeen,  and  on  Friday,  the  20th,  returned  to 
Edinburgh,  after  an  absence  of  four  months  and  a-half.  His  fellow- 
labourers  arrived  in  town  a  few  days  ago,  and  confirm  the  account  above 
detailed.  They  bear  testimony  to  the  remarkable  work  of  grace  evidentiy 
begun  in  Caithness,  and  give  the  pleasing  intelligence,  that  at  least  thirty 
young  people  in  Inverness  appear  to  have  been  brought  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  by  attending  the  Sabbath-schools  and  itinerant  preaching  in 
that  place." 

Such  was  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  third  tour, 
which  was  also  his  second  to  the  north.  He  had  now  preached 
the  Gospel  in  every  part  of  Scotland,  and  abundantly  distributed 
religious  tracts  from  the  Solway  Firth  in  the  south  round  about 
to  the  Tweed,  and  thence  beyond  Caithness  and  the  clustering 
Orkneys  and  Shetlands,  even  to  the  Ultima  Thule  of  the  Romans. 
He  had  also  skirted  the  fastnesses  of  the  Highlands  from  Dun- 
keld  to  Sutherland,  but  had  felt  the  difference  of  language  an 
obstacle  to  his  progress  in  these  districts,  an  obstacle  which  often 
induced  him  to  speak  of  the  value  of  the  miraculous  gift  of 
tongues  which,  in  apostolic  times,  so  wonderfully  facilitated  the 
diffusion  of  the  Gospel. 

During  his  absence  from  the  Circus  Church,  his  place  had 


272  DISTRIBUTION    OF    TRACTS. 

been  supplied  partly  by  the  Rev.  Rowland  Hill,  who  made  a 
second  tour  into  Scotland,  partly  by  the  Rev.  George  Burder, 
the  celebrated  author  of  the  "  Village  Sermons,"  and  partly  by 
the  Rev.  George  Collison,  of  Walthamstow,  and  other  preachers. 
This  year  was  memorable  for  the  institution  of  the  London 
Religious  Tract  Society,  of  which  Mr.  George  Burder,  after  his 
return  from  Edinburgh,  was  one  of  the  honoured  founders,  and 
for  many  years  the  useful  and  laborious  Secretary.  But  in  con- 
nexion with  this  great  Institution,  which  has  circulated  so  many 
millions  of  religious  tracts,  and  whose  usefulness  daily  increases, 
it  must  be  mentioned,  that  before  its  establishment,  the  Edin- 
burgh Tract  Society  had  been  formed,  and  that  religious  books 
and  tracts  had  been  circulated  in  myriads  by  the  itinerants, 
chiefly  at  the  expense  of  Mr.  Haldane.  Mr.  Simeon,  of  Cam- 
bridge, first  showed  the  example  in  1796.  In  1797,  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman,  at  their  own  cost,  printed  and 
circulated  twenty  thousand,  and  afterwards  the  elder  Mr.  Hal- 
dane, with  his  accustomed  munificence,  furnished  an  unlimited 
supply  for  all  who  had  the  will  and  the  opportunity  to  avail 
themselves  of  his  liberality  in  Scotland.  But  although  the 
Haldanes,  with  Mr.  Campbell  and  the  Edinburgh  Tract  Society, 
were  the  precursors  of  the  great  Institution  in  Paternoster-row, 
they  never  claimed  to  be  the  originators  of  the  system.  At  the 
Reformation,  an  immense  collection  of  tracts  was  sold  and 
distributed  in  Germany,  of  which  a  perfect  set  has  been  arranged 
by  Dr.  Bandinell,  of  Oxford,  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  At  the 
English  Reformation  much,  too,  was  effected  by  religious  tracts ; 
and  at  a  later  period,  the  Puritans  laboriously  promulgated  their 
opinions  by  the  same  efficient  means.  John  Wesley  also  well 
understood  the  value  of  the  press  as  a  moral  agent,  and  employed 
it  accordingly.  The  publication  of  religious  tracts  was  nearly 
contemporaneous  with  the  invention  of  printing,  and  helped  to 
shake  the  Papacy  to  its  foundation.  To  combine  for  their 
gratuitous  circulation  was  the  idea  of  a  later  age. 


CHAFrER  XII. 

ATTACK  OF  THE  "  ANTI-JACOBIN  REVIEW  "—MR.  HALDANE*S 
REPLY— PUBLISHES  HIS  "ADDRESS  ON  POLITICS  "—VIE  W8 
OF  THE  DUTY  OF  CHRISTIANS,  AS  TO  POLITICS,  SIMILAR 
TO  THOSE  OF  JOSEPH  MILKER— MR.  PITT'S  THREATENED 
MEASURE  TO  PUT  DOWN  UNLICENSED  PREACHING— 
PREPARATIONS  FOR  TOUR  IN  1800  — MR.  J.  HALDANE 
VISITS  ARRAN  AND  KINTYRE  WITH  MR.  CAMPBELL- 
ARRESTED  AND  SENT  TO  KINTYRE,  UNDER  AN  ESCORT 
OF  VOLUNTEERS— LIBERATED  AND  PREACHES  IN  ALL 
THE  VILLAGES— IMPORTANT  RESULT  OF  THE  TOUR— DR. 
LINDSAY  ALEXANDER'S  SKETCH  OF  MR.  J.  HALDANE'S 
CHARACTER. 

[1799-1800.] 

The  pertinacity  with  which  the  opponents  of  EvangeUcal  preach- 
ing continued  to  impute  political  motives  to  the  originators  of 
the  plans  for  propagating  the  Gospel  at  home^  is  characteristic 
of  the  angry  spirit  which  disturbed  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  arose  out  of  the  panic  produced  by  the  French 
Revolution.  The  proposal  to  put  down  field-preaching  by  legis- 
lative interference,  was  not  then  an  unmeaning  threat,  and  it 
was  no  fault  of  the  leaders  of  the  Moderate  party,  that  the  power 
of  Government  was  not  exerted  in  support  of  the  pastoral 
admonition. 

The  correspondence  with  Professor  Bobison  records  his  deep 
regret  for  the  error  he  had  committed,  and  his  pi-omise  to 
publish  a  full  apology.  The  editor  of  the  "Anti-Jacobin 
Review,'^  whilst  appearing  to  correct  the  Professor^s  uninten- 
tional calumny,  was  still  eager  to  keep  up  the  excitement,  by 
suggesting  that  Mr.  Haldane's  conduct,  in  sacrificing  his  estate, 
was  to  be  attributed  to  the  frenzy  of  revolutionary  zeal. 

T 


274        ATTACK    OP   THE    "ANTI-JACOBIN    REVIEW. 


9i 


"  We  have  reason  to  be  assured/'  says  the  editor,  "  that  a  sect  is  just 
now  forming  in  Scotland  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  sapping  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  established  by  law.  At  the  head  of 
that  sect  is  the  gentleman,  who,  in  the  first  edition  of  Professor  Robison's 
'Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy/  &c.,  was  said  to  have  expressed  his  readiness 
*to  wade  to  the  knees  in  blood  for  the  purpose  of  overturning  every 
establishment  of  religion/  From  the  postscript  to  the  second  edition  of 
the  Professor's  valuable  work,  we  learn  that  Mr.  H.  disclaims  all  san- 
l^inary  proceedings ;  and  we  doubt  not,  but,  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  French  Revolution,  D'Alembert,  Diderot,  and  Condorcet,  would  have 
■aid  the  same.  The  zeal,  however,  of  Mr.  Haldane  against  Establish- 
ments, must  be  very  ardent ;  for  it  has  prompted  him  to  sell  a  beautiful 
estate,  and  to  apply  part  of  the  price  to  the  endowment  of  a  seminar^'  in 
Glasgow,  for  the  express  purpose  of  educating  itinerant  preachers,  who 
may  propagate  the  Gospel  in  purity,  wherever  it  is  contaminated  by  tlie 
baleful  influence  of  Establishments." 

To  this  disgraceful  and  injurious  calumny,  Mr.  Haldane  wrote 
an  indignant  contradiction,  which  the  "  Anti-Jacobin '*  was 
compelled  to  insert.     A  few  extracts  may  suflSce. 

"  You  have  asserted  that  there  is  a  sect  now  forming  in  Scotland,  at 
the  head  of  which  I  am,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  sapping  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  established  by  law.  You  have  also 
said  that  seal  against  Establishments  has  prompted  me  to  sell  my  estate. 
lliese  assertions.  Sir,  are  both  absolutely  false.  The  public  whom  you 
have  misled,  must  therefore  be  undeceived,  and,  although  you  have  no 
title  to  any  concession  from  me,  I  now  inform  you,  that  while  I  use  the 
liberty  of  every  British  subject,  to  judge  for  myself  in  matters  of  religion, 
80  far  from  avowing  it,  /  never  entertained^  in  my  mind,  the  most  distant 
idea  of  tapping  the  foundations  of  the  Established  Church:  and  that  it  was 
not  for  this  purpose  I  sold  my  estate. 

<<  I  must  request  you  to  insert  this  letter  in  your  next  number ;  and 
thus  at  least  show  yourself  as  ready  to  vindicate  where  you  have  injured, 
and  to  retract  where  you  have  been  misled,  as  to  censure  and  make  public 
what  you  conceive  to  be  reprehensible. 

"  I  am.  Sir,  &c., 

"  Robert  IIaldane. 

"  Edinburgh  June  26<A,  1 799." 

These  reiterated,  persevering,  and  malicious  attacks  at  last 
determined  Mr.  Haldane  to  yield  to  the  advice  of  his  friends, 
to  publish  a  narrative  of  his  proceedings,  and  a  statement  of 
his   opinions.      He  did  so,  in   a  widely  circulated  pamphlet. 


ADDRESS    ON    POLITICS.  275 

alike  remarkable  for  its  clearness^  its  candour^  and  its  ability^ 
intituled^  "Address  to  the  Public,  by  Robert  Haldane,  concern- 
ing Political  Opinions,  and  Plans  lately  adopted  to  promote 
Religion  in  Scotland."  The  first  edition  was  issued  when  the 
General  Assembly,  for  1800,  was  sitting,  and  it  produced  a 
strong  impression,  greatly  tending  to  put  to  shame  the  machina- 
tions of  those,  who  had  caliunniated  the  Home  Missionaries  and 
their  benevolent  designs.  It  bears  the  stamp  of  truth  on  every 
page,  whilst,  with  manly  frankness,  he  sketches  his  past  history 
with  as  Uttle  of  egotism  as  was  compatible  with  its  object,  and 
traces  to  their  source  every  one  of  the  plans  in  which  he  was 
engaged.  '  It  is  now  chiefly  interesting  as  the  record  of  his 
early  career,  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  narrative  has  been 
introduced  into  the  foregoing  pages,  as  containing  the  most 
authentic  account  of  his  conversion  to  God,  and  the  progress 
of  his  opinions. 

"  After  I  had  fully,  as  I  trust,  desired  to  submit  to  the  will  of  God, 
revealed  in  his  Word,  I  had  many  conscientious  scruples  respecting 
my  conduct,  as  it  regarded  politics.  I  saw  that  nothing  external  so  much 
influenced  human  afiairs  as  civil  government,  and  that  to  it,  in  a  great 
measure,  might  be  traced  the  various  opinions,  situation,  and  character, 
of  the  different  nations  in  the  world,  while  these  again  had  a  reciprocal 
effect,  and  stamped  the  character  of  the  other.  I  reflected  that,  becoming 
a  Christian,  I  did  not  cease  to  be  a  citizen ;  and  I  thought  that,  especially 
under  the  British  Constitution,  where  public  opinion  is  so  much  and  so 
justly  regarded,  it  was  my  duty  to  be  well-informed  in  that  science,  which 
regulates  and  directs  every  public  movement.  I  was  persuaded  that  good 
general  principles  upon  that  subject  were  of  great  service  to  the  world, 
and  therefore  thought  it  my  duty  to  inform  myself,  as  far  as  possible, 
concerning  these,  and  carefully  to  store  them  up  in  my  mind. 

"  I  however  began  clearly  to  perceive  that  the  Scriptures  require  the 
most  conscientious  and  cheerful  submission  to  the  Government  of  the 
country,  whatever  it  may  be,  stating  it  to  be  the  ordinance  or  appointment 
of  God  himself  to  mankind  for  good. 

"  Soon  afterwards  it  forcibly  struck  my  mind,  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
himself,  and  his  apostles,  whose  example  we  are  called  to  imitate,  though 
living  in  their  own  country  of  Judea,  had  not  at  all  intermeddled  with 
the  subject :  then  why  might  not,  or  rather  why  ought  not  I,  to  follow 
them  in  this  respect?  This  entirely  satisfied  my  mind.  I  reflected 
further,  that  such  conduct  appeared  in  itself  the  best,  as  Christians  could 

T   2 


276  ADDRESS    ON    POLITICS. 

do  much  more  good,  by  calling  men's  attention  to  the  concerns  of  a  future 
world,  than  to  their  own  depravity,  and  to  the  Gospel  of  salvation,  than 
in  being  so  much  occupied  with  the  arrangements  of  time,  or  turning 
their  attention  so  often  to  the  faults  or  defects  of  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world.  I  immediately  perceived  the  good  effects  that  flowed  from 
the  Apostles*  conduct  in  this  respect.  The  doctrine  which  they  preached 
wrought  a  rapid,  and  though  gradual,  yet  a  powerful  change ;  and  what 
philosophy,  humanity,  and  political  science,  had  been  unable  to  accom- 
plish, the  preaching  of  the  Cross,  and  the  noble  moral  principles  connected 
therewith  innensibly  effected.  The  cruel  treatment  of  prisoners,  the  shows 
of  gladiators,  the  exposing  of  infants,  domestic  slavery,  and  many  other 
glaring  evils  which  disgraced  society,  but  which  the  Apostles  had  never 
directly  attacked,  fell  before  the  irresistible  energy  of  their  peaceful 
doctrine.  The  example  of  the  Apostles  then,  in  this  respect,  I  resolved 
to  endeavour  steadily  to  pursue.  I  have  since  done  so,  and  of  this  resolu- 
tion I  do  not  repent  I  was  even  much  inclined  to  follow  it  a  consider- 
able time  befbre  the  period  above  mentioned,  and  before  I  could  fully 
satisfy  my  mind  of  the  propriety  of  doing  so,  I  perceived  that,  in  this 
world,  Christians  should  beware,  as  much  as  possible,  of  adding  to  the 
*  offence  of  the  Cross,*  and  this  strongly  inclined  me  to  it.  The  humiliating 
method  of  salvation  through  a  merciful  Saviour,  *  not  by  works  of  righte- 
ousness that  we  have  done,  but  by  the  washing  of  regeneration,  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,*  will,  of  itself,  be  sufficiently  offensive  and 
irritating  to  the  proud,  unhumbled  heart  of  an  unconverted  man.** 

Mr.  Haldane  next  declares  his  views  of  the  Scriptural  doctrine 
of  obedience,  founded  not  on  the  Divine  right  of  a  particular 
dynasty,  but  on  the  character  of  the  existing  Government,  as 
''the  ordinance  of  God."  The  firmness  and  consistency  of  his 
opinions,  when  once  formed,  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the 
last  edition  of  his  '  Commentary  on  the  Romans,^  which  he  pub- 
lished in  1842,  shortly  before  his  death,  and  in  a  letter  to 
the  ''Edinburgh  Christian  Instructor,'^  published  in  1840. 
They  are  the  same  sentiments  as  those  which  Joseph  Milner 
represents,  as  the  opinions  of  the  primitive  Christians,  and  adopts 
as  his  own. 

Mr.  Haldane  steadily  adhered  to  his  principle  of  imitating 
the  early  Christians,  in  not  intermeddling  with  politics,  till  the 
year  1837,  when,  imder  a  conviction  that  the  spirit  of  Reform, 
unsatisfied  by  the  large  concessions  obtained  in  1832,  was 
rather  tending  to  revolution,  he  rode  to  Airdrie,  from  his  house 


NATIONAL    CHURCH    ESTABLISHMENTS.  277 

at  Auchingray,  and,  undeterred  by  popular  excitement,  after  an 
interval  of  more  than  forty  years,  gave  his  vote  as  a  freeholder. 
The  Lanarkshire  election  turned  upon  a  single  vote,  and  as  Mr. 
Haldane  not  only  voted  himself,  but  influenced  the  votes  of  twelve 
other  electors,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  decision  of  the  election 
was  justly  traced  to  him.  It  may  be,  that  he  carried  his  views 
of  non-intervention  too  far,  and  he  himself  admitted  that,  as  a 
magistrate,  a  legislator,  or  a  freeholder,  a  Christian  had  political 
and  social  duties  to  perform.  But,  in  reality,  he  only  argued 
that  to  abstain  from  interfering  was  a  privilege,  and  that  if  a 
Christian  did  interfere,  he  was  bound  to  remember  that  govern- 
ment is  not  the  ordinance  of  man  but  of  God. 

In  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Address,''  Mr.  Haldane  states 
his  views  with  regard  to  National  Church  Establishments.  His 
sentiments  on  that  subject  indicate  the  ruling  principle  which 
guided  all  his  movements,  from  the  time  that  he  was  brought 
under  the  influence  of  the  truth. 

**  In  the  first  edition,  I  announced  my  intention  of  a  second  publication. 
At  that  time  I  had  not  a  doubt  that  this  would  be  rendered  necessary  by 
the  proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly,  then  sitting.  I  meant  in  it 
to  have  stated  more  fully  my  sentiments  respecting  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishments, but  especially  to  have  taken  notice  of  the  pastoral  admonition, 
the  conduct  of  the  clergy  in  that  business,  and  of  any  further  steps  they 
might  have  taken  on  the  same  subject  in  the  last  Assembly.  I  was  happy, 
however,  to  find  this  unnecessary,  a  different  line  of  conduct  from  what 
was  expected  having  been  adopted  by  the  Assembly,  and  the  charges 
formally  advanced,  I  trust,  finally  abandoned.  With  regard  to  eccle- 
siastical establishments,  it  is  sufficient  in  this  place  to  declare,  that  what- 
ever my  sentiments  respecting  the  good  or  evil  attending  them  may  be, 
I  have  no  hostile  designs  (as  has  often  been  said)  against  the  Established 
Church.  I  have  avowed,  in  the  strongest  manner,  my  decided  persuasion, 
that  aU  violence  in  religion  is  criminal  and  absurd.  Besides,  /  would 
much  rather  build  up  than  pull  dowtiy  and,  if  possible,  add  to  the  means  of 
instruction  of  my  fellow-creatures,  than  in  any  way  diminish  them.  While 
every  man,  in  religious  matters,  ought  conscientiously  to  abide  by  his 
opinions  derived  from  Scripture,  there  is  room  enough  in  the  world  for  all 
to  exert  themselves  in  doing  good,  without  different  parties  devouring 
each  other." 

From  these  views  Mr.  Haldane  never  departed,  and,  on  the 
contrary,  towards  the  close  of  life,  became  less  and  less  disposed 


278  BILL   AGAINST    UNLICENSED    PREACHING. 

to  puU  down  systems^  differing  from  those  of  which  he  more 
particularly  approved.  Ilia  "Address^'  for  ever  silenced  the 
calumnies^  which  had  been  circulated  with  reference  to  the 
political  designs  of  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  at 
Home.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  publication  was  vciy 
useful^  as  there  was  a  most  alarming  project  in  contempla- 
tion for  curtailing  the  right  of  preachings  and  otherwise  inter- 
fering with  religious  liberty.  Apart  from  other  evidence,  this 
intention  appears  from  papers  found  in  Mr.  Wilberforce's 
repositories,  and  mentioned  in  his  Diary,  as  well  as  from 
other  documents.  Indeed  it  was  twelve  years  afterwards  openly 
stated  in  the  House  of  Peers,  by  Lord  Redesdale,  that  Mr. 
Pittas  Bill  was  much  stronger  than  the  subsequent  abortive 
measure  of  Lord  Sidmouth.  In  fact,  it  would  have  put  an  end 
to  all  unauthorized  preaching,  and  rendered  it  difficult  to  obtain 
a  license.  Mr.  Haldane  was  not  easily  susceptible  of  fear,  but 
in  a  letter,  dated  the  14th  of  April,  1800,  he  wrote  to  his  friend, 
Mr.  Hardcastle,  urging  that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  avert 
the  threatened  blow.  He  offers  to  proceed  himself  to  London, 
in  order  personally  to  put  Mr.  Wilberforce  and  Mr.  Thornton  in 
possession  of  all  his  views  and  plans.  He  adds :  ^^  Should  not  an 
earnest  address  be  circulated  to  all  the  Dissenters  in  every  part  of 
England,  calling  on  them  to  join  so  many  evenings  every  week 
for  fervent  prayer,  to  avert  this  catastrophe.  The  Lord  reigns, 
and  can  easily  stop  it.  This  morning  I  read,  in  course,  of 
the  repentance  of  Nineveh,  and  of  the  Lord's  averting  judg- 
ment. He  may  do  the  same  on  our  behalf,  for  the  sake  of  his 
own  cause.'' 

It  was  not  necessary  for  Mr.  Haldane  to  wait  on  Mr.  Wilber- 
force to  instruct  him  as  to  the  danger.  Mr.  Wilberforce  himself 
declared,  that  he  was  "never  so  much  moved  by  any  public 
measure,"  and  that,  if  carried,  it  would  have  been  "the  most 
fatal  blow,  both  to  Church  and  State,  which  had  been  struck 
since  the  Restoration."  Through  the  blessing  of  God,  on  the 
remonstrances  addressed  to  Mr.  Pitt,  the  menaced  evil  was 
averted,  and  the  crisis  passed  over. 

Mr.    Pitt's     threatened    Bill    for     preventing    imlicensed 


TOUR   TO    AEttAN    AND    KINTYRE.  279 

preaching  put  no  arrest  on  Mr.  James  Haldane's  itinerating  plans. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hardcastle,  in  the  spring  of  1800^  Mr. 
Campbell  remarks^  ^^  We  are  preparing  in  the  course  of  next 
summer  to  make  another  attack  on  the  kingdom  of  Satan/' 
He  was  anticipating  the  campaign  in  which  he  was  about  to 
become  the  substitute  of  Mr.  Aikman.  Mr.  Campbell  had 
now  altogether  relinquished  secular  pursuits^  and^  at  the 
solicitations  of  his  two  friends^  entirely  devoted  his  time  and 
energies  to  that  cause  to  which  his  heart  had  long  been  conse- 
crated. He  had  gone  to  Glasgow,  where,  in  watching  over  the 
interests  of  the  Seminary,  he  himself  enjoyed  the  advantage  of 
Mr.  Swing's  tuition  and  the  scientific  lectures  of  Dr.  Birkbeck. 
Mr.  Campbell  had  not  rashly  adopted  this  step,  but  had  con- 
sulted with  such  men  as  Newton,  Scott,  Booth,  Fuller,  Charles 
of  Bala,  Stewart  of  Moulin,  Claudius  Buchanan  of  India^  and 
other  Christians,  both  Churchmen  and  Dissenters. 

It  was  on  the  9th  June,  1800,  that,  pursuant  to  the  pro- 
posed plan,  Mr.  James  Haldane  set  out  on  his  fourth  summer 
campaign,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Campbell.  The  usual  request 
for  the  prayers  of  the  Lord's  people,  which  always  preceded 
these  excursions,  is  inserted  in  the  "  Missionary  Magazine,'^ 
'^  that  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  may  render  the  important  object 
of  this  journey  eflfectual  in  the  conversion  of  many  sinners." 
The  next  number  of  the  same  magazine,  dated  21st  July,  men- 
tions that  the  journey  appeared  to  be  prosperous,  "  by  the  will 
of  God;'^  that  after  leaving  Edinburgh,  they  had  preached  that 
evening  and  next  morning  in  Peebles,  and  proceeded  by  Biggar 
and  Douglas  to  Ayr,  preaching  every  day  in  the  intervening 
towns  and  villages.  In  his  Journal,  Mr.  Campbell,  in  his  usual 
graphic  style,  writes :  "  I  hope  I  shall  bless  God  for  ever  for 
this  journey.  We  are  really  a  gazing-stock  to  men.  Wherever 
we  go  in  a  town,  doors  and  windows  are  everywhere  thrown  open 
to  allow  those  within  to  examine  our  appearance  as  we  pass  along. 
When  we  enter  a  town  we  generaUy  disperse  a  few  pamphlets, 
to  notify  that  the  missionaries  are  arrived ;  then,  after  putting 
up  our  horse,  we  take  a  walk  through  the  town,  to  tell  the 
people  of  the  sermon.    This,  along  with  drum,  horn,  or  bell 


280  PORTPATRICK. 

(according  to  the  custom  of  the  place),  makes  our  intention 
generally  known.  Last  night  I  heard  some  of  the  hearers,  after 
the  sermon,  expressing  their  surprise  that  there  was  no  collec- 
tion. ^They  cannot  he  poor  men,^  said  another.  'I  cannot 
tell  what  they  are,^  said  a  third.^^  The  reader  will  remember 
the  magisterial  opposition  which  Mr.  James  Ilaldane  had,  two 
years  before,  encountered  and  surmounted  at  Ayr.  At  this 
time  he  there  spent  two  Sundays,  and  instead  of  experiencing 
opposition,  was  recognised  and  welcomed  by  one  of  the  magis- 
trates, whilst  the  people  flocked  in  crowds  to  hear,  so  that 
congregations  in  the  open  air,  amounting  to  3,000  and  even 
5,000  souls,  "  heard  the  word  with  much  attention.^'  On  one 
of  these  occasions  Dr.  M'Gill,  whose  Socinianism  had  brought 
a  scandal  on  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  General  Assembly, 
was  amongst  Mr.  Haldane's  audience.  It  was  of  Dr.  M'Gill 
that  it  is  reported  that  he  proposed  to  sign  the  Confession  of 
Faith  with  the  lettei-s  E.  E.  appended,  meaning,  errors  excepted. 
At  Ayr,  on  Simday,  29th  June,  Mr.  Campbell  writes ;  "  Mr. 
H.  preached  in  the  evening  to  about  4,000.  Many  of  the 
gentry  were  present.  His  text  was  1  Cor.  i.  18.  God  gave 
him  the  opening  of  the  mouth.  He  told  them  part  of  his  own 
histor}'.  I  sat  at  the  outside.  I  beheve  not  above  forty  people 
went  away  till  after  the  blessing  was  pronounced,  which  was  at 
nine  o'clock.  Afterwards  a  gentleman  called  on  Mr.  H.,  who 
had  been  much  affected  by  the  sermon.  Understood  that  a 
good  many  had  been  brought  under  concern  about  the  world  to 
come  by  the  last  visit  of  Mr.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Aikman.'^  At 
Ballintrac,  "  the  Excise  officer  said,  that  since  Mr.  J.  Haldane's 
last  ^  isit  the  people  had  become  much  more  orderly  on  the  Sab- 
bath.'' "  At  Portpatrick,"  says  Mr.  Campbell,  "  Mr.  Haldane 
preached  at  the  bottom  of  a  stupendous  rock  at  the  north-west 
side  of  the  town.  The  waves  were  rolling  mountains  high  about 
a  hundred  yards  below  us.  The  scene  was  solemn.  Mr.  H. 
made  many  allusions  to  the  troubled  sea.  The  people  were  very 
attentive.  About  eight  people  belonging  to  the  inn  attended 
worship."  At  Stranraer  Mr.  H.  preached  to  about  1,000  people. 
At  Stoncykirk,   after   he   concluded,    "1  overheard  a  woman 


ARRAN.  281 


telling  her  neighbour  that  she  had  heard  him  before  at  Mauch- 
Hne,  and  never  was  so  impressed  with  a  sermon  in  her  life/' 
"  They  are  now,"  says  the  magazine,  citing  a  letter  from  these 
Home  Missionaries,  "  on  their  way  to  Dumfries,  but  their  pro- 
gress must  be  slow,  as  each  of  them  preaches  once,  and  very 
often  twice,  every  day.  We  have  mentioned  these  circumstances 
merely  to  remind  our  readers  of  the  necessity  of  being  instant 
in  prayer  for  the  Divine  blessing  on  the  seed  of  the  word/' 
Several  instances  '^  of  the  happy  eflfects  of  the  preaching  of  the 
Grospel  in  the  Circus '^  are  then  alluded  to;  and  it  is  added,  in 
the  spirit  which  always  from  first  to  last  characterized  their 
labours,  "  The  Lord  works  by  whom  he  will ;  and  we  rejoice  in 
hearing  of  the  conversion  of  sinners  by  whomsoever  the  Lord  is 
pleased  to  effect  it." 

There  was  little  of  egotism  on  the  part  of  James  Haldane, 
and  he  has  left  few  written  traces  of  his  extensive  labours  in  hit 
own  countrj'.  But  happily  Mr.  John  Campbell  kept  a  journal, 
and  from  his  MSS.,  as  well  as  from  conversational  memoranda 
and  epistolary  correspondence,  many  interesting  details  have 
been  preserved  of  these  tours.  It  was  during  the  summer  of 
1800,  that,  after  visiting  the  little  island  of  Cumbray,  and  the 
beautiful  shores  of  Bute,  Mr.  J.  Haldane  sailed  over  to  Arran 
and  preached  in  all  its  villages.  The  ignorance  of  the  Celtic 
inhabitants  was  great,  and  as  an  instance  of  their  rude  manners^ 
he  mentioned,  at  his  Jubilee  Meeting,  in  1849,  that  on  a  sacra- 
mental occasion  he  had  been  present  in  a  parish  church,  where 
there  was  a  pause,  and  none  of  the  people  seemed  disposed  to 
approach  the  tables.  On  a  sudden  he  heard  the  crack  of  sticks, 
and  looking  round,  saw  one  descend  on  the  bald  head  of  a  man 
behind  him.  It  was  the  ruling  elders  driving  the  poor  High- 
landers forward  to  the  table,  much  in  the  same  manner  as  they 
were  accustomed  to  pen  their  cattle.  Had  this  happened  in 
a  remote  comer  of  Popish  Ireland  it  would  have  been  less 
wonderful,  but  the  Gaelic  population  of  Arran  seemed  accus* 
tomed  to  submit  to  this  rough  discipline  without  a  murmur. 

Mr.  Campbell's  Journal  supplies  a  continuation  of  the  narra- 
tive of  their  tour.     He  says :— 


282  KINTYEE. 

^^  On  reaching  the  west  side  of  Arran  we  observed  a  long 
neck  of  land  stretching  towards  the  northern  coast  of  Ireland. 
On  inquiry  we  found  it  was  Kintyre ;  towards  the  south  end  of 
which  was  Campbelton^  the  chief  town^  having  a  considerable 
population.  As  our  parish  extended  to  wherever  there  were 
human  beings^  and  hearing  that  there  was  not  one  Gospel 
preacher  in  the  whole  range  of  seventy  miles,  except  in  the 
chief  town,  we  determined  to  pay  it  a  visit.  We  engaged  a 
boat,  and  left  Arran  in  the  afternoon,  making  towards  that  part 
of  the  coast  where  there  was  a  little  inn,  which  we  did  not  reach 
till  about  ten  o^clock  at  night,  and  dark.  After  scrambUng  over 
the  rocks  on  the  beach,  the  seamen  led  us  to  the  inn,  where  we 
found  the  inmates  fast  asleep;  but  the  landlord  was  easily 
roused,  struck  a  Ught,  and  soon  cooked  us  a  Highland  supper, 
which  is  universally  ham  and  eggs.  He  seemed  to  be  quite 
exhilarated,  being  evidently  willing  to  do  his  best  to  make  us 
comfortable,  so  that  it  would  have  been  cruel  to  have  found 
fault  with  anything.  He  had  been  in  the  army,  and  readily 
joined  us  in  our  evening  worship.  He  informed  us  that  there 
were  people  Uving  not  far  from  him,  who  would  come  to  sermon 
in  the  morning  in  front  of  his  house.  But  only  three  persons 
came,  with  whom  we  had  a  Uttle  conversation.  We  then  pro- 
ceeded to  Campbclton,  where  we  stopped  for  several  days, 
preaching  mornings  and  evenings  on  the  green  slope  of  a  hill, 
to  about  1,000  people  in  the  morning,  and  about  1,500  in  the 
evening,  and  twice  in  the  neighbouring  villages  during  the  day. 
I  remember  on  a  lovely  summer  evening,  while  preaching  to  a 
very  large  congregation,  a  female  not  far  from  me  stood  up, 
and,  with  a  stentorian  voice,  said,  ^Who  are  you?  Speak 
OaeUc !  You  are  like  our  Pinkerton, — we  do  not  understand 
you !  Speak  Gaelic  I '  I  was  surprised  that  no  one  came  for- 
ward to  compel  her  either  to  be  silent  or  to  go  away,  though 
there  were  several  respectable  persons  around  the  chair  on  which  • 
I  stood.  So  I  was  obUged  to  stop  and  reprove  her;  and  Mr. 
Haldane  came  from  a  distant  part  of  the  congregation,  took  her 
by  the  arm,  led  her  out,  and  ordered  her  away,  with  which  she 
complied.    .When  the  service  was  over,  I  expressed  surprise  that 


MAGISTERIAL    OPPOSITION.  283 

none  of  the  persons  near  me  had  interfered.  They  said  they 
durst  not^  for  she  would  have  rushed  upon  them  and  torn  their 
faces  with  her  nails.  '  That  woman^'  said  one  of  them,  '  rules 
the  town  magistrates^  and  all  of  us.  She  knows  the  history  of 
us  all  as  far  back  as  our  grandfathers  at  least.  In  most 
families  something  wrong  has  happened ;  if  any  offend  her^  she 
publishes  over  the  town  whatever  bad  things  have  been  done  by 
any  of  their  progenitors  during  past  generations.  In  that  way 
she  rules  the  town.'  The  cause  of  her  insanity  was  very 
affecting.'' 

But  their  progress  was  not  destined  to  be  so  peaceful^  nor 
their  interruptions  so  easily  removed.  By  the  advice  of  friendi 
at  Campbelton  they  had  employed  a  messenger  to  go  down  to 
Kintyre^  and  intimate  four  sermons  each  day  at  the  different 
villages.  The  clergy  were  all  Moderate.  They  were,  for  the 
most  part,  deeply  immersed  in  farming,  fishing,  or  trading  iu 
sheep  and  cattle.  Their  official  duties,  if  performed  at  all,  were 
performed  in  the  most  careless  manner,  and  many  of  them 
were  Socinians.*  At  their  instigation  the  Highland  chiefs 
combined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  itinerancies  in  their  neighbour- 
hood. One  of  the  gentlemen,  more  zealous  than  the  rest,  a 
military  man  and  heir  to  a  baronetcy,  encountered  the  mis- 
sionaries at  a  place  where  he  had  intended  to  stop  them,  but 
had  not  arrived  in  time.  It  was  there  that  he  first  gave  notice 
that  the  magistrates  had  resolved  to  allow  of  no  more  field- 
preaching.  Mr.  James  Haldane  plainly  told  the  Gallant  Major, 
as  he  had  told  the  magistrates  at  Ayr,  that  the  justices  were 
exceeding  their  powers,  that  such  an  illegal  mandate  would  not 
be  obeyed,  and  that  he  should  certainly  preach  at  the  places 
where  sermons  had  been  already  intimated.  The  Major^ 
although  somewhat  disconcerted  by  the  calm  determination 
with  which  he  was  met,  repeated  his  prohibition,  and  said  he 
should  be  at  their  next  place  of  meeting  before  them.  He  was 
as  good  as  his  word,  but  faltered  in  his  own  resolution.  He  sat 
on  horseback  during  Mr.  J.  Haldane's  sermon,  in  a  scarlet 
hunting-coat,  witnessed  tracts  distributed  amongst  the  people; 

*  Struther's  History,  p.  399. 


284  MAGISTERIAL    ARREST. 

but  without  mustering  courage  to  offer  any  interruption,  saw 
both  of  the  itinerants  mount  their  horses  and  depart.  Soon 
after^  the  Major,  attended  by  his  groom,  passed  them  at  a  hand 
gallop,  and  then  pulling  up,  turned  round  once  more,  appa- 
rently resolved  on  putting  in  force  the  arrest  which  he  contem- 
plated. But  as  often  as  his  eye  encountered  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s 
unflinching  glance,  his  courage  seemed  to  fail,  and  he  passed 
on.  Arriving  at  Whitehouse,  which  was  the  next  preaching 
station,  the  Major  was  joined  by  the  parish  minister  and  several 
magistrates,  all  on  horseback,  and  full  of  excitement.  Field- 
preaching  was  one  of  those  things  which  seemed  beyond  the 
reach  of  their  philosophy,  and  to  persist  in  it  after  their  prohi- 
bition^ appeared  to  these  little  chieftains  like  "bearding  the 
lion  in  his  den,  the  Douglas  in  his  hall.^^  It  was  evident  that  a 
great  blow  was  meditated.  Still  Mr.  James  Haldane,  in  sight 
of  the  assembled  magistrates,  left  the  inn  to  preach  in  the 
middle  of  the  town,  and,  strange  to  say,  against  him  none  of  all 
the  party  ventured  to  execute  the  arrest.  The  people  were, 
however,  so  much  intimidated  by  the  dread  of  their  chiefs  and 
of  the  magistrates,  that,  for  the  most  part,  they  stood  and 
listened  at  a  distance.  Mr.  CampbelPs  duty  was  to  preach  at 
an  adjoining  village,  and  although  his  friend  was  left  unmo- 
lested in  the  town,  yet  no  sooner  did  he  set  out,  than,  to  use 
his  own  words,  he  was  "  followed  by  the  person  in  the  red 
coat,  and  ordered  by  him,  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  to  return  to 
Whitehouse,  which  I  did,  and  put  my  horse  into  the  stable  till 
Mr.  Haldane  returned  from  preaching."  Mr.  Campbell  was  a 
man  of  great  faith  and  strong  passive  courage,  but  he  was  little 
of  stature,  and  had  not  much  of  that  bearing  which,  more 
especially  on  occasions  of  difficulty,  characterized  his  companion. 
On  his  return  from  preaching,  Mr.  J.  Haldane  was  surprised 
to  find  Mr.  Campbell  a  prisoner  at  large.  But  to  bring  matters 
to  an  issue,  he  coolly  ordered  their  horses  to  be  saddled,  whilst 
he  advised  Mr.  Campbell  to  go  to  the  gentlemen  who  were 
assembled  in  the  adjoining  room  along  with  the  parish  minister^ 
and  inquire  by  what  authority  he  was  ordered  to  return  to 
Whitehouse.     They  replied,  pointing  to  a  sealed  paper,  "  There 


SHERIFF    OF    AROYLL.  285 

is  a  warrant  to  send  you  to  the  Sheri£f  of  Argyll;  and  the 
volunteers  who  are  to  attend  you  will  be  ready  in  a  few 
minutes/'  The  parish  minister  had^  on  the  previous  Sunday^ 
silenced  their  messenger^  who  was  announcing  the  preachings  to 
the  people  as  they  were  coming  out  of  church.  Standing  with 
a  heavy  leaded  whip  in  his  hand^  he  exclaimed^  ^'  If  you  repeat 
that  notice^  with  one  stroke  of  my  whip  PU  send  you  into  the 
eternal  world!'' 

Mr.  Campbell's  Journal  continues  the  narrative  of  their  pro- 
gress under  arrest : — 

"A  sergeant^  with  a  party  of  volunteers  in  their  uniforms^ 
being  arrived,  we  were  told  we  might  stop  where  we  pleased; 
that  the  soldiers  had  only  directions  to  see  that  we  went  to  the 
Sheriff.  As  the  soldiers  had  no  horses,  of  course  our  progress 
was  slow.  After  dark,  we  arrived  at  the  town  where  we  should 
have  preached,  and  learned  that  a  congregation  had  assembled, 
and  did  not  disperse  till  it  was  almost  dark.  We  took  up  our 
quarters  at  a  good  inn.  As  it  was  our  custom  to  have  worship 
at  all  the  inns  where  we  halted,  we  had  it  there,  and  desired  the 
landlord  to  invite  as  many  of  his  neighbours  to  attend  as  he 
pleased.  The  room,  which  was  of  a  good  size,  was  well  filled,  and 
our  volunteers  all  attended.  A  chapter  of  the  Bible  was  read, 
and  an  address  founded  upon  it  being  given,  and  prayer  offered, 
the  company  dispersed.  Next  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  we  set 
off,  and  had  about  fifteen  miles  to  march  to  Lochgilphead  to 
breakfast.  While  at  breakfast  an  old  man  called,  who  said,  'We 
heard  of  your  coming,  and  of  your  having  arrived  at  the  inn ; 
and  though  I  have  been  a  soldier  in  the  German  wars  of  '56,  and 
seen  many  prisoners,  yet  never  having  seen  any  prisoners  for 
preaching  the  Gospel,  I  thought  it  was  my  duty  to  call  upon 
you,  and  therefore  am  I  come.  But  you  will  have  some  things 
to  converse  about  among  yourselves,  I  therefore  wish  you  good 
morning.'  On  conversing  a  little  with  him,  he  withdrew.  After 
an  interview  with  a  Justice  of  Peace,  to  whose  care  we  had  been 
committed,  we  went  on  to  the  Sheriff's,  about  seven  miles 
farther,  under  the  care  of  the  postmaster." 

To  the  Sheriff  they  were  very  unwelcome  visitors.     He  was  an 


286  LIBERATED    BY    THE    SHERIFF. 

old  man^  and  having  been  apprised  of  their  comings  was  by  no 
means  disposed  to  commit  himself  to  the  violent  proceedings  of 
the  anti-preaching  chiefs.  He  put  sevei^al  questions,  which  were 
satisfactorily  answered^  and  after  consulting  nith  a  gejitleman 
who  sat  with  him  as  his  adviser,  he  said,  "  But  have  you  taken 
the  oaths  to  Government  ?  '^  Mr.  James  Haldane  replied  that 
they  had  not,  but  that  they  were  ready  to  do  so  instantly.  The 
Sheriff  said  that  he  had  not  a  copy  of  the  oaths,  and  that  they 
must  therefore  go  to  Inverary  for  the  purpose.  The  words  of 
the  Toleration  Act  were  quoted,  to  show  that,  '^  if  required  to 
take  the  oaths,  they  were  to  be  administered  before  the  nearest 
Magistrate.^^  "  Now,''  said  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  "  you  are  the 
nearest  Magistrate.  We  are  peaceable,  loyal  subjects,  trans- 
gressing no  law,  and  prepared  to  do  all  that  the  law  requires,  but 
to  Inverary  we  will  not  go,  except  as  your  prisoners  and  on  your 
responsibility.''  The  Sheriff  had  wished  to  make  the  affair  a 
drawn  battle,  and  to  screen  the  magistrates  from  blame,  at  the 
same  time  that  he  declined  to  act  against  the  preachers.  But 
Mr.  J.  Haldane  felt  the  importance  of  refusing  all  compromise^ 
and  of  bringing  the  question  to  issue.  The  Sheriff  was  there- 
fore obhged  to  give  way,  and  after  once  more  consulting  with 
his  friend,  said,  '^  Gentlemen,  you  are  at  hberty." 

The  consequences  were  important.  A  great  right  had  been 
vindicated,  and  the  lawfulness  of  field-preaching  admitted  by  the 
highest  judicial  authority  of  the  county.  The  itinerants  returned 
and  preached  at  all  the  villages  where  they  had  been  previously 
expected.  The  people  who  had  been  before  intimidated  from 
attending,  now  flocked  in  crowds  to  listen.  "  At  "VVhitehouse," 
says  Mr.  Campbell,  "when  Mr.  Haldane  returned,  the  whole 
town  seemed  to  have  turned  out."  "He  was,"  said  another 
who  was  present,  "  in  one  of  his  finest  keys,"  and  preached  with 
an  eloquence,  a  fervour,  and  animation,  which  seemed  to  have 
acquired  redoubled  force  from  the  circumstances  in  which  he 
had  been  placed.  Mr.  Campbell,  too,  preached  with  good  effect 
in  the  neighbourhood ;  and  in  his  Journal  records  the  following 
anecdote,  which  serves  to  show  the  ignorance  of  the  Moderate 
ministers  of  that  day.     He  says :  "  I  remember  a  curious  intima- 


ANECDOTE.  287 

tion  which  a  parish  mkuster  gave  to  his  people  on  the  preceding 
Sabbath.  It  was  told  me  by  a  lady  who  was  present.  '  I  have 
to  inform  you  that  those  preachers  who  have  been  for  some  time 
disturbing  the  peace  of  the  country  are  expected  here  also^  but  I 
hope  you  will  give  them  no  encouragement.  It  is  possible  they 
may  preach  and  pray  better  than  I  do^  but  sure  I  am  they  have 
not  a  better  heart,*  ^' 

The  arrest  was  clearly  illegal^  and  the  Magistrates  concerned 
in  it  might  have  been  prosecuted,  more  especially  the  gentleman 
who,  to  use  the  words  of  a  Scotch  Judge  concerning  another 
affair  of  a  similar  kind,  acted  more  Uke  a  constable  than  a 
Justice  of  the  Peace.  It  is  believed  that  they  were  informed  of 
their  mistake  by  the  then  Lord  Chief  Justice  Clerk,  who  had 
met  the  party  on  the  road,  and  on  inquiring  the  meaning  of  the 
formidable  escort,  was  no  doubt  much  surprised.  But  there 
was  no  desire  to  be  litigious  or  revengeful.  It  was,  however,  a 
remarkable  coincidence,  and  one  which  will  not  be  overlooked  by 
those  who  remember  that  nothing  happens  by  chance,  that  the 
very  next  time  that  Mr.  Campbell  met  the  fox-hunting  Magis- 
trate, who  had  acted  towards  him  with  so  Uttle  chivalry,  was 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Abbey  of  Holyrood  at  Edinburgh, 
where  the  Major  was  himself  a  prisoner  at  large  within  the 
asylum  for  debtors.  It  may  be  added,  as  one  of  the  Uttle 
anecdotes  which  have  escaped  oblivion,  and  flit  across  the  scene 
amidst  the  lights  and  shades  of  these  bygone  days,  that  on  the 
morning  when  they  left  the  Sheriff  the  whole  party  were 
drenched  in  a  heavy  shower  of  rain.  Arriving  at  a  small  High- 
land inn,  they  called  for  breakfast  and  a  fire,  where  they  might 
dry  their  wet  clothes.  There  was  but  one  fire-place  in  the  hut, 
and  they  were  all  crowding  round  it,  with  their  coats  off,  some 
wrapped  in  tartan  plaids  or  blankets,  whilst  ham  and  eggs  were 
in  preparation.  Mr.  James  Haldane,  whose  naturally  joyous 
spirit  quickly  caught  the  ludicrousness  of  the  scene,  exclaimed. 
What  a  fine  subject  for  a  caricature :  Field-preachers  refreshing 
themselves  after  a  shower ! 

The  results  of  that  tour  to  Kintyre  were  not  evanescent,  as 
will  be  seen  from  Mr.  Campbell^s  accoimt  of  a  visit  which  he 


288  REVIVAL    TN    KINTYRK. 

made  to  the  same  district  two  years  after  'his  arrest.  It  appears 
that,  on  their  return  to  Edinburgh,  they  prevailed  on  a  worthy 
preacher,  who  was  a  native  of  the  place,  to  go  and  labour  in 
Kintyre.  He  had  just  finished  his  studies  at  Mr.  Haldane^s 
seminary  at  Glasgow,  besides  attending  the  College,  and  he 
keenly  felt  the  spiritual  destitution  and  ignorance  of  his  country- 
men. Before  Mr.  James  Haldane's  visit,  Kintyre  was,  as  Mr. 
Campbell  says,  a  kind  of  heathen  part  of  Scotland.  But  Mr. 
Macallum  agreed  to  go  and  occupy  the  fallow  ground,  now  for 
the  first  time  broken  up.  His  labours,  although  at  the  beginning 
attended  with  little  effect,  were  after  a  few  months  crowned 
with  signal  success,  as  will  be  seen  by  Mr.  CampbelPs  interesting 
narrative : — 

"  It  was  arranged  that  his  head  quarters  should  be  at  the  very  town  where 
we  were  arrested,  and  that  he  should  regularly  visit  out-stations  in  the 
region  round  about.  I  remember  the  first  evening  I  preached  there,  that  the 
sergeant  of  the  party  who  guarded  us  to  the  Sheriff  sat  at  my  right  hand 
in  his  regimentals,  which  he  had  previously  put  on  for  the  occasion,  and 
was  now  a  converted  man ;  and  on  my  left  sat  the  minister's  man,  also 
converted,  whose  case  was  somewhat  singular.  When  Mr.  Macallum  first 
went  there,  of  course  this  man  was  prohibited  from  ever  going  to  hear  him, 
but  one  evening  Mr.  Macallum  preached  in  a  bam  adjoining  to  the  minister*s 
stable,  indeed  only  separated  from  it  by  an  old  gable.  The  man  being  in 
the  stable  when  Mr.  Macallum  was  preaching,  and  observing  a  hole  in 
the  gable,  he  naturally  put  his  ear  to  it, — for  stolen  waters  are  sweet. 
The  Gospel  passed  through  this  hole  to  his  ear,  up  to  his  understanding, 
and  down  to  his  heart,  so  he  became  a  new  man,  and  his  soul  not  being 
able  to  live  without  food,  he  was  obliged  to  attend  the  ministry  of  Mr. 
Macallum,  and  consequently  lost  his  situation  at  the  manse  or  parsonage 
house. 

"  The  people  had  been  very  anxious  to  build  a  place  of  worship,  but  no 
proprietor  could  be  found  willing  to  part  with  a  piece  of  ground  for  that 
purpose ;  but  in  a  singular  way  their  work  was  accomplished.  There 
happened  to  be  a  contested  election,  in  which  the  minister  took  a  different 
side  from  the  landed  proprietor  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood,  which 
so  incensed  that  gentleman,  that,  to  be  revenged  on  him,  he  gave  to  Mr. 
Macallum  an  acre  of  ground  to  build  a  chapel  and  a  house  for  himself 
upon  it,  and  assisted  the  people  to  erect  them.  There  was  also  room  on 
the  ground  for  a  garden.  I  have  slept  in  the  house.  So  thus  God  can 
make  even  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him. 

"  I  paid  a  visit  with  Mr.  Macallum  and  a  young  man  to  the  western 
Bide  of  the  Island  of  Arran,  in  order  to  preach  at  a  few  places,  and  to 


REVIVAL    IN    KINTYRE.  289 

return  to  a  station  of  Mr.  Macallum's  to  preach  on  the  Sabbath.  The 
case  of  the  young  man  was  not  a  common  one.  He  had  been,  like  hia 
companions,  very  ignorant  and  careless.  He  heard  Mr.  Haldane  preach 
after  being  freed  from  his  arrest,  and  went  home  greatly  alarmed  about 
the  state  of  his  souL  He  could  neither  sleep  nor  work ;  his  poor  friends 
did  not  know  what  to  make  him, — some  recommending  one  medicine, 
others  to  make  trial  of  another.  All  failing,  they  were  recommended  to 
take  him  to  the  parish  minister  of  a  town  a  few  miles  off.  His  mother 
did  so.  He  inquired  of  the  mother  what  was  the  matter  with  him.  She 
said  she  could  not  tell,  but  he  could  neither  sleep  nor  work  for  fear  of  the 
day  of  judgment  and  hell.  The  minister  informed  her  that  a  person  had 
very  lately  come  to  the  town  to  teach  the  people  to  dance,  and  was  only 
to  remain  for  a  short  time;  he  therefore  advised  her  to  put  him  for  a 
month  under  his  tuition ;  he  had  little  doubt  but  he  would  be  relieved. 
She  took  lodgings  for  her  son,  and  placed  him  under  the  dancing-master 
for  a  month.  Of  course,  he  began  to  teach  him  how  to  make  one  foot 
point  to  the  east,  and  another  to  the  west,  and  so  on.  About  the  second 
day  he  got  tired  of  the  foolish  work,  jumped  out  of  the  window  of  the 
dancing-room,  ran  home  to  his  mother,  declaring  it  made  him  worse 
instead  of  better ;  so  he  gave  up  the  dancing. 

"  Not  long  after  this  Mr.  Macallum  arrived,  and  commenced  preaching 
in  the  neighbourhood.  The  young  man  went  to  hear  him,  and  was  greatly 
relieved  under  the  first  sermon.  During  our  visit  to  Arran  I  had  several 
conversations  with  him,  and  found  his  mind  peaceful,  and  very  desirous  to 
be  educated  for  the  ministry. 

*'  The  Saturday  being  stormy,  none  of  the  sailors  would  venture  to  take 
us  across  the  water  to  Kintyre.  On  rising  early  on  the  Sabbath  morning, 
we  found  the  wind  very  little  abated,  and  the  sailors  determined  not  to 
venture.  Hearing  of  a  larger  boat  about  two  miles  along  the  shore,  we 
walked  to  it,  and  prevailed  on  the  sailors  to  whom  it  belonged  to  attempt 
the  passage,  which  turned  out  to  be  a  very  rough  one.  But  the  greatest 
difficulty  was  when  we  got  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  shore,  which  was 
strewed  over  with  huge  rocks,  and  foaming  billows  dashing  over  them. 
The  sailors  of  course  had  taken  down  the  sail,  after  which  they  paused  for 
some  time  till  a  large  wave  had  retired  past  us,  when  all  immediately 
exerted  their  utmost  strength  at  the  oars,  and  the  helmsman  steered  the 
boat  in  a  serpentine  course  among  rocks  before  the  succeeding  wave  over- 
took us.  It  was  the  most  skilful  piece  of  seamanship  I  have  ever  witnessed. 
We  preached  near  the  spot  where  Mr.  Haldane  and  I  landed  two  years 
before,  when  only  about  three  persons  came  to  hear ;  now  we  had  a 
congregation  of  upwards  of  400,  the  effect  of  Mr.  Macallum's  labours 
among  them.  On  leaving  them,  about  a  dozen  of  the  people  walked  on 
each  side  of  my  horse,  telling  what  miserable  creatures  they  were  when  I 
first  visited  their  country.    One  said  he  then  acted  as  fiddler  at  all  the 

u 


290  REVIVAL   IN    KINTYRE. 

dancing  weddings  round  about,  which  he  immediately  gave  up  when  his 
eyes  were  opened.  *  The  people  said  I  had  broken  my  fiddle  to  pieces, 
but  that  was  not  true/  An  aged,  grey-headed  man  then  said,  '  I  was  at 
that  time  chairman  of  a  whisky-toddy  meeting,  that  regularly  met  for  the 
purpose  of  drinking  whisky  and  water  in  the  evenings.  After  Mr. 
Macallum  came  amongst  us,  one  ceased  to  attend,  then  another  and 
another  did  the  same,  till  I  was  left  alone  in  the  chair.  I  began  then  to 
wonder  what  it  could  be  that  they  liked  better  than  good  Highland 
whisky.  This  determined  me  to  go  and  see ;  so  I  went  and  attended  the 
ministry  of  our  friend,  and  also  found  that  which  I  liked  better  than 
whisky-toddy.'  Thus  the  chair  was  vacated,  and  the  meeting  dissolved  by 
the  force  of  Gospel  truth.  Various  others  related  their  experience  as  we 
walked  along,  which  I  cannot  now  recollect,  and  have  no  written  memor- 
andum to  help  me.  What  was  rather  a  novelty  to  me,  was  that  I  found 
the  conversions  as  numerous  among  those  who  might  be  called  the  aged  as 
among  the  young,  which  is  seldom  the  case  where  the  Gospel  has  long  been 
preached.  But  in  that  part  of  the  country  I  did  not  hear  of  any  Gospel 
preacher  having  been  there  in  that  generation,  or  that  of  their  fathers, 
consequently  it  was  a  kind  of  heathen  part  of  Scotland.  So  it  was,  as 
among  the  heathens  abroad,  under  our  missionaries :  conversions  are  as 
frequent  among  the  old  as  the  young ;  for  if  the  Gospel  does  not  soften  it 
hardens ;  it  is  either  the  savour  of  life  or  death." 

It  is  also  related^  that  one  of  the  parish  ministers  having  in 
vain  tried  to  oppose  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  to  coun- 
teract its  effects^  became  so  miserable  in  witnessing  its  success^ 
that,  in  a  fit  of  despair,  he  threw  up  his  living  and  emigrated  to 
America. 

Such  were  the  direct  or  collateral  results  of  Mr.  James 
Haldane's  first  visit  to  Kintyre  with  his  excellent  friend,  for 
whose  earnest  faith,  practical  usefulness,  and  amiable  qualities, 
he  always  entertained  much  true  regard.  It  was  with  reference 
to  such  scenes  as  that  with  the  magistrates  of  Kintyre  and  the 
SheriflF  of  Argyll,  that  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander  thus  spoke  in 
his  eloquent  funeral  sermon,  preached  in  February,  1851 : — 

"  Of  all  the  influences  which  have  been  operating  upon  our 
people  during  the  half-century  just  closed,  none,  perhaps,  has 
been  more  powerful  and  extensive  in  all  its  bearings  than  that 
which  commenced  when  God  touched  the  heart  of  James  Hal- 
dane  with  evangelic  fire,  and  sent  him  from  secular  occupations 


DR.  LINDSAY    ALEXANDER.  291 

to  the  streets  and  highways  of  his  native  country  to  proclaim  to 
his  fellow-men  '  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ/ 

"  It  needed  such  a  man  to  accomplish  such  a  work  as  he  had 
to  undertake.  Men  educated  in  the  retirement  of  Colleges, 
« — men  of  timid^  sensitive,  or  deUcate  tastes  and  temperament, 
— ^men  infirm  of  purpose  or  hesitating  in  action,  would  have 
been  bent  and  scattered  before  the  storm  which  interest  and 
prejudice,  and  the  old  hatred  of  the  human  heart  to  all  that  is 
earnest  in  religious  life,  everywhere  stirred  up  against  the 
itinerant  preachers.  It  needed  a  man  who  had  been  trained 
amid  scenes  of  danger  and  of  strife,  and  whose  spirit  was 
accustomed  to  rise  with  opposition,  to  encounter  and  brave  the 
tempest.  Such  a  man  was  found  in  Mr.  James  Haldane.  The 
habits  he  had  acquired  at  sea,  in  battling  with  the  elements  and 
with  the  imtamed  energy  of  rude  and  fearless  men,  stood  him 
in  good  stead  when  called  to  contend  for  Uberty  of  speech 
and  worship  in  opposition  to  the  bigotted  and  tyrannical 
measures  of  those  who  would  fain  have  swallowed  up  alive  the 
authors  of  the  new  system.  He  was  not  a  man  to  quail  before 
priestly  intolerance  or  magisterial  frowns.  Dignified  in  manner, 
commanding  in  speech,  fearless  in  courage,  unhesitating  in 
action,  he  everywhere  met  the  rising  storm  with  the  boldness  of 
a  British  sailor  and  the  courtesy  of  a  British  gentleman,  as  well 
as  with  the  uprightness  and  the  unoffensiveness  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian. To  the  brethren  who  were  associated  with  him,  he  was  a 
pillar  of  strength  in  the  hour  of  trial ;  while,  upon  those  who 
sought  to  put  down  their  efforts  by  force  or  ridicule,  it  is  hard 
to  say  whether  the  manly  dignity  of  his  bearing  or  the  blame- 
less purity  of  his  conduct  produced  the  more  powerful  effect  in 
paralyzing  their  opposition,  when  he  did  not  succeed  in  winning 
their  applause.^' 


u  2 


CHAPTER  XIIL 

ACTIVB  ZEAL  OF  THE  TWO  BROTHERS— ME.  JAMES  HATi- 
DANE'S  TOURS— ORIGINALITY  AND  DIVERSITY  OP  HIS 
ELDER  BROTHER'S  PLANS  OF  USEFULNESS— INDUCES 
MR.  ANDREW  FULLER'S  VISIT  TO  SCOTLAND— HIS  FIRST 
SERMON  AT  WEEM— ANECDOTE  CONNECTED  WITH  HIS 
PREACHING  AT  STILTON  —  OBLIGED  TO  DESIST  FROM 
PREACHING  IN  1800  — OPENING  OF  THE  EDINBURGH 
TABERNACLE— ORDINATION  OF  MR.  AIKMAN— ERECTION 
OF  NEW  CHAPEL  IN  ARGYLE- SQUARE  — MISSION  TO 
ULSTER— MR.  J.  HALDANE  VISITS  DUMFRIES  —  TOUR 
THROUGH  ULSTER— PREACHES  IN  THE  ESTABLISHED 
CHURCHES— LETTER  OF  APPROVAL  FROM  REV.  THOMAS 
SCOTT— ACCOUNT  OF  CATHERINE  HALDANE,  WHO  DIED 
IN  HER  SIXTH  YEAR— LETTER  TO  CAPTAIN  GARDNER- 
DEATH  OF  SIR  RALPH  ABERCROMBY. 

[1799—1801.] 

From  the  6th  of  May^  1797^  when  Mr.  James  Haldane  preached 
his  first  sermon  to  the  rude  colliers  of  Gilmerton^  down  to  the 
middle  of  the  year  1800^  the  work  which  he  accomplished 
might  have  been  sufficient  for  a  life-time.  Within  that  period 
were  included  his  three  first  itinerancies^  which,  taken  together, 
occupied  Uttle  short  of  twelve  months  of  incessant  exertion; 
during  which,  for  the  most  part,  he  preached  at  least  once  every 
day,  generally  twice,  often  thrice,  and  occasionally  four  times. 
While  stationary  in  Edinburgh,  even  before  he  was  ordained, 
his  labours  in  the  surrounding  villages,  and  his  occasional 
excursions  to  a  greater  distance,  were  frequent  and  unwearied. 
After  his  ordination,  his  Mission  '^  to  the  highways  and  hedges,^' 
as  he  called  it,  was  not  abandoned ;  and  on  the  Calton  Hill,  of 
Edinburgh,  or  beneath  an  overshadowing  rock  in  the  King's 


MR.  J.  haldane's  labours.  293 

Fark^  or  on  the  links  of  Bnmtsfield^  Newhaven^  or  Leith^  his 
voice  was  heard  by  thousands^  interested^  solemnized^  or  awed 
by  his  direct  and  earnest  appeal  to  the  heart  and  conscience. 
To  his  old  friends  and  companions  it  was  a  marvel  which  they 
could  not  comprehend;  whilst  the  masses^  partly  attracted  by 
novelty^  and  partly  touched  by  a  sympathetic  feeling  of  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come^  were  disposed  to  listen  with 
delight  to  a  voice  which  stirred  their  innkost  soul  and  brought 
the  gospel  of  salvation  to  their  door. 

But^  although  so  much  engaged  in  public  duties^  no  man  was 
more  exemplary  in  all  the  private  relations  of  domestic  life. 
With  his  children  he  was  playful  as  if  himself  a  child^  yet  with- 
out losing  sights  for  a  moment^  of  the  reverence  and  authority 
due  to  a  parent.  With  an  increasing  family^  his  affectionate  wife 
could  not  but  feel  the  discomfort  of  the  protracted  tours  of 
a  husband  so  much  beloved^  and  of  the  dangers^  real  and 
imaginary,  with  which  they  were  associated.  Even  the  threats 
of  magisterial  interference,  although  proved  to  be  unauthorised 
by  law^  were  not  then  deemed  groimdless;  nor  did  she  feel 
altogether  reassured  by  the  compliment  paid  to  her  own  amiable 
qualities,  when  told,  by  some  of  her  relations,  that  regard  for 
her  feelings  had  been  a  shield  both  to  her  husband  and  his 
brother.  Still  she  endeavoured  to  console  herself  by  the  thought 
of  the  service  in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  by  reflecting  on 
the  necessity  of  patience  and  self-denial. 

But,  if  the  younger  brother  was  thus  actively  employed^  the 
exertions  of  the  elder  were  not  less  arduous,  although  in  a 
different  way.  He  had  made  a  noble  effort  to  found  a  Mission 
in  India,  and  one  which  he  did  not  abandon  imtil  good  men 
began  to  fear,  lest  the  continued  agitation  of  the  plan  might  be 
considered  as  attempting  to  coerce  the  Government.  Before  he 
disposed  of  Airthrey,  it  was  for  several  years  the  centre  of 
attraction  to  Christians  of  all  denominations.  Clergymen  and 
Dissenting  ministers  from  England  and  all  parts  of  Scotland 
there  found  a  cordial  welcome.  A  kind  of  temporary  diapel 
was  fitted  up  at  the  stables  within  the  wood,  where  such  men  as 
Dr.  Bogue,  Mr.  Simpson,  Mr.  Ewing,  and  others,  were  wont  to 


294  ME.  HALDANE    AT    AIRTHEEY. 

preach  on  the  week-days.  The  moat  animating  and  interesting 
topics  connected  with  the  progress  of  Christianity  were  dis- 
cussed at  Mr.  Haldane^s  tahle ;  and  often  did  their  host  sit  up^ 
with  one  or  more  of  his  guests^  until  the  morning  sun  put  to 
shame  the  candles^  which  had  been  once  and  again  lighted  to 
show  them  to  their  apartments.  In  all  his  plans  his  wife 
became  nearly  as  much  interested  as  her  husband;  and  when 
he  sold  his  estate  and  reduced  his  establishment^  in  order  that 
his  means  of  usefulness  might  be  increased^  it  is  due  to  her 
to  state^  that  she  voluntarily  resigned  her  carriage^  and  would 
never  again  allow  of  this  expense.  They  had  but  one  child,  a 
much-loved  daughter,  who  was  in  her  twelfth  year  when  they 
left  Airthrey,  and  was  married  before  she  was  eighteen  to  a 
nephew  of  Dr.  Stuart's,  of  Duneam,  the  late  J.  F.  Gordon,  Esq. 
There  were,  therefore,  fewer  domestic  occupations  to  absorb 
Mrs.  Haldane's  attention,  and  this  enabled  her  to  devote  much 
of  her  time  to  assisting  her  husband  in  the  preparation  of  his 
works,  by  copying  his  manuscripts  and  making  extracts  from 
other  writers.  The  venerable  Dr.  Innes,  speaking  of  Mr.  Hal- 
dane's  early  life,  thus  writes  : — 

"  In  his  latter  days  I  had  less  of  intercourse  with  your  uncle.  In  early 
life  he  was  easy  and  pleasant,  and  could  enjoy  an  innocent  joke  as 
much  as  any  one.  Many  a  happy  day  did  I  spend  at  Airthrey.  And 
when  I  was  engaged  with  your  father,  along  with  the  late  Mr.  Aikman, 
in  our  itinerancy  to  the  north  of  Scotland,  Orkney,  and  Shetland,  in  the 
summer  of  1 799,  Mrs.  Innes  remained  with  Mrs.  Haldane  three  months. 
Often  did  she  speak  of  the  pleasure  she  enjoyed  in  his  and  Mr.  Haldane's 
society,  and  of  the  advantage  with  which  he  appeared  in  the  relations  of 
domestic  life." 

Beckoning  from  the  time  h#  left  Airthrey,  in  the  summer  of 
1798,  down  to  the  summer  of  1800,  when  he  published  his 
*'  Address  on  Politics,^^  he  had  been  the  means  of  bringing  over 
from  Africa  about  thirty  children  of  native  chiefs,  to  be  educated 
in  the  principles  of  Christianity.  He  had  also  opened  the 
Circus,  and  made  arrangements  for  large  places  of  worship  to 
be  established,  at  his  own  expense,  in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow, 
Dundee,  Perth,  Thurso,  Wick,  and  Elgin.  He  had,  even  at 
that  early  period,  selected  about  eighty  students,  and  placed 


BEV.  ANDREW   FULLEK.  295 

them  in  a  course  of  education,  to  continue  for  two  or  three 
years,  under  Dr.  Bogue,  Mr.  Ewing,  and  Mr.  Innes.  He  had 
printed  for  circulation  myriads  of  religious  tracts,  and  distributed 
Bibles  and  Testaments,  when  as  yet  there  was  no  London  Tract 
or  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Societies.  He  had  formed,  or 
assisted  in  forming,  many  Sabbath-schools;  and,  finally,  by 
bringing  the  well-known  Andrew  Fuller  to  Scotland,  had  given 
an  impulse  to  the  Serampore  translations  of  the  Scriptures, 
which  were  then  languishing  for  want  of  funds,  and  were  scoffed 
at  as  the  abortive  efforts  of  "  a  nest  of  consecrated  cobblers.'* 

It  was  on  the  13th  of  October,  1799,  that  Mr.  Fuller  first 
preached  in  the  Circus  of  Edinburgh.  He  was  previously 
known  by  his  able  defence  of  the  truth  against  Socinianism,  in 
that  work  which  Mr.  Wilberforce  lent  and  commended  to  the 
study  of  Mr.  Pitt, — "  The  Grospel  its  own  Witness.'*  As  an 
earnest  of  further  aid  and  an  inducement  to  visit  Scotland,  Mr. 
Haldane  presented  him  with  100/.  for  the  Serampore  transla- 
tions.* In  reference  to  this  visit  Mr.  Fuller  used  to  say,  that, 
till  Mr.  Haldane  sent  him  his  donation,  he  had  not  before 
known  that  it  would  be  worth  while  to  come  to  Scotland;  but 
that  he  now  saw,  in  his  own  case,  the  truth  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole's  maxim,  "  That  every  man  has  his  price.*'  "  I  was 
present,"  says  Dr.  Innes,  '^  at  the  first  sermon  delivered  by  Mr. 
Fuller  in  the  Circus.  It  was  on  a  Sabbath  morning,  when 
there  was  a  large  audience  of  both  sexes,  of  different  classes  in 
society.  The  impression  produced  at  that  time,  both  by  his 
preaching  and  Dr.  Bogue's,  was  powerful." 

Mr.  Fuller's  impressions  are  thus  depicted  in  one  of  his  first 
letters : — "  I  have  been  in  company  with  Messrs.  Robert  and 

*  The  origin  of  this  donation  is  thus  told  by  Mr.  Fuller's  biographer : 
— "  Mr.  R.  Haldane  happening  to  inquire  of  Dr.  Stuart,  what  intelligence 
he  had  from  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  the  Doctor  replied,  '  Dismal 
intelligence!  The  funds  are  low;  and  no  success  as  yet'  '  As  to  funds,' 
said  Mr.  H.,  '  I  always  intended  to  give  them  something,  but  never  did. 
Could  you  desire  Mr.  Fuller  to  draw  on  me  for  100/.,  and  tell  him,  that 
if  he  would  come  down  and  preach,  I  am  persuaded  that  my  brother 
would  welcome  him,  and  so  would  Mr.  Ewing.*  The  Doctor  wrote  by  the 
next  post    Mr.  Fuller  went  down,  and  met  with  a  kind  reception." 


296  MR.  R.  haldane's  first  sermon. 

James  Haldane^  Aikman^  Innes^  Ritchie^  and  some  other  leading 
men  in  the  Circus  connexion.  Certainly  these  appear  to  be 
excellent  men,  free  from  the  extravagance  and  nonsense  which 
infect  some  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodists  in  England^  and  yet 
trying  to  imbibe  their  zeal  and  affection.  Robert  Haldane 
seems  a  very  disinterested,  godly  man,  and  his  wife  as  disin- 
terested and  amiable  as  himself.  They  have  agreed  to  sell  a 
large  estate,  and  to  live  as  retired  as  possible,  in  order  to  have 
the  more  to  lay  out  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel.^'  In 
another  part  of  his  journal  Mr.  Fuller  observes : — "  The 
characters  principally  engaged  in  this  new  denomination,  as  far 
as  we  can  judge,  seem  to  be  some  of  the  best  in  Scotland; 
excepting  a  few  in  other  connexions,  such  as  Dr.  Erskine,  Mr. 
Black,  &c.  The  two  Haldanes,  with  Messrs.  Innes,  Aikman, 
and  Ewing,  appear  to  na  veiy  intelligent,  serious,  and  affec- 
tionate in  their  work ;  active,  liberal,  and,  indeed,  almost  every- 
thing that  we  could  wish.  No  drollery  in  their  preaching,  but 
very  desirous  to  be  and  do  everything  that  is  right.'' 

But  Mr.  Haldane,  whilst  busy  in  directing  great  plans  and 
in  inducing  others  to  make  known  the  Gospel,  was  not  himself 
indisposed  to  assist  in  field-preaching.  The  success  which 
attended  his  brother's  tour  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1797 
had  also  induced  him,  in  the  following  spring,  to  follow  that 
example.  His  first  sermon  was  preached  m  the  month  of  April, 
1798.  Dr.  Innes  was  present,  and  gives  the  following  account 
of  it : — 

'*  After  becoming  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  leading  doctrines  of 
Divine  truth,  he  felt  a  strong  desire  publicly  to  preach  them  to  others.  I 
was  with  him  at  his  first  attempt  of  this  kind.  We  proceeded  to  Dunkeld 
on  the  Saturday  evening,  and  next  morning  rode  up  to  Weem,  a  few  miles 
from  Taymouth.  After  hearing  sermon  in  the  church,  I  requested  the 
people,  as  they  were  dismissing,  to  remain,  as  a  gentleman  who  was  there 
wished  to  address  them.  This  was  something  altogether  new,  especially 
as  Mr.  Haldane  wore  coloured  clothes.  We  got  the  accommodation  of  a 
bam  from  a  good  woman  in  the  neighbourhood,  when  he  expounded  the 
first  eight  or  ten  verses  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians  with  great  clearness  and  force.  This  specimen  showed  how  well  he 
was  qualified  for  public  address.  He,  two  years  afterwards,  took  a  house 
in  one  of  the  Straths  (I  think,  Strath  Bran)  above  Dunkeld,  when  he 


ANECDOTE   OF    SERMON    AT   STILTON.  297 

began  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  around.  But,  with  his  characteristic 
vehemence  and  energy,  he  spoke  so  loud  and  so  frequently,  that  he 
ruptured  a  blood-vessel,  which  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  desist." 

Mr.  Haldane's  voice  was  not  naturally  loud^  but  no  doubt  he 
preached  too  frequently,  and  to  congregations  which  required 
more  strength  of  lungs  than  it  was  safe  for  him  to  employ. 
His  voice  had  neither  the  force  nor  the  compass  of  his  brother's, 
and  he  did  not  vary  his  notes  in  the  way  which  often  enabled 
the  latter  to  keep  up  attention  and  impart  so  much  of  solemnity 
and  emphasis  to  his  preaching.  But  it  was  calm,  mellow,  and 
pleasing,  combining  much  both  of  power  and  pathos. 

Mr.  Haldane  himself  used  to  relate  an  anecdote  in  reference 
to  a  sermon  which  he  preached  under  cover  of  a  large  shed^ 
belonging  to  one  of  the  principal  inns  on  the  Great  North-road. 
He  was  posting  from  London  to  Edinburgh,  probably  in  1798, 
as  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in  London  for  several  yean 
afterwards.  Arriving  on  the  Saturday  evening  at  Stilton,  in 
Huntingdonshire,  he  resolved  there  to  spend  the  Lord's-day. 
He  found  that  the  Gospel  was  not  preached  in  the  church,  and, 
in  fact,  that  it  was  scarcely  heard  in  any  part  of  the  county. 
He  proposed  to  the  landlord  to  preach  in  the  evening,  in  the 
yard  of  the  hotel.  The  landlord  expressed  himself  much  grati- 
fied at  the  suggestion,  cleared  out  the  carriages,  which  stood 
under  a  spacious  and  convenient  covering,  and  desired  intima- 
tion to  be  given  of  the  sermon.  Mr.  Haldane  then  addressed  a 
numerous  and  very  attentive  congregation,  and  proceeded  on 
his  journey  next  morning.  A  few  years  afterwards,  probably  in 
1802,  he  again  spent  a  Sunday  at  the  same  inn,  but  hearing 
that  there  was  then  a  Methodist,  or  Wesleyan  Chapel,  he  went 
there  to  worship.  The  Gospel  was  faithfully  preached,  and  he 
was  retiring,  at  the  close  of  the  service,  when  an  old  woman, 
looking  at  him,  exclaimed,  ^'  Here^s  the  beginning  of  it  all  I " 
It  turned  out,  on  explanation  with  the  minister  and  others, 
that  the  sermon  he  had  preached  some  years  before  had  been 
blessed  to  the  awakening  and  conversion  of  some  who  heard; 
that,  in  consequence,  they  were  anxious  to  learn  more  of  the 
truth  and  enjoy  the  blessing  of  a  faithful   ministry.     They 


298   OPENING  OP  THE  EDINBURGH  TABEKNACLE. 

applied  to  the  Wcsleyans,  and  the  chapel  in  which  he  had  that 
morning  worshipped  had  been  erected. 

In  1799  Mr.  Haldane  was  so  much  occupied  with  the  Edin- 
burgh, Glasgow,  and  Dundee  Tabernacles,  as  well  as  with  the 
institution  of  his  seminary  and  the  selection  of  the  students, 
that  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been,  for  any  lengthened  period, 
absent  from  Edinburgh,  where  he  had  a  house  at  the  west  end 
of  Princes-street,  and  with  Dr.  Bogue  paid  a  visit  to  Lundie 
House,  as  is  mentioned  in  that  good  man^s  biography.  During 
the  same  simimer  he  also  accompanied  Mr.  Rowland  Hill, 
during  a  part  of  his  second  tour  in  Scotland,  along  with  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Slatterie,  of  Chatham.  In  1800  he  spent  the  summer 
in  Strath  Bran,  at  a  place  called  Balaloan,  and  preached 
much  there,  and  in  Dunkeld  and  the  vicinity.  It  was  in  the 
month  of  September,  1800,  that  he  was  obliged  to  desist  from 
speaking  in  public,  in  consequence  of  the  haemorrhage  in  his 
throat,  to  which  Dr.  Innes  alludes.  It  was  not,  however,  of 
much  consequence ;  and,  in  after-years,  he  sometimes  spoke  for 
two  or  more  hours  continuously  at  public  meetings;  and,  at 
Auchingray,  used  to  conduct  a  double  service,  lasting,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  country  places  in  Scotland,  three  hours, 
every  Lord^s-day.  The  year  1800  was  one  of  great  scarcity, 
and  provisions  were  very  dear.  The  supplies  of  food  and 
clothing  provided  for  the  temporal  wants  of  the  people  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Haldane  caused  their  residence  in  that  district  to  be 
long  remembered,  by  even  those  who  did  not  so  much  value  the 
spiritual  instruction  which  they  were  so  desirous  to  impart. 


No  sooner  had  Mr.  James  Haldane  accepted  the  office  of 
stated  minister  of  the  Circus,  than  his  brother  proceeded  to 
erect  for  him  a  spacious  place  of  worship,  on  a  site  purchased 
at  the  head  of  Leith  Walk,  Edinburgh,  which,  after  the  fashion 
of  Mr.  Whitfield^s  chapels,  was  called  the  Tabernacle.  It  was 
built  by  Mr.  Adam  Black,  a  member  of  the  Circus  Church, 
and  father  of  the  eminent  publisher,  so  long  Lord-Provost  of 
Edinburgh.     It  was.  larger  than  any  of  the  city  churches,  an4 


OPENING    OP   THE   EDINBURGH    TABERNACLE.       299 

calculated  to  accommodate  a  greater  congregation  even  than 
St.  Cuthbcrt^s.  The  entrance  was  by  a  descent  of  some  steps, 
which  conducted  to  three  doorways,  leading  into  the  vestibule 
of  a  spacious  area,  rising  like  an  amphitheatre,  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  pulpit.  Above,  there  were  two  galleries,  each  capable 
of  seating  about  eight  hundred  people.  It  was  estimated  that 
the  whole  place  furnished  sittings  for  three  thousand  two 
hundred  persons,  whilst,  on  special  occasions,  four  thousand 
might  be  crowded  within  the  building. 

The  cost  was  entirely  borne  by  Mr,  Haldane,  and  when  the 
building  was  finished,  he  offered  to  make  it  over  in  perpetuity 
to  his  brother.  This  Mr.  James  Haldane  declined,  alleging 
that,  so  long  as  it  was  a  property  devoted  to  religious  purposes, 
it  was  as  well  in  his  brother^s  hands,  who  could,  at  his  death, 
make  what  arrangements  he  pleased.  But  it  was  never  con- 
templated by  either  of  them  that  the  property  should  become 
vested  in  trustees,  so  as  to  take  it  away  from  their  own  control, 
or  expose  it  to  the  risks  which  have  befallen  so  many  orthodox 
endowments. 

In  May,  1801,  the  Tabernacle  was  opened,  and  the  congrega- 
tion, which  had  for  nearly  three  years  occupied  the  Circus,  took 
possession  of  this  new  and  commodious  building.  In  that  place 
did  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  labour  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  counted 
it  his  privilege,  from  first  to  last,  to  minister  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  The  accommodation  which  it  supplied  was  at  first 
partially,  and  in  after-years  entirely,  free  to  the  public,  and 
whatever  was  produced  by  collections  or  otherwise,  after  paying 
the  current  expenses  of  the  building,  was  appropriated  to  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel.  One  of  the  last  religious  services 
performed  in  the  Circus,  was  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Aikman,  on 
the  17th  of  May.  It  was  conducted  by  the  late  Rev.  Mr. 
Moodie,  of  Warwick,  and  Mr.  Ewing,  of  Glasgow,  in  concert 
with  Mr.  James  Haldane,  who  preached  the  sermon  from  the 
words  of  our  Lord's  message  to  the  Church  of  Philadelphia 
(Rev.  iii.  2),  "  Hold  that  fast  which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take 
thy  crown.''  The  "  Missionary  Magazine"  remarks :  "  The  con- 
gregation assembled  on  this  occasion  was  immense,  the  services 


300  MR.  airman's  chapel. 

of  the  day  were  solemn  and  interesting^  much  fitted  to  impress 
the  minds  of  the  audience  with  the  incalculable  value  of  the 
Gospel  of  peace.'^ 

Mr.  Aikman^  aided  by  ministers  from  England^  had  for  some 
time  generally  supplied  the  Circus  congregation  in  Mr.  J.  Hal- 
dane's  absence.  But  the  increasing  number  of  Church  members 
and  the  duties  incident  to  such  a  vast  congregation,  rendered  a 
plurality  of  elders  almost  indispensable.  The  two  pastors  laboured 
together  most  harmoniously;  but  it  was  not  long  before  they 
saw  the  expediency  or  necessity  of  a  second  place  of  worship. 
As  the  Tabernacle  was  in  the  New  Town,  Mr.  Aikman  resolved 
to  build  for  himself  a  chapel  in  the  Old,  which  obtained  in 
Edinburgh  the  soubriquet  of  the  Temple.  This  was  done 
entirely  at  his  own  expense,  unless  a  donation  of  three  or  four 
hundred  pounds  from  Mr.  Haldane  be  excepted,  which  was 
designed  as  a  recompense  for  Mr.  Aikman's  trouble  in  assisting 
to  teach  the  seminary  after  it  was  brought  to  Edinburgh.  The 
''Missionary  Magazine''  for  June,  1802,  thus  notices  the 
event : — 

"  On  Lord's-day,  the  30th  of  May,  was  opened  a  new  chapel,  lately 
erected  in  the  street  leading  to  Argyle-square,  Edinburgh.  This  chapel 
has  been  built  upon  the  same  principles  as  the  Tabernacle  in  this  city,  in 
the  most  perfect  harmony  with  those  connected  in  that  important  institu- 
tion. The  services  of  the  day  were  in  the  following  order : — Mr.  Parsons, 
of  Leeds,  preached  in  the  morning,  from  Matthew  xvii.  20 ;  Mr.  Haldane 
in  the  afternoon,  from  Psalm  cxlix.  2 ;  and  Mr.  Aikman  in  the  evening, 
from  Psalm  xxii.  30,  31.  A  Church  has  since  been  formed  of  persons  in 
communion  with  the  Church  at  the  Tabernacle,  for  the  observance  of 
ordinances  in  this  chapel,  to  be  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Mr.  Aikman. 
Their  formation  was  publicly  recognised  on  Wednesday  evening,  the  2d 
of  June,  when,  after  an  introductory  discourse  on  the  nature  and  order  of 
a  Christian  Church,  Mr.  James  Haldane  commended  the  Church  and 
pastor  to  the  Divine  blessing  by  prayer,  and  gave  a  very  suitable  and 
affectionate  address  to  both.  The  service  was  extremely  interesting.  It 
presented  a  scene  not  frequently  witnessed,  a  Church  separating  in  love, 
in  the  hope  of  the  extension  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom.  May  the  Lord 
realize  their  most  enlarged  desires ! '' 

The  students  who  had  now  finished  their  two  years'  course  of 
preparation  under  Mr.  Ewing,  were  now  deemed  fit  for  active 


LABOURS    AT    DUMFRIES.  301 

service.  Some  went  to  Ireland^  but  for  the  most  part  they 
were  scattered  over  Scotland.  A  letter  to  Mr.  Haldane^  dated 
Sligo^  January  21  st^  1800^  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the 
labours  of  one  of  them^  a  Mr.  Morrison,  who  had  been  sent  to 
itinerate  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  A  letter  is  introduced  from  a 
correspondent  of  Mr.  Haldane,  thanking  him  for  his  liberality 
in  furnishing  the  means  for  itinerating  in  Ireland,  and  praying 
that  he  may  be  ^^  enriched  with  all  the  blessings  of  that  joyful 
sound,  which  you  are  so  blessedly  instrumental  in  communi- 
cating to  others.'^  The  success  which  attended  this  first  Mission 
to  the  north  of  Ireland,  was  such  as  to  stimulate  further  exertions 
in  that  quarter,  against  the  strongholds  of  ignorance,  error^  and 
superstition. 

In  May,  1801,  Mr.  James  Haldane  once  more  proceeded  to 
the  south,  but  on  this  occasion  he  took  with  him  his  wife  and 
children,  having  established  himself  at  Dumfries,  as  a  centre 
from  which  he  might  radiate  on  preaching  excursions.  '^For 
four  months,'^  says  the  Magazine,  "he  preached  in  Dimifries 
every  Lord^s-day,  to  large  congregations,  in  the  open  air,  or 
under  a  tent,  and  he  also  preached  once  every  day  in  the 
neighbouring  towns  and  villages,  except  in  one  week  in  the 
beginning  of  harvest.^'  He  was  fond  of  riding,  and  had  a 
powerful  and  excellent  little  grey  horse,  which  seemed  as  patient 
of  fatigue  as  its  rider.  Sometimes  in  his  excursions  from  Dum- 
fries, he  would  make  a  circuit  of  fifty  miles  in  one  day,  and 
preach  three  times.  To  the  good  effects  of  these  labours  there 
was  abundant  evidence  during  his  life,  and  since  his  death  some 
pleasing  testimonies  have  been  added,  as  to  permanent  results  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Dumfries,  of  which  he  probably  never 
heard. 

At  the  close  of  his  residence  at  Dumfries,  he  resolved  to 
cross  over  to  Ireland,  and  did  so  in  the  month  of  September,  in 
company  with  the  late  Rev.  George  Hamilton,  of  Armagh. 
Almost  on  his  first  landing  he  was  admitted  into  the  parish 
church  of  Fortadown,  and  on  several  occasions  exhibited  the 
remarkable  spectacle  of  one  not  in  episcopal  orders,  and  not 
even  belonging  to  the  Episcopal  Church,  preaching  to  large 


302  TOUR    IN    IRELAND. 

audiences  in  an  Episcopal  diocese.  The  '^  Missionary  Maga- 
zine^' for  the  19th  of  October,  1801,  observes :  "  We  have  been 
informed,  that  he  has  preached  to  crowded  congregations  in 
different  parts  of  the  north  of  Ireland;  and  in  a  letter  from 
himself  of  the  5th  instant,  dated  Armagh,  he  says,  '  I  stayed  a 
few  days  in  Belfast,  and  preached  in  the  neighbourhood.  There 
is  a  great  desire  to  hear  in  many  places,  and  the  people  are 
uncommonly  attentive.  From  all  accounts,  I  hear  that  religion 
is  at  a  low  ebb/  Alluding  to  the  young  men  prepared  and  sent 
over  by  his  brother  he  adds,  '  The  Lord  seems  to  have  prepared 
the  country  for  the  young  men,  who  will  prove,  I  trust,  eminently 
useful.' '' 

There  is  a  letter  in  the  "  Missionary  Magazine"  for  December, 
1801,  which  is  signed  '^J.  H.,''  in  which  he  mentions  ^'some 
displays  of  the  power  of  God,''  in  his  late  journey  to  Ireland, 
which  appeared  well  calculated  to  excite  gratitude  and  thanks- 
giving to  the  Lord.  The  dead  chill  of  Arianism  or  Socinianism, 
to  which  he  then  alludes,  no  longer  rests  on  the  Presbyterians  in 
the  north  of  Ireland.  A  great  revival  has  taken  place  during 
the  fifty  years  which  have  elapsed  since  Mr.  J.  Haldane's  first 
visit  to  Ulster,  and  nearly  thirty  years  since,  chiefly  through  the 
indefatigable  and  fearless  efforts  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Cooke, 
of  Belfast,  a  separation  was  made  between  those  who  profess  to 
believe  in  the  Lord  as  their  Almighty  Saviour,  and  those  who 
regard  him  only  as  a  man. 

'*  I  had  the  happiness/'  says  Mr.  James  Haldane,  "  of  visiting  a  family 
of  respectability  as  to  worldly  matters,  where  I  also  met  with  a  signal 
display  of  Divine  grace.  They  were  Dissenters,  but  a  Dissenting  minister, 
in  many  parts  of  Ireland,  is  only  another  name  for  Arian  or  Socinian. 
They  were  remarkable  for  gaiety ;  and  as  the  family  was  large,  the  young 
people  sometimes  amused  themselves  by  acting  plays.  This  went  on  until 
within  the  last  two  or  three  years,  and  now  salvation  is  come  to  that 
house,  so  that  almost  the  whole  family  are  truly  devoted  to  Qod. 

**  Much  as  this  account  pleased  me,  I  was  not  less  gratified  in  hearing 
the  means  God  had  employed.  He  sent  a  pious  young  woman  there,  as  a 
servant.  She  was  ridiculed  for  her  religion  by  the  young  ladies,  but  she 
did  not  render  evil  for  evil,  but  would  allow  them  to  laugh  at  her,  and 
then  mildly  reason  with  them.  She  made  it  her  study  to  be  attentive 
and  useful,  and  would  offer  to  read  the  Scriptures  to  them,  when  they 


TOUR    IN    IRELAND.  303 

weot  to  bed.  They  soon  fell  asleep  under  the  sound,  but  she  was  not 
discouraged.  Having  exemplified  Christianity  in  her  life,  the  Lord  sent  a 
fever  to  call  her  home  to  himself;  and  although  the  young  ladies  were 
not  permitted  to  see  her  during  her  illness,  they  heard  of  her  behaviour, 
and  it  did  not  lessen  the  impressions  her  conduct  had  made.  Soon  after, 
the  two  eldest  began  to  make  a  profession  of  real  religion ;  the  little 
leaven  spread,  and  now  all  the  nine  young  ladies  appear  truly  pious. 
Nor  is  religion  in  this  highly-favoured  family  confined  to  them.  Other 
means  were  employed  by  God  in  producing  this  great  change,  but  one  of 
the  two  who  first  became  serious  informed  me,  that  she  chiefly  ascribed  it 
to  the  life  and  death  of  the  servant-maid.  What  a  proof  of  the  power  of 
practical  Christianity !  What  encouragement  to  servants,  to  all,  to  adorn 
the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour ! 

'*  This  house  is  now  open  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  Any  pious 
minister,  whether  Established,  Itinerant,  or  Methodist,  finds  a  hearty 
welcome.  A  very  short  warning  brings  hundreds  of  the  country  people 
together,  and  the  spacious  rooms  are  thrown  open  for  their  accommoda- 
tion.    May  the  blessing  of  Obed-Edom  rest  on  the  house ! 

"  But  the  Lord  did  not  stop  here.  Another  family  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, nearly  connected  with  them,  heard  the  tidings  of  all  their  young 
friends  having  run  mad  about  religion.  It  occasioned  much  anxiety,  and 
apprehension  of  the  contagion  spreading.  At  last,  the  mother  of  the 
latter  family  went  to  sec  how  things  were.  She  belonged  to  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  and  when  she  visited  her  friends,  Mr.  Mathias  (of  the 
Bethesda  Chapel,  Dublin),  a  pious  and  able  clergyman,  was  there.  His 
preaching  and  conversation  were  much  blessed  to  her,  and  now  that 
family  rivals  the  other  in  singing,  *  Oh,  to  grace  how  much  indebted ! ' 
I  preached  in  the  latter  house  to  about  two  hundred  people,  although 
the  neighbours  had  only  been  warned  in  the  course  of  the  day.  The 
kindness  I  met  with  in  both  families  was  great,  and  it  was  doubly 
pleasant  as  it  was  conferred  for  His  sake,  who  is  able  to  reward  it,  and 
who  will  not  suffer  a  cup  of  cold  water  given  in  his  name  to  pass 
unnoticed." 

During  his  visit  to  the  north  of  Ireland^  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
was  most  kindly  welcomed  at  the  residence  of  his  cousin- 
german^  Colonel  O'Hara,  of  O'Hara  Brook^  whose  father^  an 
Irish  gentleman  of  family  and  of  fortune^  when  quartered  with 
his  regiment  at  Dundee^  had  married  one  of  the  sisters  of  Mr. 
J.  Haldane's  mother.  The  Colonel  was  the  eldest  son^  and 
inherited  his  father^s  estate,  and  there  were  others  of  the  famUy 
from  whom  also  Mr.  J.  Haldane  experienced  much  kindness, 
particularly  Miss  O'Hara,  a  sister  of  the  Colonel,  who  resided 


804  MR.  BUCHANAN. 

at  Coleraine,  where  one  of  her  nephews,  the  Rev.  James  O^Hara, 
an  excellent  Evangelical  clergyman,  is  now  the  Incumbent.  It 
was  at  Coleraine  that  Mr.  J.  Haldane  first  made  acquaintance 
with  Dr.  Alexander  Carson,  then  chiefly  known  as  having  lately 
seceded  from  the  Presbyterian  Synod,  of  which  his  genius  and 
scholarship,  and  great  critical  acumen,  had  promised  to  render 
him  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments.  At  Omagh  he  was  kindly 
received  by  the  late  James  Buchanan,  Esq.,  who  was  for  many 
years  so  well  known  as  the  British  Consul  at  New  York. 

The  following  is  extracted  from  a  letter  from  Mr.  Buchanan^ 
dated  Quebec,  Canada,  June,  1851 : — 

"  I  first  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Mr.  Haldane  in  1804,  who  stayed  a 
night  at  my  house.  I  recollect,  on  his  being  requested  to  lead  our  family 
worship,  he  read  the  first  chapter  of  Ist  Peter,  and  his  observations  were 
deeply  impressed  on  my  wife.  I  have  reflected  often  upon  the  many 
blessings  I  have  derived  from  Bible  friends.  All  other  friendships  or 
fiivours  are  deficient  in  those  feelings  which  affect  the  heart.  They  are 
fleeting,  and  pass  away.  It  was  from  that  meeting  I  became  acquainted 
with  his  brother,  Robert  Haldane,  and  through  him  with  your  ever 
Talued  and  esteemed  father,  Mr.  Hardcastle.  I  am  now  in  my  eightieth 
year,  and  am  declining  fast,  but  I  have  my  tomb  built  near  my  house.  I 
believe  I  told  you  I  have  engraved  on  it,  *  God  forbid  I  should  glory,  save 
in  the  cross  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  May  the  Lord  lead  us  to  hold  fast 
our  trust  in  him !  With  unabated  affection  and  regard  for  your  husband, 
yourself,  and  family,  I  remain,  my  esteemed  friend,  your  truly  sincere 
fHend,  "  J.  Buchanan. 

"  Mrs.  Haldane."* 

Mr.  Buchanan  died  a  very  few  months  after  the  date  of  this 
letter,  in  the  hope  of  the  Gospel  which  he  had  so  long  pro- 
fessed. 

It  might  be  tedious  to  dwell  longer  on  thq^tour  to  Ulster,  but 
some  extracts  from  a  curiously  characteristic  letter  from  Thomas 
Scott,  the  Commentator,  just  before  Mr.  J.  Haldane  set  out  for 
Dumfries,  will  show  the  favourable  light  in  which  that  good 
man  regarded  proceedings  which  so  many  would  condenm  as 
irregular.     The  letter  is  dated  Chapel-street,  May  1st,  1801 : — 

"  Deab  Sir, — I  think  you  must  have  misunderstood  my  answer  to  your 
brother's  invitation,  in  which  I  stated  myself  entirely  incapable  of  accept- 
ing, consistently  with  my  present  situation  and  engagements  in  the  Lock 


REV.  THOMAS    SCOTT.  305 

Hospital  and  the  Asylum,  which  must  be  entirely  suspended  if  I  leave 
home,  as  I  have  no  resource  in  this  respect,  and  never  can  got  any  person 
to  fill  up  my  place.  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  it  possible  for  me  to  procure 
any  supplies  in  the  chapel,  and  in  my  other  places  where  I  preach,  which 
would  satisfy  the  congregations,  for  all  the  ministers  in  our  line  are  fully 
employed,  and  many  more  wanted.  Add  to  this  that  my  continuance  in 
my  present  situation  is  very  doubtful,  and  if  I  do  continue,  I  shall  obtain 
the  whole  service.  This  is  now  in  agitation,  and  my  presence  here  will 
be  peculiarly  needful  through  the  summer,  as  all  the  usefulness  of  my 
future  life  as  a  preacher  seems  greatly  to  depend  upon  my  success  in  this 
concern,  which  is  too  complicated  to  admit  of  explanation.  At  present  I 
have  more  encouragement  in  my  ministry  here  than  formerly,  but  as 
absence  from  his  work  is  one  of  the  charges  brought  against  Mr.  De 
Coetlogon,  who  preaches  in  the  evening,  which  first  gave  occasion  to  the 
motion  for  dismissing  him,  has  put  matters  on  the  present  uncertain 
footing,  so  it  would  be  extremely  imprudent  in  me  to  give  up  my  prin- 
cipal strong  ground,  that  /  am  always  in  my  place  at  my  work.  If  I  am 
enabled  to  stand  my  ground,  my  field  of  usefulness  will  be  considerably 
enlarged,  and  my  prospects  improved,  but  if  the  opposite  interest  carry  it 
against  my  friends,  I  shall  have  to  begin  anew  in  some  other  place,  and  at 
my  time  of  life  this  appears  to  me  very  unpromising.  It  does  not  appear 
in  the  least  likely,  that  if  I  continue  at  the  Lock,  it  w^ill  even  be  prac- 
ticable for  me  to  leave  home  so  long  as  a  journey  to  Scotland  implies ;  as 
I  keep  no  curate,  and  no  one  can  supply  for  me  b\d  a  regidar  JEjnscopal 
clergyman^  and  the  services  daily  required  of  me  cannot  be  intermitted 
without  violating  my  engagements,  and  acting  contrary  both  to  my 
conscience  and  credit.  Should  I  be  dismissed  by  the  majority  of  the 
Governors,  I  should  be  set  afloat,  and  I  cannot  tell  whither  the  tides  and 
currents  might  carry  me. 

"  But  besides  this  I  am  engaged  in  a  new  edition  of  the  Family  Bible, 
on  my  own  account,  and,  contrary  to  what  you  suppose,  it  will  cost 
me  quite  as  much  labour  as  at  the  first,  and  with  this  peculiar  circum- 
stance, that  if  I  do  not  go  on  with  it  steadily,  it  will  ruin,  in  all  proba- 
bility, me  and  my  family,  and  injure  my  creditors.  If  I  never  leave  it  for 
a  week,  I  shall  not  finish  in  less  than  four  years  from  the  beginning, 
perhaps  from  this  time,  and  I  deem  myself  bound  to  apply  as  much 
as  possible,  as  health  and  other  duties  will  permit,  and  to  undertake 
nothing  inconsistent  with  it  If  I  am  enabled  to  bring  it  to  a  conclusion 
I  shall  consider  it  as  the  main  business  of  my  life ;  but  while  it  is  in  hand 
I  am  decided  against  any  journeys  but  what  are  absolutely  needful.  I 
shall  not  enter  on  the  subject  of  improvementSy  but  they  will  be  as  many 
as  I  am  capable  of  making.  The  marginal  references  will  be  printed  in 
the  clearest  manner  I  ever  saw  any.  Many  of  other  persons'  will  be  left 
out,  many  original  added.    I  do  my  best. 

X 


806  CATHERINE    HALDANE. 

**  I  have  no  fear  lest  the  circumstances  of  my  not  being  able  to  come  to 
Edinburgh  should  in  the  least  prevent  good  in  your  line ;  you  ¥rill  find 
more  acceptable  and  suitable  preachers.  Every  man  has  his  talent,  and 
preaching  a  few  sermons  among  strangers  with  effect  is  less  my  talent 
than  some  other  things,  and  that  of  some  other  men. 

"  I  rejoice  to  hear  that  you  have  encouragement  in  your  work  and 
design.  I  sometimes  hear  of  you,  and  more  frequently  think  of  you. 
I  pray  Ood  to  direct,  assist,  and  prosper  you  more  and  more.  My 
Christian  respects  to  your  brother  and  all  friends. 

"  I  remain,  dear  Sir,  your  obliged  friend  and  servant, 

"  Thos.  Scott." 

In  October  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Haldane  returned  from 
Dumfries.  Their  second  child^  a  little  girl,  then  rather  under 
six  years  old^  was  in  a  delicate  state  of  health.  She  died  on  the 
5th  of  June  following,  but  not  before  giving  very  pleasing 
evidence  of  the  grace  of  that  Saviour,  who  said,  "  SuflFer  little 
children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.'^  Her  affectionate  father  published  an 
interesting  little  memoir,  intituled,  "  Early  Instruction  recom- 
mended, in  a  Narrative  of  Catherine  Haldane,  with  an  Address 
to  Patents  on  the  Importance  of  Religion.^'  It  is  remarkable 
for  its  truthful  simplicity.  There  is  no  attempt  to  paint  or 
embellish,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  read  it  without  discerning  the 
only  motive  which  prompted  the  writer, — a  desire  to  bring 
glory  to  Christ  and  be  useful  to  children.  It  ran  through 
eleven  or  twelve  very  large  editions,  and  was  widely  circulated 
by  the  venerable  John  Newton,  who  admired  it  much,  and 
considered  it  well  calculated  for  usefulness.  It  was  also  trans- 
lated into  Danish  by  Dr.  Henderson  some  years  afterwards,  and 
was  rather  popular  in  Denmark,  where  the  name,  which  is 
common  in  that  country,  was  an  attraction.  But  the  narrative 
is  deserving  of  notice  in  these  Memoirs,  because  it  in  some 
measure  discloses  a  little  of  the  domestic  life  of  a  man  much 
before  the  public.  There  are  touches  in  it  which  indicate  the 
tenderness  of  the  fond  parent,  and  the  confiding  affection  with 
which  that  tenderness  was  always  reciprocated.  Multitudinous 
as  were  his  labours,  especially  during  the  years  when  he  itine- 
rated, he  never  found  them  an  apology  for  the  neglect  of  a 


CATHERINE    HALDANE.  807 

single  domestic  duty^  and  on  the  contrary^  he  was  exemplary^  in 
no  common  degree,  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  A  few  extracts 
may  be  given : — 

**  From  the  time  she  could  understand  anything,  Catherine  was 
informed  that  she  was  to  give  an  account  of  her  thoughts,  words,  and 
actions,  to  Qod.  She  was  early  taught  to  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  to  such  little  religious  books  as  are  adapted  to  the  capa- 
cities of  children.  She  soon  began  to  attend  to  the  parables  and  some  of 
the  stories  of  the  Old  Testament.  Her  mother  usually  spent  two  hours 
daily  in  reading,  and  talking  on  what  she  read,  to  Catherine  and  her 
elder  sister.  They  were  never  led  to  regard  this  as  a  task,  and  as  they 
found  it  entertaining,  and  were  not  desired  to  continue  when  they  began 
to  tire,  they  always  looked  forward  to  it  with  pleasure,  and  were  disap- 
pointed if  an}'thing  occurred  to  prevent  it.  One  or  two  of  Mr.  Newton's 
hymns  generally  formed  a  part  of  this  exercise.  Catherine  was  fond  of 
them,  and,  of  her  own  accord,  committed  some  of  them  to  memory  from 
hearing  them  read.  Accounts  of  pious  children  also  early  attracted  her 
attention. 

**  No  particular  impression  appeared  to  be  made  on  Catherine's  mind 
by  the  AYord  of  Qod  till  she  was  five  years  of  age.  She  had  listened  to 
some  parts  of  Scripture  with  seeming  attention,  but  never  appeared  to 
consider  herself  particularly  interested  in  what  she  heard  till  one  Sabbath 
evening,  when  her  younger  sister  was  asking  the  meaning  of  being  bom 
again ;  Catherine  immediately  replied,  '  To  get  a  new  heart  from  Ood.' 
Her  mother  said  she  feared  she  did  not  know  what  a  change  of  heart 
meant,  and  spoke  to  her  seriously.  Catherine  was  much  affected,  and 
after  she  went  to  bed,  said  to  her  maid,  *  I  have  just  been  thinking  on 
that  verse,  "  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die."  *  From  this  time  Cathe- 
rine always  seemed  to  be  much  more  concerned  about  religion  than 
formerly.     .     .     . 

**  In  February,  1801,  Catherine's  health  began  to  decline;  but  for  a 
considerable  time  her  complaints  appeared  trifling,  and  hardly  ever  inter- 
rupted her  play  or  her  ordinary  occupations.  In  May  she  went  with  ua 
to  Dumfries,  and  whilst  there  became  gradually  worse.     .     .     . 

**  She  now  spent  more  time  at  prayer  than  formerly,  and  took  much 
pleasure  in  hymns,  and  hearing  of  Jesus.  She  had  long  been  accustomed 
to  hear  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  read  to  her  after  she  was  in  bed.  She 
would  never  allow  this  to  be  neglected,  either  before  or  after  she 
became  ill.    .    .     . 

"  Instead  of  playing  on  the  LordVday,  the  children  were  taught  to 
repeat  hymns  to  one  another  when  alone.  One  Lord's-day,  her  mother, 
on  going  out,  desired  her  to  keep  a  Sabbath-school.  When  she  returned 
she  heard  Catherine  praying,  along  with  the  rest,  that  if  it  were  the 

X  2 


308  CATHERINE    HALDANE. 

Lord's  will,  he  would  restore  her  to  health;  if  not,  to  prepare  her  for 
death,  and  take  her  to  himsel£    .    •    . 

**  She  got  food  frequently  as  she  was  able  to  receive  it,  and  we  observed 
that  she  never  took  anything  without  silently  asking  a  blessing  from  God. 
One  day  I  noticed  this  to  her  mother,  in  Catherine's  presence,  and  said 
she  was  a  good  child.  She  was  vexed  to  have  it  spoken  of,  and  cried,  till 
I  changed  the  subject  This  showed  a  spirit  very  opposite  to  ostentation. 
A  child  may  talk  about  religion  to  please  its  parents ;  but  Catherine  at 
this  time  had  not  spirits  for  anything  of  this  kind,  and,  indeed,  the  truth 
of  Ood  had  evidently  before  her  illness  made  an  impression  on  her  heart. 

"Although  we  had  pleasing  evidences  of  her  mind  being  impressed 
about  eternity,  had  noticed  a  remarkable  change  in  her  temper,  and  had 
observed  that  she  never  neglected  prayer,  yet  we  were  anxious  that  she 
might  be  brought  to  speak  freely,  and  tell  us  the  present  state  of  her 
mind.  This  was  more  desirable,  as  she  did  not  show  the  same  pleasure 
in  hearing  about  religion  as  formerly,  and  seldom  spoke  on  the  subject. 
This  led  us  to  pray  to  our  gracious  Lord ;  he  heard  us,  and  gave  us  every 
satisfaction  we  could  have  desired.  In  April,  her  mother  took  her  into  a 
room  by  herself,  and  asked  her  if  she  should  pray  with  her,  told  her  she 
was  dpng,  and  spoke  to  her  of  the  love  of  Christ.  .  .-  .  In  the  even- 
ing her  maid  asked  her  why  she  cried  when  her  mamma  spoke  to  her. 
Catherine  s«id,  she  was  sorry  she  had  cried.  Being  asked,  '  Was  it 
because  you  are  afraid  to  die?'  *No,*  replied  she.  'Why?*  said  the 
maid.    '  Because,'  said  Catherine,  '  I  have  a  good  Saviour.' 

**  After  she  went  to  bed,  she  desired  her  maid  to  read  a  hymn,  which 
she  had  heard  sung  a  little  time  before.    When  she  read  these  lines — 

"  '  He  takes  young  children  to  his  arms. 
And  calls  them  heirs  of  heaven,' 

she  saw  Catherine  crying.  Being  asked  why  she  cried,  she  said,  she  was 
sorry  for  her  sins.  She  said,  she  would  like  to  see  papa.  I  went  and 
spoke  with  her,  and  prayed.  She  told  me  she  loved  Jesus  Christ.  She 
ever  afterwards  enjoyed  comfort  of  mind,  and  never  expressed  a  fear 
of  death. 

'*  Thus  was  the  Lord  graciously  instructing  this  dear  little  child,  and, 
in  some  measure,  perfecting  praise  from  the  mouth  of  a  babe.  Those  who 
know  their  own  hearts,  and  have  been  engaged  in  instructing  children, 
will  best  judge  whether  mere  human  teaching  could  have  so  deeply 
impressed  the  truths  of  Ood  on  the  mind  of  a  child  little  more  than  five 
years  of  age.  It  is  true  the  minds  of  children  are  tender  and  flexible,  but 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  suited  to  their  taste.  They  will  not 
contradict  you,  tell  them  what  you  will  on  the  subject ;  but  unless  they 
are  taught  of  Ood,  they  will  soon  show  the  natural  alienation  of  their 
hearts  from  him,  by  total  indifference  about  religion. 


CATHERINE    HALDANE.  809 

'*  Two  da3r8  afterwards,  when  she  was  much  reduced,  she  desired  to  see 
her  sister,  of  whom  she  was  Tery  fond.  She  put  her  arms  round  her  neck 
and  kissed  her,  saying,  '  Love  your  Saviour :  I  am  happy/ 

''  There  were  several  hymns  in  which  she  particularly  delighted,  and 
which  she  would  often  desire  to  he  read  to  her,  such  as  that  beautiful 
hymn  of  Cowper's, — 

"  '  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood. 
Drawn  from  Immanuel's  veins ; 
And  sinners,  plunged  beneath  that  flood. 
Lose  all  their  guilty  stains/ 

She  was  particularly  fond  of  the  hymn, — 

''  *  In  evil  long  I  took  deUght,**  &c. 

And  of  the  hymn, — 

**  *  Descend  from  heaven,  immortal  Dove, 
Stoop  down,  and  take  us  on  thy  wings; 
And  mount,  and  bear  us  far  above 
The  reach  of  these  inferior  things/ 

**  The  Sabbath  but  one  before  her  deatlv  she  asked  for  the  hymn,— > 

"  '  There  is  a  house  not  made  with  hands. 
Eternal,  and  on  high ; 
And  here  my  spirit  waiting  stands. 
Till  God  shall  bid  it  fly/ 

Before  it  was  finished,  she  became  too  ill  to  listen  to  it. 

'*  The  last  LordVday  she  was  on  earth  her  mother  read  to  her  several 
hymns  of  her  own  choosing.  She  desired  Catherine  to  speak  to  her 
sisters,  and  sent  for  one  younger  than  herself.  Catherine  put  her  amis 
round  her  neck,  and  bade  her  love  Jesus. 

"  Though  she  was  so  ill,  she  came  every  morning,  by  her  own  desire,  to 
family  worship.  She  said  little,  but  the  remarks  she  afterwards  made 
showed  she  was  not  inattentive.  A  short  time  before  her  death,  she  said 
to  her  maid,  *  I  have  just  been  thinking  how  happy  I  shall  be  when  papa, 
mamma,  Elizabeth,  and  the  rest,  meet  me  in  heaven.'  She  added,  '  It 
was  a  pretty  chapter  and  hymn  that  papa  read  this  morning, — that  there 
would  be  no  need  of  candlelight  there/ 

"  Two  days  before  her  deadi,  she  asked  for  the  hymn,  beginning, — 

'* '  Bitter  indeed  the  waters  are 
Which  in  this  desert  flow ; 
Though  to  the  eye  they  promise  fair. 
They  taste  of  sin  and  woe.' 

This  had  long  been  one  of  her  favourites.    She  hardly  spoke  at  all  after 
this,  but  next  day  asked  for  the  hymn, — 


810  CATHERINE    UALDANE. 

"  *  There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight, 
Where  saints  immortal  reign ; 
Infinite  day  excludes  the  night, 
And  pleasures  banish  pain.' 

The  last  words  she  uttered  were  to  ask  for  the  hymn, — 

"  *  Jesus,  I  love  thy  charming  name.* 

On  the  5th  June,  having  for  the  last  twelve  hours  been  in  a  kind  of 
slumber,  she  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 

'<  Thus  lived  and  died  a  child,  whose  story  is  an  illustration  of  our 
Lord's  words, — *  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
because  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast 
revealed  them  unto  babes ;  even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy 
sight.'  She  appeared  indeed  to  have  been  taught  of  God.  She  had 
heard  the  Gospel,  and  had  been  made  partaker  of  that  precious  faith, 
which  is  the  gift  of  God.  She  had  been  affected  with  the  weight  of 
eternal  things  during  the  winter  before  she  became  ill.  We  observed  a 
remarkable  change  in  her  before  her  disease  got  to  a  great  height.  For 
some  time  after  she  was  taken  ill,  she  said  she  would  not  be  afraid  to  die 
if  she  got  a  new  heart ;  but  from  the  time  she  sent  for  me  to  pray  with 
her,  nearly  two  months  before  her  death,  she  always  expressed  full  con< 
fidence  of  going  to  Jesus.  From  that  period  I  always  went  and  prayed 
with  her  after  she  was  in  bed.  If  at  any  time  I  was  later  than  usual,  she 
kept  awake,  and  frequently  asked  for  me.  She  one  day  told  her  mother 
that  she  had  not  got  a  new  heart  at  Dumfries,  nor  for  a  long  time  after ; 
but  that  lately  she  knew  that  she  had  got  one,  although  she  could  not 
tell  on  what  day.  Her  confidence  did  not  arise  from  thinking  all  children 
went  to  heaven.  In  order  to  ascertain  this,  I  one  day  asked  her  if  she 
thought  her  elder  sister  would  go  to  heaven  if  she  died  immediately. 
Catherine  replied  she  did  not  know.  She  suffered  much  with  great 
patience.  Her  illness  was  tedious  and  uncommon  ;  her  head  was  much 
affected.  Frequently  when  in  bed  she  would  repeat,  *  My  head,  my  head ! ' 
But  the  Lord  gave  her  the  victory  over  the  fear  of  death,  and  graciously 
gave  us  satisfactory  evidence,  very  uncommon  at  her  age,  that  the  instruc- 
tion she  had  received  was  not  in  vain.  My  reason  for  writing  an  account 
of  her  is,  that  other  little  children  may  be  led  to  love  the  Saviour. 
How  happy  will  she  and  I  both  be  in  the  day  of  God,  if  we  shall  meet 
some  children  at  the  right  hand  of  Jesus,  who  were  brought  to  him  by 
reading  the  account  of  Catherine ! " 

The  address  to  childreD  and  the  address  to  parents  which  are 
subjoined  to  the  account  of  Catherine  are  both  earnest^  practical^ 
and  striking.  But  this  little  narrative^  so  far  as  it  concerns  the 
present  Memoirs^  is  chiefly  valuable  as  showing  the  character  of 


DOMESTIC    CHARACTER.  311 

the  man.  Occupied  as  he  was  with  a  numerous  Church  and  a 
larger  congregation^  called  upon^  even  when  at  home^  to  preach 
in  the  vUlages  and  towns  within  a  wide  circuit  round  Edinhurgh, 
pre-eminently  exemplary  in  visiting  the  sick  and  comforting  the 
afflicted^  he  never  forgot  that  his  first  duty  was  at  home.  There 
all  his  affections  were  centered^  and  there  it  was  his  study  to  win 
the  confidence  and  love  of  his  children  by  the  most  endearing 
sympathy^  both  with  their  amusements  and  studies^  whilst  it  was 
his  grand  object  to  train  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord.  Every  night  did  he  pray  beside  the  bed  of  his 
drooping  child^  and  gently  lead  her  to  the  feet  of  that  Saviour 
whom  he  served.  With  this  no  public  duty  was  ever  suffered  to 
interfere  when  within  reach  of  home^  and  neither  fatigue  nor 
business  were  apologies  for  its  omission.  It  was  the  same  to 
the  very  close  of  his  prolonged  life^  and  he  who  had  by  nature 
the  dauntless  spirit  of  the  lion,  would  at  the  same  time  evince 
the  gentleness  of  the  lamb,  combined  with  all  the  tender  affection 
of  a  sympathetic  and  loving  heart.  Great  was  the  joy  which 
reigned  through  the  house  whenever  it  was  announced  that, 
owing  to  any  rare  circumstance,  he  was  to  remain  at  home  on  a 
Lord's-day  evening.  His  children  gathered  round  his  chair, 
whilst  he  examined  them  as  to  their  knowledge  of  the  Bible, 
listened  to  the  hymns  or  portions  of  Scripture  which  they 
repeated,  or  interested  them  by  the  recital  of  stories  after  the 
manner  of  the  parables,  in  which  the  imagination  was  gratified, 
whilst  truth  was  imprinted  on  their  hearts.  But  above  all,  it 
may  be  said  that  in  nothing  was  the  nearness  of  his  habitual 
communion  and  walk  with  6od  more  distinctly  visible  than  in 
the  surpassing  value  which,  at  all  times  and  under  all  circum- 
stances, he  constantly  attached  to  prayer.  With  prayer  he 
parted  with  any  of  his  family  on  going  to  a  distance;  with 
prayer  and  thanksgiving  he  welcomed  them  on  their  return; 
with  prayer  he  taught  them  to  ask  the  blessing  of  God  in  regard 
to  everything  that  concerned  them ;  whilst  his  own  unclouded 
faith  was  that  which  imparted  peace  and  joy  to  his  heart,  throwing 
the  sunshine  of  cheerfulness  around  his  path,  so  as  to  make  his 
home  happy  and  religion  attractive. 


312  CAPTAIN    GABDN£R. 

During  his  residence  at  Dumfries^  he  addressed  a  remarkable 

letter  to  his  old  friend,  Captain  Patrick  Gardner,  under  whose 

care  he  had  originally  gone  to  sea,  and  with  whom  he  made  two 

voyages  to  India.     To  Gardner  he  had  already  written,  as  he  had 

done  to  several  of  his  old  friends,  but  had  received  no  reply. 

When  at  Dumfries,  he  was  informed  that  he  was  then  in  London, 

about  to  sail  in  command  of  the  Scaleby  Castle.     The  letter  was 

carefully  preserved,  and  found  among  the  papers  of  him  to  whom 

it  was  addressed.     The  following  are  some  extracts : — 

"  Dumfries,  June  29, 1801. 
.  .  .  ^*  My  giving  up  the  sea  at  the  time  I  did  was,  I  believe,  thought 
strange  by  many ;  but  I  have  never  repented  it,  nor  do  I  find  my  time 
hang  heavy  on  my  hands.  We  are  all  apt  to  imagine  ourselves  of  great 
consequence,  and  I  believe  we  often  think  we  are  occupying  the  attention 
of  others  when  they  hardly  think  of  us.  Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  of  my 
supposing  you  have  heard  of  a  considerable  change  in  my  views  since  we 
met.  If  I  can  judge  by  what  I  feel  towards  you,  you  would  inquire  about 
me ;  and  I  could  smile  at  the  answer  you  might  probably  receive,  and  the 
surprise  it  might  excite  in  you.  Perhaps  you  might  figure  me  gloomy 
and  melancholy,  incapable  of  enjoying  the  comforts  of  life,  from  fear  of 
hell ;  or  I  might  be  represented  as  a  wild  enthusiast,  considering  myself 
inspired  or  favoured  with  particular  revelations.  On  either  of  these  sup- 
positions, I  could  not  blame  you  for  not  renewing  our  correspondence ; 
but  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is  the  case.  I  never  was  acquainted 
with  solid,  rational  happiness  till  my  attention  was  turned  to  religion. 
My  former  merriment  was  really  like  the  crackling  of  thonis  under  a  pot. 
I  was  governed  by  passion,  and  under  such  a  guide  no  wonder  if  I  missed 
my  road.  Although  I  believe  I  had  as  few  qualms  of  conscience  as  any 
one,  being  completely  unconcerned  about  religion  and  eternity,  my  own 
mind  was  not  altogether  satisfied.  I  knew  I  must  die,  yet  it  was  a  subject 
I  banished  from  my  thoughts.  The  peace  of  mind  I  enjoyed  did  not  arise 
from  any  good  reason.  I  had  to  hope  either  that  I  should  be  happy  or  be 
annihilated  after  death,  but  from  total  inconsideration,  like  a  person  who 
should  stop  his  ears  and  shut  his  eyes  when  danger  was  approaching,  and 
then  fancy  himself  safe.  My  present  peace  of  mind  does  not  arise  from 
any  vision  or  supposed  new  revelation  I  have  received.  I  had  a  book  by 
me  which,  from  prejudice  of  education,  and  not  from  any  rational  convic- 
tion, I  called  the  Word  of  God.  I  never  so  far  surmounted  the  prejudice  of 
education  as  to  profess  Infidelity,  but  I  was  a  more  inconsistent  character. 
I  said  I  believed  a  book  to  be  a  revelation  from  God,  and  treated  it  with 
the  greatest  neglect,  living  in  direct  contradiction  to  all  its  precepts,  and 
seldom  taking  the  trouble  to  look  into  it,  or  if  I  did,,  it  was  to  perform  a 


DEATH  OF  SIR  RALPH  ABERCROMBY.      313 

task, — a  kind  of  atonement  for  my  sins.  I  went  on  thus  till,  having  much 
time  on  my  hands  when  the  Melville  Castle  lay  at  the  Mother  Bank,  I 
began  to  think  I  would  pay  a  little  more  attention  to  this  book.  The 
more  I  read  the  more  worthy  it  appeared  of  God ;  and  after  examining 
the  evidences  with  which  Christianity  is  supported,  I  became  fully  per- 
suaded of  its  truth.  There  is  no  man  who  considers  the  evidences  with 
the  smallest  impartiality  but  must  come  to  the  same  conviction.  Even 
Rousseau  admits  the  strength  of  the  evidence,  but  he  says  he  remains  in 
suspense,  because  there  are  many  doctrines  which  he  thinks  unworthy  of 
God.  In  other  words,  he  will  not  submit  his  pride  of  understanding  to  a 
book  which  himself  allows  is  supported  by  the  strongest  evidence  as 
coming  from  God.  This  suspense  is  now  over,  and  neither  he  nor  any 
other  man  shall  be  able  to  complain  they  have  been  hardly  dealt  with. 
Infidels,  whether  by  profession  or  practice,  shall  be  convinced  that  they 
meet  with  no  more  than  they  deser\'e.  The  error  lies  in  their  heart,  not 
in  their  understanding ;  they  choose  the  darkness ;  they  determine  to  live 
in  sin,  and  they  persuade  themselves  while  here,  being  blinded  by  passion, 
they  shall  escape  punishment.  My  paper,  and  I  fear  your  patience,  is 
done,  but  the  subject  is  important.  I  beg  you  would  seriously  consider 
it.    I  hope  to  hear  immediately  from  you,  and  am, 

"  Very  sincerely  yours, 

"J.  A.  Haldane. 
"  Patrick  Gardner,  Esq,,  Commander  of  the  Scakhy  Castle.*^ 

A  few  months  earlier  in  the  same  year^  Mrs.  James  Haldane 
lost  her  uncle.  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby,  who  died  on  board  the 
Foudroyant,  of  the  mortal  wound  received  in  the  great  battle  of 
Alexandria,  which  led  to  the  conquest  of  Egypt.  The  letter  of 
sympathy  which  her  husband  wrote  to  Lady  Abercromby  on  this 
event  was  striking  and  beautiful.  Whilst  in  a  tone  of  becoming 
sympathy  it  did  homage  to  the  private  virtues  and  illustrious 
character  of  the  departed  hero,  whose  name  will  go  down  with 
the  history  of  his  country,  it  displays  the  surpassing  importance 
of  heavenly  things,  and  unfolds  the  consolations  of  the  Gospel 
in  language  alike  distinguished  for  its  directness,  its  simpUcity, 
and  its  truth.  This  letter  was  mentioned  by  Lady  Abercromby 
with  the  interest  of  one  who  valued  the  truth  it  set  forth,  when 
on  an  evening  at  the  house  of  Mr.  James  Haldane  in  Greorge* 
street,  nearly  sixteen  years  afterwards,  the  late  Hon.  and  Rev. 
Gerard  Noel  had  been,  at  her  request,  invited  to  be  present,  and 
deUver  one  of  those  beautiful  expositions  which  made  his  visit  to 
Edinburgh,  in  1817,  so  pleasantly  remembered. 


CHAPTER  XIV- 

MB.  JAMES  HALDANE  VISITS  BUXTON— WELCOMED  BY  AN 
IRISH  BISHOP— ACCOMPANIED  BY  A  CLERGYMAN  — 
PREACHES  AT  MACCLESFIELD,  CASTLETON,  MATLOCK,  Ac.— 
REVIVAL  IN  BREADALBANE— TOUR  WITH  MR.  CAMPBELL, 
IN  1808,  TO  VISIT  ALL  THE  TOWNS,  VILLAGES,  &c.,  FROM 
EDINBURGH  TO  THE  ORKNEY  ISLANDS— A  SHORT  TOUR 
FOR  A  MONTH  DURING  THE  SAME  YEAR  TO  BERWICK, 
ALNWICK,  CARLISLE,  ANNAN,  DUMFRIES,  AYR,  GREENOCK, 
PAISLEY,  AND  GLASGOW— MR.  FULLER'S  SECOND  JOUR- 
NEY—GROUNDLESS RUMOUR— MR.  HALDANE'S  ECONOMY 
—HIS  SEMINARIES. 

[1802—1803.] 

During  five  summera^  beginning  with  that  of  1797,  Mr.  James 
Haldane  had  devoted  himself  to  long  and  laborious  itinerancies, 
for  the  purpose  of  preaching  the  Gospel.  In  the  summer  of 
1802  he  sought  no  repose ;  but  to  recruit  the  health  and  spirits 
of  his  wife,  after  the  loss  of  their  little  daughter,  they  went,  with 
their  eldest  child,  to  Buxton,  in  Derbyshire.  The  younger 
children  were  left  at  the  seaside,  under  the  kind  care  of  their 
uncle  and  aunt ;  but  wherever  Mr.  James  Haldane  went,  it  was 
in  the  spirit  of  one  whose  lips  had  been  touched  as  by  a  live  coal 
from  the  altar,  and  in  whose  breast  there  burned  a  flame  of  love  for 
Christ  which  could  not  be  extinguished.  His  visit  to  Derbyshire 
was  a  season  of  revival  and  awakening.  At  the  hotel  at  which 
he  stayed  there  were  many  strangers,  to  whom  he  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  known  the  Gospel.  He  also  preached  in  the 
ball-room,  and  was  welcomed  by  a  pious  Irish  Bishop,  whose 
son,  a  zealous  clergyman  of  the  United  Church,  did  not  scruple 
to  accompany  him  on  several  preaching  excursions  in  the  neigh- 


VISIT    TO    BUXTON.  316 

bourhood.  Amongst  other  places^  they  went  to  Macclesfield,  in 
Cheshire,  by  invitation  of  the  Rev.  Melville  Home,  who  offered 
the  use  of  his  church  and  pulpit.  But  when  the  two  friends 
arrived  at  Macclesfield,  it  turned  out  that  some  demur  had  been 
made  to  the  irregularity  of  this  proceeding  on  the  part  of  one  of 
the  churchwardens.  The  sermon  was  therefore  adjourned  from 
the  church  to  the  churchyard,  where  the  good  Incumbent 
attended,  along  with  the  Bishop's  son,  and  took  part  in  the 
service  by  invoking  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  on  the  word 
spoken  by  his  Scottish  friend.  At  Castleton-of-the-Peak  they 
also  met  with  Episcopal  sanction,  as  the  Yiear  not  only  heard 
the  sermon,  but  after  it  was  over,  begged  to  offer  his  personal 
thanks  to  the  preacher.  At  one  place,  near  Buxton,  there  was  a 
good  but  somewhat  eccentric  man,  who,  amidst  surrounding 
darkness,  for  many  years  stood  alone  as  a  missionary  to  the  poor. 
When  he  first  heard  Mr.  James  Haldane's  faithful  and  energetic 
declarations  of  the  Gospel  of  free  salvation,  he  was  so  moTed 
with  surprise  and  delight  that  he  could  not  contain  his  exulta- 
tion. He  afterwards  introduced  himself,  and  said  that  he  had 
an  ''  independency"  of  20/.  a-year,  which  enabled  him  to  devote 
himself  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  There  were  several  other  inter- 
esting occurrences  connected  with  the  visit  to  Buxton,  Matlock, 
and  other  places ;  and  he- did  not  leave  the  neighbourhood  before 
he  had  proclaimed  the  message  of  salvation  in  many  a  hamlet, 
village,  and  town,  as  well  as  on  the  green  hill-sides  of  the 
romantic  county  of  Derby,  and  the  neighbouring  districts  of 
Staffordshire.  Everywhere  his  preaching  was  acceptable,  and 
often  it  was  made  manifest  that  the  word  was  with  power. 

In  the  summer  of  1803  he  prepared  for  another  excursion  into 
a  part  of  Scotland  from  which  he  had  hitherto  considered  himself 
excluded  by  his  ignorance  of  the  Gaelic  language.  But  a  very 
remarkable  revival  had  taken  place  in  Breadalbane,  through  the 
instrumentality  of  one  of  the  Dundee  students,  who  had  been 
sent  there  by  Mr.  Haldane.  In  the  neighbouring  district  of 
Blair  Athol,  Mr.  Stewart,  of  Moulin,  had  been  enabled  to  report 
that,  since  Mr.  Simeon  and  Mr.  James  Haldane  visited  his 
manse,  about  eighty  people  had  been  awakened  by  his  own 


316     SUCCESSFUL  LABOURS  OF  A  CATECHIST. 

preaching  to  a  deep  and  abiding  sense  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation. 
The  account  he  published  was  very  striking ;  but  the  revival  in 
Breadalbane^  although  begun  by  a  humbler  instrument^  was  not 
less  plainly  the  work  of  God. 

The  awakening  which  followed  the  labours  of  Mr.  Macallum 
in  Kintyre  was  ushered  in  by  the  preaching  of  Mr.  James 
Haldane  and  Mr.  Campbell.  That  in  Breadalbane  was  entirely 
begun  by  a  devoted  catechist^  of  lowly  origin,  a  Mr.  Farquharson, 
who  had  been  recommended  on  account  of  his  earnest  zeal  and 
godliness  to  Mr.  Haldane^s  class  at  Dundee,  but  whose  capacity 
of  learning  seemed,  on  trial,  hardly  to  warrant  his  persevering  in 
academical  studies.  He  was  therefore  sent  away  to  Breadalbane, 
at  the  end  of  his  first  six  months,  with  the  view  of  trying 
whether  he  might  not  be  of  use  as  a  Scripture-reader  amongst 
the  poor  and  uneducated  Highlanders.  The  district  was  at  that 
time  destitute  of  EvangeUcal  preaching.  There  were  actually  no 
Bibles,  scarcely  any  Testaments,  and  the  people  lived  without 
prayer.  So  great  was  the  opposition  to  the  devoted  catechist 
when  he  commenced  his  labours,  that,  in  a  circle  of  thirty-two 
miles  round  Loch  Tay,  there  were  only  three  families  that  would 
receive  him,  whilst  every  inn  or  pubUc-house  was  shut  against 
him.  But  it  often  pleases  the  Lord  to  work  by  the  feeblest 
instruments,  and  '^  to  choose  the  weak  things  of  the  world,  and 
things  which  are  despised,  to  confound  the  things  that  are 
mighty. '^  Despite  of  opposition  and  neglect,  he  went  from 
village  to  village  during  the  winter,  reading  the  Bible,  and 
speaking  the  words  of  salvation  to  all  who  would  listen.  In  the 
spring  of  1801  there  was  some  awakening,  and  early  in  1802  so 
extraordinary  a  revival  took  place,  that  in  a  very  short  time  there 
were  about  one  hundred  persons,  previously  ignorant  of  the 
(Gospel,  who  seemed  to  be  truly  converted.  These  conversions 
produced  a  great  sensation,  and  occasioned  much  opposition. 
It  brought  on  in  these  Highland  glens  a  kind  of  reUgious 
persecution. 

"  Families,"  says  Mr.  Kinniburgh,  in  his  "  Historical  Sketch/'  "  were 
divided,  false  reports  were  raised  and  circulated  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
the  new  converts  into  disrepute.     Violent  measures  were  demised  and 


ARREST    OF    MR.  FARQUHARSON.  317 

accomplished  to  deprive  them  of  their  houses  and  farms,  and  in  not  a  few 
were  their  lives  in  jeopardy ;  but  they  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their 
goods,  knowing  that  in  heaven  they  had  a  better  and  enduring  substance. 
They  thought  less  of  their  sufferings  than  of  the  happiness  of  suffering  for 
Christ.  Here  it  deserves  to  be  noticed,  that  when  the  work  was  going  on 
in  fireadalbane,  there  were  instances  in  which,  when  the  converts  acted 
with  decision,  persecution  gradually  subsided,  but  when  there  was  apparent 
wavering  it  increased." 

Amongst  the  anecdotes  of  the  new  converts  and  of  their 
altered  conduct^  the  following  is  an  example: — a  number  of 
young  men  had  been  addicted  to  poaching  on  the  Earl  of 
Breadalbane's  estates^  and  were  generally  brought  annually 
before  his  Lordship,  who  usually  dismissed  them^  with  a  threat- 
ening rebuke.  One  of  these^  who  was  also  a  smuggler^  had  his 
attention  directed  to  the  Gospel  and  was  converted.  The  next 
time  the  poachers  were  brought  before  the  great  Earl^  he  missed 
the  smuggler,  and  asked  what  had  become  of  him.  The  game- 
keeper replied,  ^'  My  Lord,  he  has  become  a  missionary,  and 
will  never  trouble  us  again. ^'  His  Lordship  observed,  "  I  wish 
all  these  young  men  were  missionaries/^  The  same  yoimg  man 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  illegally  making  malt,  but,  after  he 
embraced  the  Gospel,  he  had  no  peace  of  mind  until  he  had 
informed  upon  himself  and  delivered  to  the  Excise  all  the  malt 
which  he  had  on  hand. 

In  1802,  the  humble  and  holy  man  through  whose  instru- 
mentality this  revival  took  place  was  himself  sent  a  prisoner  to 
Aberdeen,  for  preaching  the  Gospel  in  Braemar.  Mr.  Farqu- 
harson  had  not  been  many  hours  in  gaol  before  a  lawyer  waited 
upon  him  and  put  a  book  into  his  hand,  stating  that  a  part  of 
it  was  written  in  the  very  cell  in  which  he  was  confined.  "  Read 
it,^'  said  the  gentleman,  ^'  and  you  will  soon  be  liberated,"  and 
immediately  retired.  To  his  no  small  surprise,  Mr.  Farquharson 
found  it  to  be  "  Rutherford^s  Letters."  This  led  him  to  muse 
on  the  sufferings  of  the  godly  author,  and  he  thought  his  own 
but  light  in  comparison.  Mr.  Farquharson  was  soon  released^ 
in  consequence  of  the  inten^ention  of  his  friendly  visitor,  who 
was  better  acquainted  with  the  Toleration  Act  than  Mr.  Farqu- 
harson^s  ignorant  persecutors. 


318  PRUIT8    OF   ITINERANCIES. 

The  good  work  was  not  confined  to  Loch  Tay.  The  pastor 
of  the  Taberaacle,  at  Dunkeld^  in  a  letter,  dated  April  14th, 
1803,  reports  that,  exclusive  of  those  who  had  been  called 
under  Mr.  Stewart's  ministry,  at  Moulin,  he  could  himself 
speak  of  145  who  had  experienced  the  power  of  Divine  grace 
around  Dunkeld  since  Dr.  Bogue  preached  there  as  the  first 
itinerant.  By  that  sermon  he  knew  of  one  who  was  converted. 
The  rest  were  the  fruits  of  the  labours  of  the  two  Messrs.  Hal- 
dane,  Aikman,  Ewing,  Innes,  Hey,  Garie,  and  Campbell  (of 
Dunkeld).  From  Aberfeldie  Mr.  Dewar,  one  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
students  (but  not  the  same  who  is  now  the  Principal  of  Maris- 
chal  College,  Aberdeen),  writes,  in  April,  1803,  that  no  less 
than  fifty-seven  in  that  neighbourhood  attributed  their  salvation 
to  Mr.  Haldane^s  missionaries.  Two  years  before  this  time, 
Lady  Glenorchy's  chaplain,  the  good  Mr.  Grarie,  of  Perth,  had 
died,  and,  in  a  beautiful  letter,  written  shortly  before  his  death, 
he  mentions  having,  within  a  few  weeks  back,  received  seventeen 
out  of  twenty-one  applicants  for  Church  membership,  "  most  of 
them  young  persons,  and  lately  awakened.^'  He  adds,  "A 
young  man,  last  week,  received  his  first  impressions  under  a 
aermon  preached  by  Mr.  James  Haldane,  in  the  mill  at  Inver ; 
and  a  young  woman,  who  had  made  considerable  advancement 
under  one  he  preached  in  the  chapel  here  upon  the  jailor.^' 
The  good  man  adds,  ''  Although,  in  general,  1  feel  a  willingness 
to  leave  the  world,  whenever  my  Master  shall  call  me,  yet  I 
have  often,  on  a  Saturday,  felt  a  peculiar  unwillingness  to  die 
till  the  Sabbath  was  over.'' 

The  accounts  from  Caithness  were,  if  possible,  still  more 
delightful.  At  the  same  time  that  the  missionaries  in  Bread- 
albane  were  writing  home  the  intelligence  just  noticed,  the 
excellent  Mr.  Cleghom,  the  pastor  of  the  Church  at  Wick,  was 
detailing  the  blessings  that  had  attended  the  previous  itine- 
rancies in  Caithness.  Whilst  he  reckoned  at  least  forty  cases 
of  conversion  which,  at  Wick  alone,  had  come  under  his  own 
knowledge,  as  the  first-fruits  of  Mr.  James  Haldane's  preaching 
in  that  place  in  1797,  he  mentions,  that  now  he  reckons  120 
as  giving  evidence  of  the  power  of  Divine  truth.     He  adds. 


MR.  L.  MACINTOSH.  319 

that  at  Thurso  the  Gospel   had  been  as  successful^   "  if  not 


more  so/' 


It  is  not^  then^  to  be  wondered  at^  that  Mr.  James  Haldane 
longed  to  visits  not  only  the  scene  of  his  own  first  itinerancy^ 
but  also  Breadalbanc  and  its  vicinity.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Camp- 
bell relates  how  he  received  a  sudden  simimons  to  return  to 
Edinburgh  from  the  west,  where  he  was  preaching,  and  that,  on 
his  arrival,  he  found  the  object  was,  "  to  see  if  I  would  consent 
to  go  on  a  preaching  tour  of  three  or  four  months  with  Mr. 
James  Haldane,  to  visit  all  the  cities,  towns,  and  large  villages, 
in  the  north  of  Scotland,  from  Edinburgh  to  the  Orkney 
Islands.''  Mr.  Campbell  adds,  "  Being  the  employment  which, 
at  that  time,  I  loved,  I  instantly  complied,  and  commenced 
making  preparation  for  the  journey." 

On  this  occasion  they  travelled  on  horseback,  attended  by 
Mr.  James  Haldane's  faithful  servant,  Daniel  Macarthur,  a 
pious  Highlander,  whose  knowledge  of  Gaelic  made  him  particu- 
larly serviceable  in  the  Celtic  districts.  They  left  Edinburgh 
eariy  in  May,  and  Mr.  J.  Haldane  preached  on  the  first  Lord's- 
day  a  striking  sermon  in  the  Tabernacle  of  Perth,  from  a  text 
appropriate  to  the  errand  of  mercy  on  which  he  was  bound, 
Jeremiah  iii.  12,  13 :  ''Go  and  proclaim  these  words  unto  the 
north,  and  say.  Return,  thou  backsliding  Israel,  saith  the  Lord; 
and  I  will  not  cause  my  anger  to  fall  upon  you:  for  I  am 
merciful,  saith  the  Lord,  and  I  will  not  keep  anger  for  ever.'' 
One  of  his  hearers,  and  that  for  the  first  time,  was  Mr.  Lachlan 
Macintosh,  who  was  soon  afterwards  admitted  into  the  seminary 
at  Edinburgh,  and  has  been  long  respected  as  the  traveUing 
agent  of  the  Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society.  Mr.  Macintosh 
relates  how  it  happened  that,  after  the  sermon,  whilst  a  group 
of  ministers  and  others  were  gathered  round  the  preacher,  he 
was  introduced  to  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  who  kindly  spoke  to  him, 
and  engaged  him  to  announce  the  sermons  as  far  north  as 
Mr.  M.  had  to  go  and  twenty  miles  further,  beginning  at 
Bankfoot,  Dunkeld,  up  to  Logic  Bate,  where  they  turned  aside 
to  Breadalbane. 

"  Though,  at  this  distance  of  time/'  says  Mr.  Macintosh,  **  I  cannot 


320  ANECDOTE. 

remember  the  sermons,  I  well  remember  their  effects,  both  on  myself  and 
others.  First  our  views  were  brightened  and  our  hearts  encouraged  in 
the  ways  of  the  Lord.  The  sermons  I  had  been  used  to  hear  were  a 
complete  jumble  of  grace  and  works, — our  endeavours  and  the  sufferings 
of  the  Son  of  God.  Often  nothing  about  Christ  at  all,  but  that  God  was 
merciful,  so  that  I  could  not  tell  on  what  I  was  to  trust  for  salvation. 
But  in  the  sermons  I  heard  from  Mr.  Haldane  the  distinction  was  made 
in  the  clearest  and  most  solemn  manner.  The  sinner  was  shown  to  be  a 
guilty,  helpless  rebel,  and  all  his  righteousness  as  filthy  rags.  Then 
Christ  was  proclaimed  as  a  glorious  and  all-sufficient  Saviour,  his 
righteousness  free  to  all  who  believed,  whilst  all  who  believe  would  be 
constrained  by  love  to  obedience,  not  in  order  to  save  themselves,  but 
because  they  were  saved  by  his  blood,  'llie  text  which  he  quoted  to  me, 
on  parting,  I  never  can  forget :  *  Cleave  to  the  Lord  with  purpose  of 
heart'  It  was  a  text  which  might  have  been  the  motto  of  both  the 
brothers  from  the  day  when  they  knew  the  grace  of  God  in  truth.** 

On  the  occasion  of  the  sermon  at  Perth  there  was  one  little 
incident  annoying  at  the  moment,  but  in  after-years  only 
remembered  as  amusing.  Mrs.  James  Haldane,  in  her  affec- 
tionate anxiety  for  her  husband,  had  strictly  charged  his  servant 
to  watch  over  the  comforts  of  his  master,  and,  amongst  other 
things,  to  be  careful  to  make  him  take  a  glass  of  port  wine 
immediately  after  preaching,  to  strengthen  his  throat.  At  the 
close  of  the  sermon  the  faithful  attendant,  true  to  his  orders, 
but  interpreting  them  somewhat  too  literally,  instantly  walked 
from  the  vestry  up  the  pulpit-stairs,  carrying  with  him  a  glass 
of  port,  and  very  unseasonably  interrupted  his  master,  who  had 
just  sat  down  after  concluding  a  very  solemn  appeal,  by  saying, 
"  Here's  the  wine.  Sir.''  The  short  reply  was,  "  Go  away, 
Daniel."  Some  years  afterwards,  when  Daniel  had  left  his 
master's  service,  he  became  a  messenger  in  the  house  of  the 
Edinburgh  Commercial  Banking  Company,  by  whom  his  punc- 
tual attendance  to  orders  and  strict  Christian  fidelity  were  for 
many  years  greatly  valued. 

On  arriving  in  Breadalbane  they  were  enabled  to  report,  that 
"there  had  been  no  exaggeration;  and  that  there  really  was 
a  cloud  of  witnesses  to  the  power  of  Divine  truth,  who  were 
living  by  the  faith  of  God,  waiting  for  his  second  and  glorious 
appearing."    A  pestilential  fever  was  raging  in  the  country,  and 


PEVER  IN  BREAD ALBANE.  321 

prevented   many  from  hearing  the  preachers^   but  it  did  not 
prevent  either  of  the  itinerants  from  visiting  the  sick  and  dying. 
The  venerable  Mr.  William  Tulloeh^  pastor  of  the  Highland 
Church,  at  the  Bridge  of  Tilt,  in  Athol,  thus  writes : — 

''.Nearly  fifty  years  ago  Mr.  James  Haldane  made  his  first  tour  through 
the  Highlands.  He  arrived  in  Breadalbane,  where  my  wife's  family 
resided.  Her  mother,  who  was  a  good  woman,  was  at  that  time  danger- 
ously ill  of  fever,  which  was  very  prevalent  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
When  Mr.  Haldane  arrived,  he  was  made  aware  of  this  pestilence,  and 
referred  to  it  in  preaching.  When  the  sermon  was  ended,  he  entered  the 
house  and  prayed  at  the  bed-side  of  Mrs.  Sinclair,  who  was  so  ill  that  not 
one  of  her  neighbours  would  enter  the  door  of  her  house  for  fear  of 
infection.  Before  Mr.  Haldane  left  that  quarter  he  urged  upon  those 
that  feared  God  to  meet  for  prayer,  that  the  Lord  might  remove  the 
pestilence,  and  it  was  observed  by  all,  that  in  a  very  short  time  the  fever 
greatly  abated,  for  many  had  died  of  it;  and  not  long  afterwards  it 
disappeared  altogether.  And  that  visit  was  much  blessed  to  many,  both 
in  soul  and  body. 

"  Mr.  Sinclair  was  very  much  opposed  to  anything  that  had  the  appear- 
ance of  dissent  from  the  Established  Church,  but  he  was  overcome  by 
the  kindness  of  Mr.  Haldane,  remarking,  when  he  left,  '  If  that  had  not 
been  a  man  of  God,  he  would  not  have  come  into  my  house  when  there 
was  so  much  danger.'  From  that  time  Mr.  Sinclair  showed  the  greatest 
kindness  to  Mr.  Haldane ;  and,  after  his  death,  his  son,  Donald  Sinclair, 
opened  his  house  to  him  and  the  other  preachers,  when  they  were  in  that 
part  of  the  country.  Upon  Mr.  H.'s  second  visit  to  Breadalbane  (in 
1805),  many  thousands  heard  from  his  lips  the  Gospel  of  peace,  and  many 
came  from  a  great  distance  to  hear. 

"  When  he  arrived  in  Blair  Athol,  he  put  up  at  the  inn  at  Old  Blair, 
and  requested  the  landlord  to  allow  him  the  use  of  the  inn-hall,  that  he 
might  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  people.  This  was  most  pointedly  refused. 
But  Mr.  Haldane  was  not  to  be  discouraged.  He  went  over  all  the 
village,  but  could  not  find  a  place.  At  last  a  man  named  Donaldson,  a 
Wright  (carpenter)  to  the  old  Duke  of  Athol,  offered  him  the  use  of  his 
house  and  bam,  where  Mr.  Haldane  preached  to  multitudes,  who  came 
from  all  parts  of  the  glens  round  about  Blair.  It  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  when  the  Duke  turned  out  all  the  people  from  Old  Blair,  Donaldson 
was  allowed  to  remain,  which  he  did  till  his  death,  which  took  place  only 
two  years  ago,  at  the  advanced  age  of  102  years.  When  this  circum- 
stance was  stated  to  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  by  one  of  our  Highland  firiends,  he 
was  very  much  interested,  and  said  that  he  remembered  the  circumstance, 
and  expressed  a  great  desire  to  know  all  about  Donaldson's  death." 

Y 


322  SNOW    STORM    IN    JUNE. 

Mr.  TuDoch's  letter  closes  by  stating,  that  "the  name  of 
Haldane  will  long  be  remembered  with  veneration  throughout 
the  Highlands/^ 

After  being  separated  for  some  time,  preaching  and  visiting 
in  several  districts,  the  itinerants  met  at  Dalwhinnie,  where,  in 
the  month  of  June,  "the  snow  was  deep  on  the  hills,  and  falling 
thick ;  we  had  a  great  fire  of  peats,  but  it  was  so  cold  that  great 
coats  were  put  on.  Yet,  next  day,  at  Baldeu,  we  preached  to 
about  four  hundred  people,  at  the  side  of  a  birch-wood,  which 
kept  off  the  cold  wind.  Mr.  Haldane  preached  in  the  wood  of 
Aviemore.''  They  passed  through  Badenoch,  Inverness,  Ding- 
well,  and  Cromarty,  preaching  as  they  went.  The  north  side  of 
the  frith  was  once  called  the  Holy  Land,  "  because  of  its  faithful 
ministers.^^  They  could  not  then  hear  of  "one  who  preached 
the  Gospel.  Such  was  the  length  of  the  days,  that,  from  a 
very  small  New  Testament,  Mr.  J.  H.  could  read  on  the  moun- 
tain at  eleven  o^clock  at  night.^' 

Onwards  they  proceeded,  preaching  as  they  went,  till  they 
arrived  at  John  o'Groat's  house,  where  they  saw  only  the 
foundations  of  the  old  castle,  and  thence  crossed  in  the  mail- 
boat,  by  South  Ronaldshay,  to  Kirkwall,  the  capital  of  the 
Orkneys,  where  large  and  listening  congregations,  in  front  of 
the  Bishop's  Palace,  welcomed  the  return  of  itinerant  preaching. 
One  morning  Mr.  Campbell  was  surprised  to  find  only  a  con- 
gregation of  women  at  the  place  where  he  preached.  But  on 
returning  to  the  town,  the  mystery  was  solved,  by  meeting 
Captain  Grourlay,  R.N.,  who  had  come  ashore,  but  not,  as  was 
supposed,  with  the  intention  of  pressing  the  men.  The  Captain 
breakfasted  with  them.  He  was  himself,  for  many  years,  a 
member  of  the  Tabernacle  Church,  whilst  flag-captain  to  the 
Admiral  on  the  Leith  station.  "  On  a  lovely  morning/'  says 
Mr.  Campbell,  "  Mr.  Haldane  and  I  left  Kirkwall  in  two  boats, 
he  to  visit  the  western  half,  and  I  the  eastern,  of  the  group 
of  islands.^'  It  would  be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  a  recital  of 
hardships  and  privations  experienced  in  these  islands,  of  which 
Mr.  J.  Haldane  however  seldom  spoke,  and  never,  except  as  a 
subject  of  amusement.     At  one  place,  before  they  separated. 


ORKNEYS.  328 

they  were  in  the  street  of  a  small  town^  at  ten  o^clock  at  night, 
seeking  in  vain  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  night.  At  last  they 
were  directed  to  a  farm-house^  where  they  asked  for  shelter^  and 
were  cordially  received.  Next  day,  as  Mr.  Campbell  tells,  that, 
after  preaching,  they  went  into  a  house,  hoping  to  be  offered 
refreshment,  yet  afraid  to  offend  by  tendering  payment,  but 
got  nothing  but  a  cup  of  milk  and  water.  *'  They  then  walked 
about,  intimating  another  sermon,  until  they  were  tired.^^  At 
length  they  called  at  the  house  of  a  slater,  who  hospitably 
provided  them  with  bread,  milk,  and  cheese.  Damp  sheets^ 
hard  beds,  or  none  at  all,  and  a  scanty  supply  of  food,  were 
amongst  the  luxuries  of  these  remote  itinerancies.  But  they  had 
both  learned  ''to  endure  hardness,  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ,''  to  sympathize  with  the  far  greater  privations  of  the  fint 
missionaries  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  regard  these  discomforts  only 
as  trifles  incidental  to  their  campaigns  in  the  service  of  the 
King  of  kings. 

Mr.  Campbell  was  to  have  preached  at  an  island  between 
Kirkwall  and  Stronsay,  but  a  heavy  gale  of  wind  arose,  which 
prevented  his  arrival.  However,  he  reached  Kirkwall  the  day 
after,  when  he  found,  says  his  biographer,  that  Mr.  James 
Haldane,  who,  like  ''an  old  sailor,  had  seen,  from  the  state 
of  the  weather,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  reach  it,''  had, 
with  characteristic  energy,  not  only  discharged  his  own  duties, 
but  procured  a  boat  from  Kirkwall,  and  having  the  gale  blowing 
in  his  favour  reached  the  island,  and  preached  himself  to  the 
people.  From  Kirkwall  they  proceeded  to  Hoy,  and  then 
crossed  the  Pentland  Frith,  of  whose  tumultuous  waves,  rushing 
tides,  gurgling  whirlpools,  and  perpendicular  rocks,  Mr.  Camp* 
bell  gives  a  graphic  description. 

After  leaving  Thurso,  they  preached  on  their  way  to  Edin* 
burgh  at  all  the  principal  towns  in  their  route. 

Shortly  after  their  return  in  September,  of  the  same  year, 
Mr.  James  Haldane  undertook  a  short  tour  with  Mr.  Campbell 
to  the  south  of  Scotland  and  north  of  England.  On  this 
occasion  Mrs.  James  Haldane  accompanied  her  husband,  and 

Y  2 


824  PROVOST    OF    WIGTON. 

with  them  Mr.  Campbell  posted  to  Berwick,  where  he  remained 
to  preach  on  the  Lord's-day,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  Haldane 
next  day  proceeded  to  Alnwick,  where  they  were  hospitably 
entertained  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rate.  On  the  following  Wednes- 
day, having  been  joined  by  Mr.  Campbell,  they  journeyed  to 
Carlisle,  by  Flamlingham  and  ChauUingford  to  Glenwhilt,  where 
Mr.  J.  Haldane,  as  usual,  gave  an  address,  at  the  inn,  to  all 
who  chose  to  attend  at  prayers.  Passing  through  Gilsland, 
they  arrived  at  Carlisle  on  the  following  day,  when  Mr.  Camp- 
bell proceeded  by  the  mail  to  Longtown,  where,  however,  he 
was  refused  the  chapel  to  preach  in,  "though  Mr.  J,  Hal- 
dane^s  preaching,  and  mine,  had  been  the  means  of  its  being 
built.'^  It  was  now  attached  to  the  Establishment.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  J.  Haldane  arrived  at  Longtown  on  the  following  day, 
and  proceeded  by  Annan  to  Dumfries,  where  a  Tabernacle  had 
been  built,  of  which  Mr.  Haldane  became  the  sole  proprietor, 
although  it  was  originally  built  at  the  joint  expence  of  the  two 
brothers.  After  a  sermon,  which  Mr.  J.  Haldane  preached  at 
Garheston,  the  Earl  of  Galloway,  who  invited  them  to  his  house, 
announced  his  willingness  to  grant  a  site  for  a  chapel  in  the 
village,  as  the  church  was  three  miles  distant. 

At  Wigton  the  Provost  supped  with  them  at  the  inn.  He 
had  been  previously  in  the  habit  of  giving  to  Mr.  James  Hal- 
dane the  use  of  the  Town  Hall.  But,  on  the  first  occasion, 
when  he  asked  permission  to  announce  sermon  by  the  bellman, 
the  Provost  replied,  "No,  no.  Sir;  you  cannot  pi'each  here." 
Mr.  J.  Haldane  answered,  "  I  do  not  ask  liberty  to  preach,  but 
to  ring.'^  "  Then  you  wUl  preach.'^  "Yes,  certainly.''  "Very 
well,  you  may  send  out  the  bellman.''  At  Sanquhar,  one  of 
the  places  on  their  route,  the  Anti-burgher  minister  had  inflicted 
Church  discipline  upon  some  of  his  people  five  years  before,  for 
hearing  Mr.  James  Haldane.  "But  to-day,"  says  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, "  some  Anti-burghers  broke  through  to  hear  me,  and  one 
of  them  told  the  minister  yesterday  that  they  w(mld  hear  us." 

They  returned  through  Ayrshire,  preaching  as  they  went. 
On  Saturday,  the  24th  of  September,  they  arrived  at  Greenock^ 


AYRSHIRE.  826 

and  on  the  following  Lord^8-day  Mr.  J.  H.  preached  in  the 
morning  at  Auldkirk,  and  in  the  evening  at  the  Burgher 
meeting-house  of  Greenock.  "  The  crowd/^  says  Mr.  C,  '^  was 
great.''  On  the  27th,  Mr.  Campbell  having  gone  to  Bishop- 
town,  Mr.  J.  Haldane  went  to  Paisley.  There  "he  preached 
to  a  full  house.''  On  the  following  evening  he  preached  at  the 
Tabernacle,  at  Glasgow,  to  a  large  audience,  although  a  week- 
day. On  the  30th,  they  all  breakfasted  at  Mr.  Ewing's,  and, 
having  left  at  eleven  o'clock,  arrived  in  Edinburgh  at  half-past 
five  in  the  afternoon.  Mr.  Campbell  seems  thus  to  announce 
the  time,  as  indicating  the  rapidity  of  posting,  as  compared 
with  the  heavy  coaches,  to  which  he  was  accustomed  in  1803. 
The  same  journey  can  now  be  performed  within  an  hour  by 
steam.  Mr.  Campbell  used  to  mention  it  as  a  remarkable 
fact,  that  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  told  him,  that  the  invention  of 
coppering  ships  had  brought  India  several  months  nearer  to 
England.  The  discovery  of  steam  has  brought  India  within 
Uttle  more  than  a  month  from  our  shores.  But  great  as  is 
the  power  of  steam,  it  is  already,  in  one  respect,  eclipsed  by 
the  lightning  speed  of  electricity.  Mr.  Campbell  thus  con- 
cludes his  journal  of  this  little  tour : — "  During  this  tour  we 
travelled  about  four  hundred  miles,  had  fine  weather  the  whole 
way,  excepting  two  dajrs,  preached  in  many  dark  comers, 
conversed  with  many  disciples,  I  hope  to  their  comfort  and 
stirring  up,  and  not  one  accident  happened.  Praise  the  Lord, 
0  my  soul." 

Mr.  Campbell  did  not  long  remain  in  Edinburgh,  although 
this  was  not  his  last  tour  with  Mr.  James  Haldane.  He  w;^ 
within  a  few  weeks  afterwards  invited  to  occupy  a  chapel  at 
Kingsland,  near  London,  where  he  remained  till  his  death,  in 
1840.  He  stipulated  that  his  settlement  in  Kingsland  should 
not  interfere  with  his  itinerating  labours,  and  two  years  later  he 
made  another  long  tour  with  his  old  friend,  whose  popularity, 
as  a  preacher,  continued  unabated.  The  marvel  had,  indeed,  in 
a  great  measure  passed  away;  yet  his  unwearied  labours,  his 
solid  attainments,  and  added  experience,  gave  him  a  weight  of 
character,  which  was  daily  increasing.     It  is  in  speaking  of  him 


326  MR.  J.  haldane's  popularity. 

at  this  period,  that  one  who,  to  say  the  least,  is  by  no  means 

too  partial,  makes  the  following  remarks  :* — 

"  At  this  time  Mr.  Haldane  was  a  highly-gifted  and  deservedly /^opti/ar 
preacher,  in  the  best  sense  of  popularity.  Mr.  Campbell  often  says  of  his 
sermons,  *they  were  solemn  and  striking,  and  the  people  all  attention.' 
It  will  both  illustrate  and  veriiy  this,  to  say,  that  the  late  Mr.  Cowie,  of 
Huntley,  himself  the  Whitfield  of  the  north,  in  the  estimation  of  Rowland 
Hill,  says,  in  manuscripts  in  my  possession,  that  he  was  often  both 
humbled  and  inspired  by  Mr.  Haldane's  *  unction  from  the  Holy  One.* 
This  fact,  I  recollect  well,  although  I  was  too  young  to  understand  the 
sermons  it  refers  to.  Besides,  he  could  not  have  been  popular  in  Mr. 
Cowie*s  circle,  had  he  not  been  a  powerful  preacher." 

The  Rev.  Andrew  Fuller  made  a  second  visit  to  Scotland  in 
1802,  and  his  letters  contain  an  account  of  his  progress,  during 
which  he  was  accompanied  by  the  now  venerable  and  distin- 
guished Dr.  Wardlaw,  then  described  as  "a  young  man,  of 
promising  character,^'  brought  up  for  the  Burgher  Secession, 
which  he  had  "left  for  the  Tabernacle  connexion."  In  the 
same  letter  we  find  the  following  extract,  given  by  Mr.  Fuller's 
biographer,  under  the  date  of  Stirling,  September,  1802 : — 

"  On  Friday,  the  17th,  I  rose  early,  and  went  to  see  the  town  and  castle 
before  breakfast.  This  (Stirling)  is  a  most  romantic  situation,  the  finest 
spot  I  have  seen  in  Scotland.  Here  the  Scottish  kings  used  occasionally 
to  reside.  I  suppose  it  was  their  summer-house.  Near  this  is  the  late 
seat  of  Robert  Haldane,  Esq.,  a  seat,  which  a  Scottish  nobleman  has  pro- 
nounced to  be  *a  perfect  heaven  upon  earth;*  but  which  he  sold,  and 
has  ever  since  lived  in  a  recluse  style  of  life,  laying  out  thousands  every 
year  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel,  in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  *  Oh ! 
(say  the  gentr}),  he  must  have  some  deep  scheme  in  his  head.'  Some 
of  the  clergy  cannot  endure  him ;  but  he  has  great  interest  with  the 
common  people.  He  is  a  great  economist,  in  order  to  be  generous. 
He  has  saved  30,000/.,  I  am  told,  by  the  advance  of  the  funds  since  he 
bought  in.** 

The  statement  with  reference  to  Mr.  Haldane^s  gains  in  the 
funds  was  an  idle  piece  of  gossip,  which  a  wise  man  might  possibly 
have  written  in  the  confidence  of  friendship,  but  which  a  judi- 
cious biographer  should  hardly  have  published  without  inquiry, 
especially  in  the  lifetime  of  a  gentleman,  the  privacy  of  whose 

*  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  John  Campbell,  p.  356. 


ANECDOTE  OF  A  HIGHLANDER.         827 

personal  affairs  was  thus  unceremoniously  invaded.  There  was 
not  even  a  foundation  for  the  report,  and  in  point  of  fact^ 
although  Mr.  Fuller  was  not  aware  of  it,  the  rumour  was  one 
of  the  many  forms  of  calumny,  by  which  an  envious  spirit  of 
detraction  vainly  tried  to  impeach  motives  which  it  could  not 
fathom,  and  disparage  a  liberality  which  it  could  not  reach. 
Mr.  Campbell  tells  of  a  Highland  Laird,  who  exhorted  the 
people  not  to  hear  the  missionaries,  adding,  ^'  Haldane  is 
making  ten  per  cent,  of  his  Tabernacles.'^  The  answer  of  the 
poor  Highlander  was  admirable.  He  did  not  contradict  his 
chief,  but  said,  "  Weel,  Sir,  if  he  were,  he  is  doing  ffude  to  the 
people.^'  Probably  neither  the  Laird  nor  his  clansman  were 
aware,  that  the  surplus  arising  from  the  Tabernacles  never 
returned  to  the  proprietor,  but  was  all  appropriated  to  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel. 

The  first  outcry  against  Mr.  Haldane  was  raised  on  the 
ground  of  politics.  But  no  sooner  was  this  silenced,  than 
another  equally  futile,  but  infinitely  more  absurd,  was  pressed 
into  the  service  of  the  opponents  of  Home  Missions.  Here  was 
a  gentleman  of  acknowledged  talents,  the  very  reverse  of  an 
enthusiast,  and  in  all  worldly  matters  distinguished  for  his  calm 
judgment,  and  shrewd,  calculating  turn  of  mind,  who  had  sold 
a  fine  estate,  and  was  educating  missionaries  at  a  vast  expense, 
besides  building  or  purchasing  large  places  of  worship  in  most 
of  the  principal  towns  of  Scotland.  Everywhere,  from  Thurso 
and  Wick  in  the  north,  to  Dumfries  in  the  south,  these  chapels 
were  crowded,  and  as  there  were  collections  made  at  the  door, 
partly  for  the  poor  and  partly  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  and 
as  rents  were  paid  for  some  of  the  pews,  the  rumour  went 
abroad,  that  in  these  schemes  the  originator  was,  after  all, 
by  no  means  neglecting  his  worldly  interests.  Seven  years 
later,  the  gossip  of  1802,  for  a  brief  period,  obtained  renewed 
currency,  in  consequence  of  expressions  hastily  used  by  Mr. 
Ewing,  writing  unadvisedly  with  his  pen.  In  the  heat  of  con- 
troversy that  gentleman  so  far  forgot  himself,  as  to  speak  in  the 
tone  of  one,  who  really  believed  that  Mr.  Haldane  was  "  adding 
thousand  to  thousand  in  the  funds.'^     Nay,  he  then  actually 


328  ME.  haldane's  economy. 

went  so  far  as  to  publish^  that  a  deacon  of  his  own  Churchy  who 
was  afterwards  separated  from  it,  but  who  at  one  time  attracted 
some  notice^  by  his  speculations  and  what  he  termed  the  '^  Har- 
leian  Dairy/'  had  made  "  much  greater  exertions,  proportionally, 
than  ever  had  been  made''  by  the  projector  of  the  Indian  Mis- 
sions, the  founder  of  the  Tabernacles,  the  supporter  of  the 
Seminaries,  and  the  main  prop  of  the  Home  missionaries. 
The  actors  in  these  busy  scenes  are  now  all  removed  from 
the  haunts  of  living  men,  and  the  clamour  of  prejudice  or  of 
passion  is  silenced  in  death.  Such  statements  as  those  referred 
to  are  now  known  to  be  ridiculous,  and  the  bitterest  oppo- 
nent of  Mr.  Haldane's  measures  would  no  longer  venture  to 
impeach  the  sincerity  of  his  loyalty,  the  extent  of  his  sacrifices, 
or  the  purity  of  his  motives.  Such  statements  would,  in  fact, 
be  unworthy  of  notice,  were  it  not  that  future  ecclesiastical 
historians  might  be  disposed  to  mistake  silence  for  admission. 
At  the  time  of  Mr.  Fuller's  journey  to  Scotland,  in  1802,  the 
portion  of  Airthrey  which  he  retained  imsold,  exclusive  of  his 
lands  in  Forfarshire,  exceeded  in  value  the  whole  of  his  stock 
in  the  public  funds.  Mr.  Haldane's  liberality  was^  however, 
always  under  the  control  of  a  wise  economy,  and  but  for  this 
and  his  calculating  foresight^  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
effect  what  he  did  with  the  same  means.  But  it  is  no  matter 
of  surprise  that  this  very  prudence  sometimes  proved  distasteful 
to  those,  who  were  not  themselves  accustomed  to  the  manage- 
ment of  property.  Mr.  L.  Macintosh,  who  has  been  already 
mentioned,  was  on  one  occasion  alluding  to  the  fact,  that  Mr. 
Haldane's  generosity  was  often  regarded  rather  as  a  proof  of  his 
wealth  than  of  his  liberality,  and  he  added,  that  there  were 
those  to  whom  Mr.  Haldane  had  shown  great  kindness^  who, 
instead  of  feeling  gratitude,  seemed  to  look  upon  his  fortune 
''as  a  wreck  cast  upon  the  shore,  to  which  all  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  help  themselves."  The  same  excellent  minister  was, 
on  another  occasion,  much  grieved  to  hear  one,  whom  Mr. 
Haldane  had  raised  from  the  station  of  a  mechanic,  censuring  his 
patron's  economy.  ''  You  seem,"  said  the  new-made  preacher, 
in  a  flippant  tone,  ''to  wince  when  anything  is  said  against 


MR.  HALDANe's    theological    SEMINARIES.        829 

Mr.  Haldane/'  "Yes/*  replied  Mr.  Macintosh,  "I  always 
feel  ashamed  to  hear  him  found  fault  with  by  those  whom  he 
made  gentlemen,  and  who,  but  for  his  purse,  would  still  have 
been  cobbling  shoes.*^ 

In  the  year  1802  the  studies  of  Mr.  Swing's  second  class 
ended,  when  the  Glasgow  seminary  was  closed,  and  another 
was  immediately  opened  in  Edinburgh  on  a  larger  scale,  more 
under  the  control  of  Mr.  Haldane  and  his  brother.  In  theology 
the  students  had  the  advantage  of  the  personal  instructions  of 
Mr.  Aikman,  aided  by  the  practical  good  sense  and  Christian 
experience  of  Mr.  John  Campbell.  To  them  was  added,  as 
Classical  Tutor,  Mr.  Thomas  Wemyss,  "a  gentleman,'*  says 
Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander,  "who  has  secured  to  himself  a  very 
respectable  place  amongst  biblical  scholars  by  his  work  on 
the  '  Symbolical  Language  of  Scripture,*  and  his  translation  of 
the  Book  of  Job.**  Towards  the  end  of  their  course  Mr.  Camp- 
bell retired,  but  his  place  was  supplied  by  Mr.  Wm.  Stephens, 
whose  very  striking  history  is  detailed  in  the  "  Missionary 
Magazine.**  He  was  a  man  of  good  parts  and  fine  elocution, 
who  had  been  at  one  time  on  the  stage,  but  was  brought  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  became  a  powerful  and  useful 
preacher.  He  was  at  first  a  minister  at  Aberdeen,  and  then 
came  to  assist  in  the  Tabernacle  at  Edinburgh,  where  he 
remained  until  he  adopted  Baptist  sentiments.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  England,  and  settled  at  Rochdale,  where  he  preached 
for  many  years  until  his  death.  In  1803,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cowie, 
of  Montrose,  originally  a  licentiate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
took  Mr.  Aikman*s  place,  and  also  assisted  at  the  Tabernacle. 
He  was  a  man  of  deep  piety  and  of  very  amiable  and  agreeable 
manners,  possessed  of  considerable  talent,  although  his  useful- 
ness was  somewhat  impaired  by  unequal  spirits  and  a  tendency 
to  depression. 

The  following  is  the  account  given  of  these  Seminaries  by  one 
who  was  indebted  to  them  for  his  education,  and  became  not 
only  an  occasional  preacher  but  the  able  instructor  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Deaf  and  Dumb  Institution.  It  is  extracted  from  the 
lamented  Mr.  Robert  KinDiburgh*s  "  Historical  Survey  of  Con- 


330     MB.  haldane's  theological  seminaries. 

gregationalism  in  Scotland/^  which  contains  the  only  accurate 
narrative  that  has  yet  appeared  of  the  early  proceedings  of  the 
originators  of  the  Circus  and  Tabernacle  system : — 

"  I.  'Vhejirst  class  began  in  January,  1799,  under  the  tuition  of  Mr. 
Ewing.  In  December,  1800,  this  class  completed  their  term  of  study, 
and  were  sent  to  different  stations  as  preachers.  In  it  were  John  Munro, 
George  Robertson,  &c. 

"  II.  The  second  class  commenced  in  January,  1800,  at  Dundee,  under 
Mr.  Innes.  In  this  class  were  a  few  who  had  been  catechists,  and  who 
were  found  to  possess  talents  capable  of  being  trained  for  the  ministry. 
In  the  early  part  of  1801,  all  of  this  class  were  removed  to  Glasgow,  and 
were  under  Mr.  Ewing  for  fifteen  months.  In  it  were  Dr.  Paterson, 
Alexander  Thomson,  &c. 

**  III.  In  1801,  the  third  class  began  at  Dundee,  under  Mr.  Innes,  but 
its  students  met  with  a  very  serious  interruption,  being  sent  for  a  time  to 
supply  stations  with  preaching  at  the  end  of  the  first  year.  They,  how- 
ever, came  to  Edinburgh  in  1804,  and  finished  their  term  of  study.  In 
this  class  were  Francis  Dick,  Alexander  Kerr,  &c. 

"  IV.  The  fourth  class  began  in  Edinburgh,  in  1802,  under  Messrs. 
Aikman  and  Wemyss,  with  the  addition  of  Mr.  Stephens,  towards  the 
close  of  the  second  year.    In  it  were  William  Newry,  Peter  M*Laren,  &c. 

"  V.  In  1803,  a  Jiflh  class  was  organized  under  Messrs.  Aikman, 
Wemyss,  and  Stephens,  Mr.  Cowie  taking  Mr.  Aikman's  place  during  the 
second  year.  In  it  were  Dr.  Russell  (Dundee),  John  Wfttson  (Mussel- 
burgh), &c. 

"  VI.  The  sitth  class  began  in  1804,  imder  Messrs.  Wemyss,  Stephens, 
and  Cowie,  for  the  first  year,  but  were  under  Mr.  Cowie  alone  during  the 
second  year.     In  this  class  were  Alexander  Knowles,  John  Black,  &c. 

"  VII.  The  seventh  class  assembled  in  1805.  In  it  were  William  Orme, 
John  Neave,  &c.  This  and  the  next  class  were  under  Messrs.  Cowie 
and  Walker. 

"VIII.  The  eighth  class  met  in  September,  1806.  In  it  were  Thomas 
Smith  (Rotherham),  Robert  Aikenhead,  &c.  Mr.  Cowie  resigned  the 
tutorship  in  the  spring  of  1808. 

"  IX.  A  ninth  class  was  formed  in  the  end  of  1807,  and  was  under  the 
care  of  Mr.  William  Walker  till  December,  1808,  when  the  Seminary  was 
given  up,  after  having  sent  out  nearly  300  preachers. 

"  The  course  of  study  of  these  classes  generally  extended  over  two 
years,  with  a  vacation  of  six  weeks  in  each  year,  and  embraced  English 
grammar  and  rhetoric,  the  elements  of  Greek  and  Hebrew, — the  last 
three  classes  had  Latin  in  addition, — lectures  on  systematic  theology,  and 
essays  upon  prescribed  subjects.  Each  student  in  rotation  delivered 
sermons  before  the  class,  the  tutor  making  his  remarks.    One  day  in  each 


MR.  HALDANe's   theological    SEMINARIES.        331 

week  all  were  required  to  speak  in  rotation  from  a  passage  of  Scripture 
appointed  for  that  purpose,  the  tutor  making  concluding  observations. 
The  students  were  supported,  had  medical  attendance  when  needed, 
their  education  and  class-books  were  given  them,  and  they  had  access  to 
a  large  and  well-selected  library, — all  at  the  expense  of  Mr.  Kobert 
Haldane.  Although,  in  consequence  of  the  urgent  demand  for  labourers, 
the  young  men  were  sent  out  with  more  meagre  attainments  than  would 
have  been  proper  in  other  circumstances,  yet  among  them  there  were 
very  many  who  would  have  done  honour  to  any  of  the  religious  bodies  of 
the  day.  Dr.  Struthers,  speaking  of  these  seminaries,  says,  *  Among  the 
300  sent  forth  from  these  classes,  before  they  were  altogether  given  up, 
there  were  some  choice  tpirita  who,  having  got  a  start  in  learning,  pushed 
on  their  private  studies  with  vigour,  and  obtained  success.'  This  is  quite 
correct  There  were  '  choice  spiritM*  among  them,  some  of  whom  subse- 
quently made  attainments  in  actual  scholarship  equal  to  and  beyond  the 
attainments  of  many  who  boast  of  their  University  educaticm;  while 
others  of  them,  although  they  did  not  aspire  to  be  erudite  scholars, 
yet,  by  diligent  application,  rose  to  eminence  as  preachers  and  writers. 
Speaking;  generally,  those  sent  out  from  the  seminaries  were  men 
befitting  the  times  in  which  they  lived.  They  were  raised  up  in  mercy 
to  a  perishing  world ;  and  if  they  did  not  succeed  in  drawing  multitudes 
to  their  chapels,  it  must  be  ascribed,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  unbending 
principles  which  they  ever  maintained.  Thus  a  succession  of  efficient 
preachers  was  secured,  on  a  plan  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  times, 
and  which  provided  for  the  supply  of  their  wants,  without  presenting  any 
temptation  to  those  to  embark  in  the  cause  whose  avarice  was  greater 
than  their  zeal  for  doing  good."* 

In  addition  to  the  nine  classes  enumerated  above^  as  conducted 
at  Mr.  Haldane^s  expense  during  ten  years^  there  was  another 
taught  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hamilton^  at  Armagh^  and  at  least  two 
others  in  Scotland^  of  which  Mr.  Kinni  burgh  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  aware.  The  one  was  at  Elgin^  under  Mr,  Ballantyne^ 
and  the  other  was  at  Granton^  under  Mr.  L.  Macintosh^  in 
1820  and  several  subsequent  years.  There  was  another  on 
a  smaller  scale^  instituted  at  Paris^  under  the  care  of  the 
amiable   and   excellent   ministers^   MM.  Francois^   and   Henri 

•  Dr.  Struthers,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Relief  Church,"  observes :  "  He 
(Mr.  R.  Haldane)  set  up  academies  in  Glasgow,  Dundee,  and  Edinburgh, 
under  Messrs.  Ewing,  Innes,  and  Haldane."  This  is  a  mistake,  excepting 
so  far  as  Mr.  James  Haldane  assisted  his  brotlier  in  watching  over  and 
superintending  the  progress  and  education  of  the  students. 


832     SOCIETY  FOR  PROPAGATING  THE  GOSPEL  AT  HOME. 

Olivier,  of  Lausanne,  during  the  time  when,  in  1824,  they  were 
for  three  years  banished  from  the  Canton  de  Vaud.  Both  Mr. 
Haldane  and  his  brother  also  contributed  to  the  maintenance  of 
theological  students,  at  a  later  period,  taught  by  Dr.  Carson,  in 
Ireland.  The  arrangements  connected  with  the  erection  or 
management  of  the  Tabernacles  and  Missionary  Seminaries,  in 
themselves  involved  a  large  amount  of  labour  and  responsibility. 
But  Mr.  Haldane  had  also  on  his  hands  the  chief  direction  of 
the  "Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  at  Home,''  besides 
the  labour  of  corresponding  with  many  parts  of  Scotland, 
England,  and  Ireland. 

Even  at  this  early  period,  he  was  not  indifferent  to  the  claims 
of  the  continent  of  Europe.  At  one  time  he  endeavoured  to 
pisevail  on  a  pious  and  judicious  merchant  at  Leith,  William 
Alexander,  Esq.  (the  father  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander, 
the  eloquent  and  distinguished  ornament  of  the  Congregational 
Union  in  Scotland),  to  proceed  to  Leghorn,  which  was  a  free 
port,  with  the  view  of  trying  what  could  be  done  in  the  way  of 
introducing  Bibles  or  tracts  into  Tuscany  and  other  parts  of 
Italy.  A  few  years  later,  he  also  proposed  to  an  able  Irish 
clergyman,  for  whom  he  entertained  a  high  regard,  to  settle  at 
Hamburgh,  with  a  view  to  establish  a  missionary  station  for 
promoting  the  Gospel  in  Germany.  Both  of  these  designs  failed. 
But  it  was  doubtless  well  that  they  were  in  his  heart ;  and  when 
in  after  years  we  find  him  at  Geneva  and  at  Montauban, 
instructing  the  students  of  these  Protestant  Colleges  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  it  will  not  be  forgotten 
that  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  and  during  the  space  of  ten 
years,  he  had  been  accustomed  to  draw  around  him  those  yoimg 
men  whom  he  educated  in  Scotland,  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging 
their  views  as  to  the  glory  of  the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  great 
doctrines  of  the  ever-blessed  Gospel.  From  these  details,  it 
will  be  seen  that  his  ardent  and  energetic  mind  was  as  much 
engaged  in  the  missionary  work  as  if  he  had  accomplished  his 
original  plan,  and  as  an  evangelist  had  expatriated  himself 
amongst  the  heathen  at  Patna  or  Benares. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MR.  JAMES  HALDANE  PREACHES  ON  THE  DEATH  OP  LORD 
CAMELFORD,  KILLED  IN  A  DUEL— CIRCUMSTANCES  OP 
THE  DUEL,  AND  THE  REV.  MR.  COCKBURN'S  ACCOUNT  OP 
THE  NOBLE  LORD'S  CHARACTER— MR.  JAMES  HALDANE 
VISITS  BUXTON— GOES  TO  DUBLIN— PREACHES  IN  THE 
BETHESDA  CHAPEL- MR.  WALKER,  FELLOW  OF  TRINITY 
COLLEGE  — MR.  JAMES  HALDANE  GOES  TO  LONDON  — 
DEATH  OP  ADMIRAL  LORD  DUNCAN— TOUR  TO  BREAD- 
ALBANE,  INVERNESS,  CAITHNESS,  &c. 

[1804-6.] 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1804^  Mr.  James  Haldane  preached  a 
remarkable  sermon  on  the  death  of  Thomas  Pitt^  second  Baron 
Camelford^  who  was  mortally  wounded  in  a  duel  by  Captain 
Best^  and  died  in  great  agony  four  days  afterwards.  This  fatal 
catastrophe  had  produced  an  extraordinary  public  sensation^ 
more  especially  following  as  it  did  on  another  duel^  in  which 
Colonel  Montgomery^  not  many  months  before^  fell  by  the  hand 
of  Captain  Macnamara,  in  a  wretched  quarrel  about  their  dogs. 
These  events  were  calculated  to  arouse  attention  to  the  miserable 
fruits  of  the  world's  code  of  honour^  in  submission  to  which  a 
young  nobleman,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  nephew  to  the  great 
Earl  of  Chatham,  and  cousin  to  the  Prime  Minister,  had  forfeited 
his  own  life,  extinguished  a  peerage,  and  sacrificed  a  great  for- 
tune, which  chiefly  fell  to  his  sister,  the  wife  of  the  celebrated 
Lord  Grenville.  Lord  Camelford  was  not  one  of  the  common 
run  of  fashionable  men,  living  upon  town.  He  had  fine  natural 
talents.  His  illustrious  uncle  had  bestowed  much  pains  on  his 
education,  and  addressed  to  him  a  series  of  letters  with  a  view  to 
his  improvement  which  have  been  since  published.  He  had 
been  passionately  fond  of  science,  and  in  many  subjects  connected 


334  SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELFORd's    DUEL. 

with  literature  was  no  mean  proficient.  But  in  those  unhappy 
days^  when  duelling  was  reckoned  a  mark  of  spirit^  he  had 
acquired  in  the  navy  and  in  the  world  of  fashion  the  reputation 
of  a  first-rate  shot.  He  had  provoked  and  been  concerned  in 
many  duels,  and  on  one  occasion,  where  the  death  of  a  superior 
officer  in  the  West  Indies  had  left  some  doubt  as  to  the  seniority 
of  the  next  in  succession,  he  brought  the  matter  to  an  issue  by 
giving  certain  orders  to  his  rival,  a  Lieutenant  Peterson,  on 
disobedience  of  which  he  shot  him  dead  on  the  sea-beach, 
although  at  the  head  of  an  armed  boat's  crew,  ready  to  uphold 
their  commander.  For  this  rash  act  he  was  tried  by  a  court- 
martial,  but  being  found  in  the  right  as  to  his  seniority,  and 
consequent  title  to  give  the  order,  he  was  honourably  acquitted. 
The  notoriety  thus  acquired  was  not  diminished  by  the  fact, 
that  he  had  returned  Mr.  Home  Tooke  to  Parliament  for  his 
pocket  borough,  and  threatened  to  substitute  his  own  black  servant 
in  case  of  his  nominee  being  declared  by  the  House  of  Commons 
disqualified  as  a  clergyman.  Lord  Camclford  and  Mr.  Best 
were  both  in  the  navy,  and  intimate  friends ;  but  they  had  at  the 
time  a  bet  of  200/.  depending,  as  to  which  was  the  better  shot. 
The  meeting  took  place  through  the  instigation  of  an  abandoned 
woman,  then  under  the  protection  of  Lord  Camelford,  who 
falsely  accused  her  former  protector,  Mr.  Best,  of  having  spoken 
disrespectfully  of  his  Lordship.  This  greatly  incensed  the 
irascible  Peer,  who  went  up  to  Mr.  Best  at  the  Prince  of  Wales 
Hotel,  in  Conduit-street,  where  they  usually  dined,  and  after 
some  altercation,  pronounced  him  *'  a  scoundrel,  a  liar,  and  a 
ruffian.^^  Mr.  Best  observed  that  these  were  expressions  which 
admitted  but  of  one  answer,  and  a  meeting  was  arranged  for  the 
next  morning.  But  in  the  course  of  the  evening  he  conveyed  to 
Lord  Camclford  the  assurance,  that  the  information  on  which  his 
Lordship  spoke  was  unfounded,  and  that  a  retractation  of 
the  words  used  under  a  wrong  impression  would  be  perfectly 
satisfactory.  They  again  met  in  the  morning  at  a  coffee-house 
in  Oxford-street,  and  once  more  Mr.  Best  pleaded  for  reconcilia- 
tion, adding,  ''  Do  not  persist  in  expressions  under  which  one  of 
us  must  fall/^     At  this  very  moment  Lord  Camclford  knew  that 


SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELFORd's    DUEL.  335 

he  had  been  imposed  od^  and  had  written  a  declaration  on  his 
will  that  he  was  the  "  aggressor  in  the  spirit  as  well  as  letter  of 
the  word/'  But  false  pride  would  not  allow  the  haughty  Peer 
to  listen  to  a  remonstrance^  which  might  impeach  his  courage,  and 
he  replied ;  " Best,  this  is  child's  play ;  the  affair  must  go  on" 
On  proceeding  to  the  ground  behind  Holland  House,  he  reiterated 
to  his  second,  the  Hon.  W.  Devereux,  the  statement  he  had 
appended  to  his  will,  but  said  that  he  was  fearful  that  his  repu- 
tation would  suffer,  if  he  made  any  concession  to  one  whom  he 
rather  thought  was  the  best  shot  in  England.  They  were  placed 
at  fifteen  paces  from  each  other,  fired  together,  and  Lord 
Camelford  fell,  to  all  appearance  dead.  In  an  instant  he 
recovered  the  shock,  so  far  as  to  exclaim,  "  I  am  killed,  but  I 
acquit  Best;  I  alone  am  to  blame.''  Captain  Best  and  his 
second  instantly  rode  off;  and  Lord  Camelford's  friend,  on  pre- 
tence of  going  for  a  surgeon,  did  the  same  as  soon  as  a  country- 
man came  up,  who  found  his  Lordship  lying  on  his  back,  in  the 
lower  part  of  a  field  overflowed  with  water.  His  Lordship  was 
unwilling  to  be  moved,  but  was  at  last  placed  in  a  chair  and 
conveyed  to  Little  Holland  House,  where  he  lingered  in  great 
pain  till  the  following  Saturday,  and  then  died.  The  ball  had 
penetrated  his  right  breast  passing  through  the  lungs,  and 
lodging  in  the  back  bone.  He  sent  for  his  solicitor,  and  made  a 
codicil  to  his  will,  in  which  he  stated,  that  although  most  people 
desire  that  their  remains  might  be  conveyed  to  their  native  land 
to  be  interred,  ''  I  wish  my  body  to  be  removed,  as  soon  as  may 
be  convenient,  to  a  country  far  distant,  to  a  spot  not  near  the 
haunts  of  men,  but  where  the  surrounding  scenery  may  smile 
upon  my  remains."  The  place  he  chose  was  on  the  borders  of 
the  Lake  of  St.  Lemprierre,  in  the  Canton  of  Berne,  where 
three  trees  stood  on  a  particular  spot.  The  centre  tree  he  desired 
to  be  taken  up,  and  his  body  being  there  deposited,  to  be 
replanted.  He  added,  '*  Let  no  monument  or  stone  be  placed  oiv 
my  grave."  At  the  foot  of  this  tree,  his  Lordship  said  he  had 
passed  many  hours,  meditating  on  the  mutability  of  human 
affairs.  He  left  1000/.  as  compensation  to  the  proprietors. 
In  the  spirit  evinced  by  Lord  Camelford  may  be  traced  some- 


336  SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELFORD's    DUEL. 

thing  resembling  that  unhappy^  morbid  tone  of  mind  that 
characterized  Lord  Byron.  But  it  was  not  merely  the  circum- 
stances of  this  remarkable  duel,  nor  yet  the  conduct  of  this 
unhappy  nobleman,  that  determined  Mr.  James  Haldane  to 
call  attention  to  it  from  the  pulpit.  What  seemed  far  more  to 
demand  special  notice  and  animadversion,  was  the  style  in  which 
the  event  was  published,  and  the  character  of  the  deceased 
drawn  by  his  Lordship^s  intimate  friend,  a  reverend  gentleman, 
then  a  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  That  clergy- 
man painted  Lord  Camelford  as  "  a  curious  mixture  of  much 
that  was  virtuous  and  much  that  was  vicious,  all  in  extremes." 
He  described  him  as  irascible  in  temper,  "  which  brought  him 
into  many  broils,^'  but  "warm  in  his  affections,  and  almost 
unexampled  in  his  benevolence."  He  did  not  "  distribute  less 
than  4000/.  a-year  in  the  purchase  of  commissions  for  gallant 
young  men,  and  in  the  rehef  of  decayed  seamen  and  soldiers." 
He  was  "  a  stern  adversary,  but  the  mildest  and  most  generous 
of  friends,"  often  the  dupe  of  the  designing  and  crafty  suppli- 
cant, but  oftener  "  the  soother  of  real  sorrow  and  unmerited 
woe."  He  had  read  "  sceptical  books  for  the  purpose  of  puzzling 
the  chaplains  on  board  the  ships  in  which  he  served,"  and  thus 
his  mind  had  become  tainted  with  infidelity ;  but  yet  he  "  was 
not  without  a  proper  sense  of  religion,  at  the  awful  moment 
when  the  levities  of  imagination  give  way  to  the  solemn  convic- 
tions of  the  mind."  There  was  thus  a  balance  struck  between 
vice  and  virtue,  infidelity  and  faith,  which  was  followed  up  by  an 
assurance,  that  "  in  the  worst  moments  of  his  pain,  he  cried  out 
that  he  sincerely  hoped  the  agonies  he  th^n  endured  might 
expiate  the  sins  he  had  committed."  Mr.  Cockbum  also  informed 
the  public  that  he  had  enjoyed  many  conversations  with  his 
Lordship,  who  little  more  than  a  week  before  his  death  had  said, 
''No  sensible  and  well-informed  man  can  presume  to  say  that 
Christianity  is  false.  I  do  not  yet  venture  to  assert  that  it  is 
true,  but  I  confess  the  probabilities  are  in  its  favour."  It  was 
thus  that  Mr.  Cockbum,  whilst  unable  to  palliate  the  vices  of 
Lord  Camelford,  down  to  the  moment  when  he  plunged  into 
eternity,  still  endeavoured  to  paint  what  he  termed  "  his  counter- 


SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELPORd's    DUEL.  337 

balancing  virtues/^  and  seemed  to  give  countenance  to  the  hope 
of  the  dying  Peer^  that  the  agonies  of  his  death-bed  might  be  an 
expiation  for  his  sins. 

No  one  who  knew  Mr.  James  Haldane  can  wonder  that  his 
spirit  was  stirred  within  him,  when  he  saw  such  statements 
circulated  and  read  with  avidity^  whilst  the  public  mind  was 
fixed  with  intense  interest  on  the  romantic  character  of  Lord 
Camelford^  as  drawn  by  his  reverend  apologist.  He  thought 
that  the  opportunity  was  one  for  being  useful  to  those  who  at 
other  times  might  not  be  disposed  to  listen  to  the  Grospel.  He 
knew  tlie  censure  to  which  it  might  expose  him^  but  he  publicly 
announced  that^  without  the  possibility  of  injuring  the  dead^  and 
in  the  hope  of  doing  good  to  the  livings  it  was  his  intention  to 
preach,  on  the  next  Lord's-day,  on  the  death  of  Lord  Camelford. 
Of  the  multitude  that  thronged  to  hear  that  sermon  there  are 
now  comparatively  few  survivors.  Some  have  lately  departed, 
and  amongst  these  the  venerable  Christopher  Anderson.  In 
reference  to  this  sermon,  he  wrote,  not  long  before  his 
own  death :  '^  It  was  understood  that  Mr.  James  Haldane 
meant  to  examine  and  expose  this  melancholy  affair.  Familiar 
as  he  had  been  for  years  with  sea  life,  and  once  himself  under 
tyranny  of  these  miserable  '  laws  of  honour,'  there  was  no  man 
better  qualified.  The  fear  of  (Sod  was  now  his  governing  prin- 
ciple, yet  it  required  no  common  fortitude  to  meet  such  a  case 
before  such  an  audience.^' 

The  spacious  building  in  which  he  preached,  then  capable  of 
seating  more  than  3,000  persons,  was  crowded  to  the  doors.  It 
was  at  the  time  of  the  threatened  invasion,  when  the  whole 
nation  resounded  with  the  clang  of  arms,  and  the  most  peace- 
ful civilians  were  often  arrayed  in  military  costume.  When 
he  entered  the  pulpit,  there  rose  before  him,  not  only  the  usual 
congregation,  but  officers  in  full  uniform  from  Piershill  barracks 
and  the  Castle, — cavalry,  infantry,  artillery,  and  volunteers,  officers 
on  Lord  Moira's  staff,  magistrates,  men  of  letters  and  philoso- 
phers, men  of  business  and  retired  gentlemen,  all  assembled  to 
hear  what  was  to  be  said  in  reprobation  of  duelling,  and  of  the 
account  circulating  in  print,  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Fellow  of 

z 


888     SERMON  ON  LORD  CAMELFORd's  DUEL. 

St.  John's,  Cambridge,  who  attended  the  death-bed  of  Lord 
Camelford. 

It  was  a  great  occasion,  and  Mr.  James  Haldane's  MS.  notes 
give  a  rough  outline  of  the  manner  in  which  he  treated  the 
subject.  He  took  for  his  text  no  passage  of  Scripture,  but 
holding  in  his  hand  the  "  Edinburgh  Advertiser,^'  which  was 
found  amongst  his  papers  at  his  death,  he  began  by  stating,  that 
in  deviating  from  the  usual  practice  of  discoursing  on  a  portion 
of  Scripture,  it  was  not  his  intention  to  lead  his  hearers  away 
from  the  Word  of  God,  but  rather  to  call  their  attention  to  a 
subject  which  strikingly  illustrated  its  truth.  "  Thus,''  he  said, 
"  we  find  the  Lord  taking  for  the  subject  of  his  discourse  the  fall 
of  the  tower  of  Siloam,  and  the  apostles  speaking  to  the  people 
from  the  events  that  occurred.  Lord  Camelford,"  he  continued, 
"  was  mortally  wounded  in  a  duel,  and  after  languishing  some 
days,  expired.  He  was  attended  by  a  clergyman,  who  gives  the 
following  account."  He  then  read  the  whole  of  the  extract,  with 
marked  emphasis,  adding,  "  Let  us,  by  the  help  of  God,  attend 
to  some  considerations  which  this  melancholy  statement  naturally 
suggests."  The  following  MS.  notes  can  furnish  but  a  faint 
idea  of  the  topics  handled,  and  none  at  all  of  his  impressive 
manner: — 

"  1.  The  manner  of  his  death. 

"  What  a  striking  proof  is  there  in  the  practice  of  duelling  that  duellists 
have  not  the  fear  of  God !  Can  anything  more  plainly  show  that  they 
prefer  the  praise  of  men  to  the  praise  of  God,  and  that  in  the  most 
deliberate  manner  ?  It  does  not  arise  from  a  sudden  gust  of  passion,  hut 
the  great  bulk  of  men  in  a  certain  rank  of  life  live  in  the  habitual 
determination  in  this  way  to  set  God  at  defiance.  They  even  plead 
that  it  is  necessary,  or  they  would  forfeit  their  honour.  Now,  every  man 
holding  such  sentiments  is  habitually  guilty  of  deliberate  rebellion  against 
God,  and,  according  to  the  Lord's  exposition  of  the  law,  is  a  murderer. 
Matt.  y.  28.  It  has  been  observed,  that  perhaps  there  is  no  other  sin 
which  men  habitually  resolve  to  practise,  whenever  a  temptation  shall 
occur.  In  consequence  of  the  great  increase  of  the  army,  this  is  likely  to 
become  more  frequent.  Every  one  in  the  rank  of  an  officer,  or  even  of  a 
private  in  some  corps,  considers  himself  as  a  man  of  honour,  that  is,  a  man 
who  is  bound  by  his  character  to  trample  on  the  laws  of  God ;  to  set  Him 
at  defiance,  and  to  risk  rushing  into  His  presence  a  murderer  or  a  suicide. 
Psalm  X.  13." 


SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELPORd's    DUEL.  339 

The  second  topic  discussed  was  ''Lord  Camelford's  charac- 
ter/' as  drawn  by  his  clerical  friend,  and  the  notes  proceed  : — 

"  His  character.  Great  vices  counterbalanced  by  great  virtues,  espe- 
cially benevolence.  Here  notice  the  false  views  of  benevolence.  There 
is  a  kind  of  instinct  which  leads  us  to  pity  distress.  Without  this,  society 
would  be  a  Pandemonium,  and  could  not  exist.  But  this  is  very  different 
from  true  benevolence ;  for  men  pity  others  when  in  great  distress,  who 
would  have  been  grieved  to  see  them  in  great  prosperity.  True  benevolence 
is  a  universal  principle,  and  necessarily  connected  with  love  to  God, 
the  greatest  and  best  of  beings.  False  benevolence  is  confined  to  our- 
selves, and  perhaps  a  few  connected  with  us.  True  benevolence  is  a  steady 
principle,  discovering  itself  in  various  ways,  according  as  there  is  oppor- 
tunity to  do  good  to  others.  False  benevolence  is  partial,  leading  us, 
according  to  our  caprice,  to  do  some  acts  of  seeming  kindness,  while 
we  can  at  pleasure  deliberately  gratify  our  passions  at  the  expense  of 
the  happiness  of  others  and  the  good  of  society.  Here  we  see  a  man 
confessedly  guilty  of  very  great  improprieties,  who  lived  in  habitual 
contempt  of  God,  yet  munificent  in  his  charities,  &c. 

**  3.  The  awful  levity  and  contempt  with  which  he  treated  revelation. 
The  Almighty  God,  in  compassion  to  man,  condescends  to  send  a  revela- 
tion of  mercy,  and  a  creature  to  whom  it  is  addressed  shall  actually  read 
books  to  find  arguments  for  the  sake  of  proving  it  to  be  false.  Thus 
the  madman  scatters  arrows,  firebrands,  and  death,  and  says.  Am  not 
I  in  sport  ?  Here  is  the  mind  capable  of  the  most  lively  efforts  of  active 
benevolence,  who  would  pour  contempt  on  the  Son  of  God,  who  would 
jest  with  his  sufferings  and  death,  and  rob  mankind,  as  far  as  his  puny 
arm  was  able,  of  what  sweetens  life,  and  supports  in  death. 

**  4.  But  it  seems,  *  he  was  not,  however,  without  a  proper  sense  04 
religion  at  the  awful  moment,'  &c.  There  is  a  moment  when  reckless 
unbelief  gives  way  to  the  solemn  convictions  of  the  mind.  These, 
although  stifled,  are  not  effaced.  All  men  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteous- 
ness; their  own  hearts  condemn  them,  knowing  the  just  judgment  of 
God,  that  they  who  do  such  things  are  worthy  of  death.  By  indulging  in 
sin  they  drown,  but  do  not  satisfy,  their  conscience,  which  will,  sooner  or 
later,  testify  against  them  and  stop  every  mouth. 

**  5.  Here,  in  Lord  Camelford's  own  words,  we  see  the  natural  con- 
viction in  the  mind  of  man  that  sin  deserves  punishment.  He  knew 
he  needed  some  expiation.  In  wealth,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  pleasures, 
he  might  have  smiled  at  the  idea  that  God  would  be  so  strict  as  to  call 
him  to  account,  or  he  might  consider  the  money  he  lavished  as  a  suffi- 
cient atonement  for  any  improprieties  of  conduct ;  for  such  is  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  the  human  heart,  that  men,  amidst  the  commission  of  the 
grossest  sins,  seek  to  establish  their  own  righteousness.    It  is  said,  he 

z  2 


840  SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELFORd's    DUEL. 

gave  away  thousands  yearly,  yet  conscience  demanded  another  expiation, 
and  he  found  that,  even  in  his  own  judgnaent,  all  these  acts  of  benevolence 
were  insufficient  to  entitle  him  to  the  favour  of  God. 

"  6.  Notice  the  blindness  of  the  human  heart  here  discovered, — he 
hoped  that  the  pain  produced  by  his  own  conduct,  by  perishing  in  a  duel, 
although  convinced  he  was  completely  wrong,  that  the  immediate  conse- 
quence of  this  crime  would  *  expiate  *  his  guilt.  Alas !  how  do  they 
mistake  who  imagine  that  a  few  hours  of  pain  will  satisfy  the  infinite 
demands  of  Divine  justice. 

"  7.  This,  however,  could  not  give  relief.  It  was  but  like  a  drown- 
ing man  snatching  at  a  straw.  He  was  driven  to  appeal  to  the  merci/ 
of  God,  and  to  desire  it  might  be  sought  for  him  by  prayer.  Here  we 
see  how  in  distress  the  stoutest  heart  fails,  and  the  convinced  sinner, 
feeling  his  need  of  God,  would  appeal  to  his  mercy.  But,  ah !  he  had 
neglected  the  great  salvation, — overlooked  the  only  way  of  obtaining 
mercy ;  and,  in  this  dreadful  situation,  with  an  awakened  conscience,  it 
appears  he  had  none  to  inform  him  how  God  is  just,  yet  justifies  the 
ungodly.  Without  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  all  is  uncertainty, — groping 
in  the  dark.  Without  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  mercy  can  only  be 
expected  by  overlooking  the  justice  and  truth  of  God,  Men  may  vainly 
imagine  that  repeating  prayers,  or  expressing  sorrow  for  the  past,  will 
recommend  them  to  the  mercy  of  God ;  but  a  deceived  heart  turns  them 
aside,  nor  have  they  understanding  to  say,  *  Is  there  not  a  lie  in  my  right 
hand  ? ' 

"  8.  How  many  methods  do  men  employ  to  ruin  themselves,  sheltering 
^emselves  under  the  opinion  of  others !  Mr.  Cockbum  says :  *  I  have 
heard  it  asserted,  by  those  who  would  fain  shelter  their  own  follies  under 
the  authority  of  others,  that  Lord  Camelford,  after  the  most  serious 
reflection  and  inquiry,  doubted  a  life  hereafter.  I  wish,  with  all  my  soul, 
that  the  unthinking  votaries  of  dissipation  and  infidelity  could  all  have 
been  present  at  the  death-bed  of  this  poor  man ;  could  have  heard  his 
expressions  of  contrition  for  past  misconduct,  and  of  reliance  on  the  mercy 
of  his  Creator ;  could  have  heard  his  dying  exhortations  to  one  of  his 
intimate  friends,  to  live  in  future  a  life  of  peace  and  virtue.  I  think  it 
would  have  made  impressions  on  their  minds,  as  it  did  on  mine,  not  easily 
to  be  efiaced.'  It  is  evident  he  doubted,  when  in  health,  and  could 
then  ridicule  religion :  but  now,  all  this  was  over.  The  sceptic  and  the 
scoffer  stood  appalled  in  the  presence  of  the  King  of  terrors.  Infidelity 
may  harden  the  mind  in  prosperity,  but  is  a  miserable  comforter  in  the 
hour  of  trial.  It  vanishes  when  its  aid  is  most  needed.  Now  he  acknow- 
ledges a  God,  laments  his  own  misconduct,  and  places  his  reliance  on 
mercy.  But  what  is  the  foundation  of  that  confidence  ?  Is  it  the  death 
of  Christ  ?  Alas !  his  name  is  not  once  mentioned.  Was  it  founded  on 
the  pain  he  endured  or  the  prayers  he  offered  ?    How  awful  if  the  con- 


SERMON    ON    LORD    CAMELFORd's   DUEL,  341 

science  be  thus  lulled.  It  is  like  sleep  produced  by  opium,  which 
nowise  diminishes  the  force  of  disease,  and  is  only  the  forerunner  of  fresh 
pain  and  anguish. 

"  9.  Notice  the  excellence  of  that  conduct  which  flows  from  religion, 
living  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly.  It  receives  testimonies  from  friends 
and  enemies.  To  it  the  dying  servant  of  Jesus,  finishing  his  career  with 
joy,  looks  back  with  delight  (2  Tim.  iv.  6.)  To  it  the  degraded  courtier 
testifies, '  Had  I  but  served  my  Qod  as  I  have  served  my  King,  He  would 
not  have  left  me  in  my  old  age.'  To  it  this  man,  who  had  no  longer  oppor- 
tunity of  indulging  in  sin,  and,  consequently,  being  able  to  judge  impar- 
tially, condemns  his  own  conduct  and  recommends  a  life  of  peace  and 
virtue. 

**  Improvement  First,  the  cause  of  taking  this  subject  It  is  objected, 
that  it  is  improper  to  notice  dead.  Scripture  does  so.  I  have  done  so 
for  the  sake  of  the  living.  I  have  taken  the  account  given  of  him  by  his 
friend.  No  wish  to  hurt  his  character,  nor  can  what  I  or  others  say  affect 
his  eternal  state. 

'*  1.  The  madness  of  treating  Christianity  with  contempt,  without 
giving  it  a  serious  hearing. 

"  2.  Folly  of  putting  off  thoughts  of  death  to  sick-bed,  when  racked 
with  pain  or  stupified  with  medicine. 

**  3.  The  amazing  goodness  of  God  in  the  gift  of  his  Son,  and  the 
satisfaction  which  the  knowledge  of  this  imparts  to  the  mind.  No 
conjecture,  but  the  word  and  oath  of  God." 

In  the  following  words  the  Rev.  C.  Anderson  thus  concludes 
his  own  personal  recollections  of  the  soul-stirring  sermon  preached 
on  this  striking  occasion  : — ^^  In  his  address  Mr.  Haldane  took 
up  the  statement  given  in  the  public  prints^  paragraph  by  para- 
graph, exposing  and  reprobating  it^  as  he  went  on,  in  a  manner 
which  such  a  man  alone  could  do.  The  immense  audience  was 
still  throughout,  in  awe  before  his  earnest  manner  and  thrilling 
language ;  and  some  then  present,  and  yet  aUve,  well  remember 
that  solemn  scene  even  to  this  hour.'' 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  Mr.  James  Haldane  again 
visited  Buxton,  with  his  wife  and  eldest  daughter.  He  availed 
himself  of  every  opportunity  of  preaching,  as  on  the  former 
occasion,  as  well  as  of  speaking  on  the  concerns  of  eternity  to 
those  whom  he  met  at  the  hotel.  But  he  also  left  Mrs.  James 
Haldane  at  Buxton  for  a  few  weeks,  whilst  he  made  an  excur- 
sion to  Dublin^  where  he  frequently  preached  at  the  Bethesda 


842  VISIT   TO    BUXTON. 

Episcopal  Chapel,  of  which  the  excellent  Mr.  Mathias  and  the 
learned  Mr.  Walker,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  were  then 
ministers,  occasionally  assisted  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Kelly,  the 
well-known  Christian  Poet,  the  Rev.  George  Carr,  and  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Thorpe,  whose  eminent  talents  as  a  popular 
preacher  soon  afterwards  pointed  him  as  the  fittest  associate  of 
Mr.  Mathias,  when  Mr.  Walker  resigned  his  fellowship  and  left 
the  Estabhshed  Church.  At  that  time  religion  was  at  a  low 
ebb  in  the  Church  of  Ireland,  and  evangelical  men  were  made 
the  objects  of  ridicule  and  reproach.  The  Bethesda  Chapel  was 
like  a  beacon-light  in  the  midst  of  darkness,  and  although  some 
of  the  good  men  who  fed  that  holy  fiame  felt  compelled  to 
dissent,  yet  others  remained  and  lived  to  see  the  wilderness  and 
the  solitary  place  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose.  But,  at  the 
time  when  Mr.  James  Ilaldane  preached  in  the  Bethesda,  at 
Dublin,  there  was  a  httle  band  who  had  a  separate  meeting, 
such  as  Mr.  Simeon  had  at  Cambridge,  to  which  none  but  those 
who  appeared  consistent  believers  were  admitted,  and  where 
they  prayed  together  and  exhorted  one  another,  receiving  the 
Lord's  Supper  at  an  hour  when  it  was  not  publicly  adminis- 
tered. These  facts  are  worth  noticing,  as  throwing  light  on  the 
steps  by  which  the  Haldanes  were  afterwards  gradually  led  to 
adopt  plans  of  mutual  exhortation  in  their  own  connexion. 

From  Buxton  Mr,  James  Haldane  proceeded,  with  his  wife 
and  daughter,  to  London,  preaching  at  Manchester,  Sheffield, 
and  many  other  places  at  which  they  stopped  on  their  route. 
During  their  stay  in  London  they  paid  several  visits  to  friends 
in  the  neighbourhood,  but  a  great  part  of  their  time  was  spent 
at  Hatcham  House,  the  residence  of  the  late  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hardcastle.  At  this  period  Mr.  J.  Haldane  was  much  followed, 
and  preached  to  great  crowds  in  the  Tottenham  Court  Chapel, 
Mr.  Whitfield's  Tabernacle,  in  the  City-road,  and  in  Camden 
Chapel,  Camberwell,  afterwards  the  scene  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
Melvill's  great  popularity. 

Mr.  James  Haldane  had  hoped  to  have  reached  Ix)ndon  in 
time  to  have  offered  himself  to  accompany  Lord  Duncan  on 
his  journey  to  Scotland.     An  alarming  paragraph  in  the  news- 


DEATH  OF  LORD  DUNCAN.  343 

paper,  relative  to  the  Admiral's  health,  had,  however,  been 
contradicted,  and  prevented  his  fulfilling  his  first  intention  of 
hastening  to  town.  But  scarcely  had  he  arrived  in  London 
than  he  heard  of  his  uncle's  death,  at  the  inn  at  Comhill  on 
the  Tweed,  which  he  reached  on  the  4th  of  August,  1804, 
attended  only  by  a  servant.  He  went  to  bed  in  his  usual 
health,  but  soon  afterwards  rang  his  bell,  and  expired.  In  his 
will  he  showed  his  unabated  confidence  in  his  nephews,  by 
including  Mr.  Haldane  as  one  of  the  trustees  and  guardians  of 
his  children,  with  Lord  Melville  and  the  Lord  Chief  Baron 
Dundas. 

In  the  spring  of  1805  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  made  another 
extended  tour,  accompanied  by  Mr.  John  Campbell,  who  returned 
from  Kingsland  for  that  purpose.  They  proceeded  by  Perth 
and  Dunkeld  into  Breadalbane,  where  they  separated.  The 
people  on  this  occasion  came  out  by  thousands  to  listen  to  Mr. 
J.  Haldane.  At  Killin,  in  1803,  they  could  not  hear  of  one 
earnest  Christian.  Now  there  were  a  goodly  number  of  true 
disciples.  Mr.  Peter  Grant,  a  pious  preacher,  who  is  also  styled^ 
amongst  his  countrymen,  the  Gaelic  poet,  gives  the  following 
account  of  Mr.  J.  H.'s  progress  from  Breadalbane  through 
Strathspey : — 

"  The  novelty  of  a  field-preacher,  especially  a  gentleman,  attracted 
multitudes.  In  a  short  time  the  whole  country  was  in  a  stir.  Many  said, 
that  we  were  all  in  a  lost  condition ;  others  endeavoured,  by  arguments 
and  ridicule,  to  banish  all  their  fears ;  but  the  Gospel  kindled  a  flame  at 
that  time  which  1  hope  is  not  yet  extinguished.  May  the  Lord  continue 
it  for  ages  to  come ! 

^  1  was  young  and  had  little  concern  about  my  own  soul  when  Mr. 
Haldane  visited  this  place.  All  that  1  remember  is,  having  seen  himself 
and  John  Campbell  preach  at  Granton,  on  a  market-day.  They  took 
their  station  a  little  out  of  the  village,  where  a  church  has  been  since 
built  Almost  the  whole  market  gathered  to  hear.  At  first  they  thought 
to  drown  his  voice  by  laughing  and  sporting,  but,  in  a  short  time,  his 
powerful  and  commanding  voice  overcame  all  their  uproar,  and  a  solem* 
nity  prevailed  till  the  end  of  his  discourse;  some  have  since  acknow- 
ledged to  me,  that  they  received  their  first  impression  there  on  that 
occasion. 

**  But  my  wife,  though  as  young  as  myself,  was  better  acquainted  with 


344         FOURTH  TOUR  TO  THE  NORTH. 

Mr.  Haldane.  The  children  not  being  accustomed  to  strangers,  especially 
a  gentleman,  would  hide  themselves  in  holes,  but  my  wife  somehow 
saw  something  in  his  smiles  that  encouraged  her  to  come  near  him ;  and 
often  did  she  show  me  how,  with  his  hand,  he  stroked  her  head,  and  endea- 
voured to  impress  upon  her  young  mind  the  importance  of  attending  to 
the  concerns  of  her  soul  in  the  days  of  her  youth.  He  sometimes  endea- 
voured, by  signs,  to  make  her  understand  what  she  could  not  otherwise 
understand,  being  very  deficient  in  the  English.  She  was  not  certain 
whether  she  was  truly  converted  at  this  time,  but  the  impression  then 
made  never  was  efiaced. 

"  Another  circumstance  not  to  be  forgotten  is,  that  he  induced  my 
father-in-law  to  set  up  a  Sabbath-school,  especially  to  teach  the  people 
to  read  the  Scriptures  in  the  Gaelic  language,  for  hitherto  the  children 
were  only  taught  to  read  English,  of  which  they  did  not  understand  one 
word.  Thus  Mr.  Haldane  was  the  founder  of  the  first  Sabbath-school 
that  ever  was  in  our  country,  and,  as  far  as  I  have  heard,  the  first  in  all  the 
north  of  Scotland.  Now  there  are  about  ten  in  this  country,  five  of  them 
belonging  to  our  own  denomination.  I  think  Mr.  Haldane  helped  my 
father-in-law  to  get  up  a  small  meeting-house  for  the  schools  and  other 
meetings.  This  house  was  set  on  fire  on  a  Sabbath  morning,  by  parties 
whom  we  will  not  mention.  This  made  a  great  stir.  When  the  proprietor 
(Sir  James  Grant,  predecessor  of  the  Earl  of  Seafield)  heard  of  it,  he  was 
much  displeased,  and  showed  much  favour  to  my  father-in-law  as  long  as 
he  lived,  for  the  family  of  Grant  were  always  favourable  to  religion, 
virtue,  and  liberty. 

**  I  was  told  that  Mr.  Haldane,  while  here,  met  with  a  captain  with 
whom  he  was  acquainted  on  his  sea  voyages.  This  captain  invited  him 
to  his  house,  but,  in  the  invitation,  made  use  of  a  great  oath.  Mr.  Hal- 
dane  faithfully  admonished  him,  but  went  for  a  night  to  his  house,  and 
the  captain  never  again  manifested  hostility  to  religion. 

*<  Ever  after  this  Mr.  Haldane  felt  a  lively  interest  in  the  cause  of  God 
and  truth  in  Strathspey.  In  every  letter  he  sent  salutations  to  the 
Church,  and  desired  an  interest  in  our  prayers.  For  many  years  he  and 
his  brother  supported  Mr.  Macintosh,  as  our  faithful  and  beloved  pastor, 
when  we  could  do  nothing  ourselves  to  support  him ;  and  without  him  I 
fear  our  prosperity  would  soon  have  come  to  an  end.  He  felt  a  great 
interest  in  our  late  revival,  and  gave  us  many  wise  counsels  regarding  the 
young  people  who  newly  professed  the  truth.  We  sought  his  advice  in 
all  trying  circumstances,  and  we  believe  his  wise  counsels,  as  a  father  in 
Israel,  were  at  least  one  means  of  the  measure  of  prosperity,  unity,  and 
love,  that  remained  among  us  when  many  other  Churches  divided  and 
separated  till  they  made  themselves  a  by-word  and  a  proverb  among  the 
people." 


ACCOUNT   OF   THE   TOUR.  845 

It  would  be  tedious  to  pursue  every  step  in  their  tour  to 
Inverness,  Dornoch,  Tain,  Portmuch,  to  Wick  and  Thurso. 
But  there  are  two  letters,  written  in  the  simplest  style  and  in 
very  short  words,  to  his  eldest  child,  a  little  girl  of  eight  years 
old,  which  may  perhaps  exhibit  some  glimpses  of  his  character. 
The  first  is  dated  June,  1805 : — 

"  My  dear  Elizabeth, — I  wrote  to  your  mamma,  from 
Dunkeld,  and  hope  she  received  the  letter.  I  left  Dunkeld  on 
Monday,  and  preached  at  Logic  Rait,  where  the  river  Tummel 
joins  the  Tay.  The  Tay  is  the  largest  river  in  Scotland,  and 
runs  out  of  Loch  Tay.  I  rode  up  the  side  of  the  river  to 
Kenmuir,  which  is  situated  at  the  end  of  the  Loch.  Taymouth, 
where  Lord  Breadalbane  has  a  house,  is  within  a  mile  of  Ken- 
muir. It  is  a  pretty  place,  and  has  a  large  park,  with  deer. 
After  preaching  I  walked  to  the  house,  but  it  was  very  late,  and 
I  saw  little  of  it.  The  old  house  is  now  almost  taken  down,  and 
a  new  one  is  building,  in  a  castellated  style,  somewhat  like  that 
of  the  house  at  Airthrey. 

''  I  rode  up  the  south  side  of  the  lioch  to  Killin,  which  is 
just  at  the  other  end  of  it.  The  Loch  is  sixteen  miles  long, 
and  is  very  pretty,  but  it  has  no  islands.  Killin  is  a  very 
beautiful  situation,  and  might  be  made  a  finer  place  than  Tay- 
mouth.  On  the  north  side  of  the  Loch  is  Ben  Lawers,  one  of 
the  highest  mountains  in  Scotland.  It  is  above  four  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  But  what  pleased  me  more  than 
the  beauty  of  the  place  was,  to  see  many  believers  in  Christ, 
where  there  were  hardly  any  a  few  years  ago.  The  Gospel  has 
greatly  civilized  them.  They  are  full  of  affection  to  all  who 
love  the  Lord  Jesus.  I  preached  three  times,  at  different  places^ 
on  Monday,  for  they  are  much  scattered.  The  Psalmist  says, 
God  maketh  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him.  This  is  illustrated 
by  what  has  happened  here.  A  man,  who  had  a  small  farm, 
was  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  He,  at  the  same 
time,  carried  on  a  linen  manufactory,  and  the  Highland  Society, 
for  encouraging  improvements,  had  given  him  the  use  of  four 
looms.  When  he  became  acquainted  with  Christ,  false  reports 
were  raised  of  him,  as  having  become  idle,  and  the  Society 


346  TOUR   TO   THE   NORTH. 

ordered  the  looms  to  be  taken  from  him.  This  was  accordingly 
done^  and  by  this  means  a  large  place  was  emptied,  which  has 
served  the  Church  to  meet  in,  in  winter,  ever  since.  Is  not 
the  Lord  excellent  in  counsel,  and  wonderful  in  working?  Had 
it  not  been  for  this,  they  would  not  have  met  in  winter  at  all. 

"  On  Tuesday  we  breakfasted  with  this  man,  who  lives  near 
Kenmuir,  and  proceeded  north  to  Dalnacardoch ;  we  were 
obliged  to  walk  a  good  part  of  the  way,  on  account  of  the 
hills,  and  dined  at  a  place,  where  we  could  hardly  get  anything 
but  eggs.  Dalnacardoch  is  the  next  stage  to  Blair,  on  the 
Highland  road.  It  is  situated  in  Athol,  and  is  very  high,  and 
cold,  and  disagreeable.  Next  day  we  crossed  the  Grampion 
Hills,  which  run  quite  across  Scotland.  They  take  their  rise  at 
Aberdeen.  The  distance  from  Blair  to  Aviemore  is  fifty  miles, 
but  people  on  foot  can  go  through  the  mountains  (Glentilt),  so 
as  to  save  half  the  distance.  The  road  runs  through  an  opening 
in  the  mountains,  or  it  would  be  impassable  for  carriages.  It 
rained  on  us  very  much,  but  with  the  umbrella  we  were  kept 
pretty  dry.  In  the  middle  of  the  mountains  we  called  at  the 
house  of  a  poor  woman,  whom  God  lately  brought  to  a  know- 
ledge of  the  truth,  by  means  of  a  preacher  who  caUcd  to  get  some 
refreshment,  and  spoke  to  her  the  word  of  the  Lord.  She 
was  very  glad  to  see  us,  was  very  contented  and  happy;  but 
told  us  she  was  praying  to  the  Lord  to  open  some  way  for  her 
to  remove  where  she  might  be  nearer  the  Gospel,  and  the  people 
of  God.  Some  time  after  we  passed  her  house,  we  found  we 
were  at  the  summit,  by  observing  a  small  stream  running  north. 
We  dined  at  Dalwhinnie,  and  afterwards  crossed  the  Spey,  a 
little  below  its  source.  It  becomes  a  considerable  river,  and  is 
the  most  rapid  in  Scotland.  We  slept  at  Pitmain,  and  while 
supper  was  getting  ready,  walked  to  a  small  village,  where  we 
knew  there  were  some  believers.  The  Duchess  of  Gordon  lately 
sent  for  one  of  them,  a  blacksmith,  and  asked  him  many 
questions  about  religion.  He  told  her  what  the  Gospel  was, 
and  referred  to  some  passages  in  his  Bible,  which  he  took  out 
of  his  pocket,  which  struck  her  much;  but  I  must  conclude, 
for  my  paper  is  full.     I  trust  you  are  all  well.     I  hope  to  get 


LETTER   FROM    CAITHNESS.  347 

a  letter  from  your  mamma^  at  Forres,  to-day.  Write  to  me, 
as  soon  as  you  receive  this,  to  Wick.  We  intend  to  be  there 
next  Lord's-day.  Give  my  kind  love  to  all,  and  to  your  grand- 
mamma, if  she  is  at  Portobello,  as  I  suppose.  How  are  the 
boys  doing  ?  are  they  good  scholars  ?     Farewell,  my  dear. 

'^  Yours  affectionately, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane. 
^^  Tell  your  mamma  to  desire  Mr.  Ritchie  to  send  to  Caith- 
ness some  copies  of  the  book.'' 


When  they  arrived  at  Wick,  Mr.  Campbell  observes  that, 
before  Mr.  J.  Haldane's  tour  in  1797,  only  three  families  "wor- 
shipped Grod,''  but  now  they  heard  the  voice  of  melody  in  almost 
every  dwelling.  Such  was  the  change  effected  in  that  destitute 
country.  Both  of  his  former  tours  were  well  remembered,  and 
some  of  the  people  now  came  twenty  miles  to  hear.  His  second 
letter  to  his  daughter  is  as  follows : — 

"  TVick,  June  22,  1805. 

*'  My  dear  Elizabeth, — As  I  began  to  give  you  an  account 
of  our  journey,  I  shall  conclude  it  in  this  letter,  instead  of 
writing  your  mamma,  as  I  intended.  I  left  off  at  Pitmain. 
We  preached  there  in  the  morning,  and  proceeded  to  Aviemore, 
where  we  left  the  Inverness  road,  and  came  on  to  Granton. 
On  our  way  to  Aviemore,  we  called  at  the  house  of  one  of  the 
converts,  who  had  been  in  the  Artillery,  and  lost  both  his 
hands,  by  the  going  off  of  a  gun.  He  was  brought  to  a  know- 
ledge of  the  truth,  by  a  sermon  of  Mr.  Campbell's,  the  last 
time  we  were  north.  We  did  not  find  him  at  home,  but  just 
as  we  were  setting  off,  after  dinner,  he  came  running  to  see 
us,  and  appears  to  be  very  happy  in  waiting  for  the  coming  of 
Jesus.  He  occasionally  exhorts  his  fellow-sinners,  and  some- 
times holds  out  his  arms,  and  calls  their  attention  to  the 
goodness  of  God,  in  not  allowing  him  to  die  when  he  was 
ignorant  of  Christ. 

^'  When  we  arrived  at  Granton,  we  found  a  number  of  people 
assembled  at  a  fair,  and  the  town  also  almost  full  of  volun- 
teers, at  that  time  quartered  there.    We  preached,  although 


346  LETTER   FROM    CAITHNESS. 

it  was  late.  Granton  is  a  village  situated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Spey.  Near  it  Sir  James  Grant  has  a  house  (Castle  Grant), 
and  the  whole  is  his  property.  Next  day  we  came  to  Forres, 
a  very  pretty  place,  about  four  miles  from  the  sea.  It  is  in 
Morayshire,  which  is  one  of  the  best  com  countries  in  Scotland, 
and  the  harvest  is,  in  general,  as  early  as  about  Edinburgh. 
If  your  mamma  would  have  the  travelling  map  brought  down 
to  Portobello,  you  might  trace  the  journey  we  have  taken,  and 
this  would  help  to  teach  you  the  geography  of  Scotland.  I 
left  Mr.  C.  at  Forres,  and  went  on  the  same  evening  (Saturday) 
to  Elgin,  where  I  spent  the  Lord*8-day.  On  Monday  I  returned 
by  Forres  to  Nairn.  Several  young  people  are  under  much 
concern  about  eternal  things.  May  the  Lord,  my  love,  manifest 
His  glory  to  you,  as  he  does  not  to  the  world !  On  Tuesday 
we  preached  at  Fort  George,  which  was  erected  after  the  Rebel- 
lion in  '45,  for  the  security  of  the  Highlands.  We  crossed 
the  Murray  frith,  which  is  there  very  narrow,  and,  after  crossing 
another  ferry,  got  to  Invergordon,  a  small  village,  and  from 
thence  to  Tain,  the  capital  of  Ross-shire.  Owing  to  our  being 
detained  and  missing  our  road,  it  was  between  twelve  and  one 
before  we  arrived.  We  found  the  town  quite  full,  owing  to  a 
review  of  volunteers,  and  a  company  of  players  who  were  there. 
We  could  get  no  beds.  At  last,  the  landlady  got  some  blankets 
spread  for  us  on  the  floor,  where  we  slept  very  comfortably. 
Next  day  we  attempted  to  cross  the  Frith  of  Dornoch,  at  what 
is  called  the  Muckle  Ferry,  but  as  there  was  too  much  wind, 
we  were  obliged  to  return  to  Tain.  By  this  means  we  preached 
there  in  the  evening;  perhaps  the  Lord  had  some  wandering 
sheep  to  gather,  and  sent  us  back  to  proclaim  the  joyful  sound. 
All  His  ways  are  wonderful.  Next  day  we  crossed  the  frith, 
dined  at  Dornoch,  the  capital  of  Sutherland,  which  was  all 
bustle  about  the  election  of  a  member  of  Parliament.  A  few 
miles  from  it  we  crossed  the  little  ferry,  and  passed  Dun  Robin 
Castle,  belonging  to  the  Marquis  of  Stafford.  It  is  a  pretty  place, 
and  has  a  good  many  trees,  which  are  not  plentiful  in  that 
country.  We  went  along  the  sea-shore  to  Helmsdale,  where 
we  arrived  late.     The  house  was  very  bad,  and  their  best  room 


LAST   OF    THE   LONG    ITINKRATINQ   TOURS.  349 

was  occupied.  Next  morning  we  entered  Caitliness^  and  crossed 
the  Orde^  as  it  is  called^  which^  I  am  toid^  signifies  hanmier. 
It  is  a  grea^  precipice^  almost  perpendicular^  from  the  road  to 
the  sea,  some  hundred  feet.  The  roads  were  so  bad,  that  we 
were  obliged  to  walk,  and  lead  our  gig.  We  breakfasted  at 
Berrydale,  where  Sir  John  Sinclair  has  built  a  pretty  good  inn. 
It  is  a  very  romantic  place,  surrounded  with  mountains.  We 
found  here,  that  a  part  of  the  ironwork  of  the  gig  was  broken^ 
and  therefore  proceeded  on  foot,  and  slept  at  a  small  house, 
about  twelve  miles  from  this,  and  arrived  here  to-day,  in  good 
health.  Mr.  C.  is  gone  to  Thurso.  Thus  we  have  cause  to 
say,  hitherto  the  Lord  has  helped  us.  I  am  sorry  to  hear 
you  have  been  unwell,  but  hope  you  are  better,  and  that  the 
Lord  will  make  the  illness  useful  to  you.  Our  life  is  but  a 
vapour.  Let  us  live  for  eternity.  I  received  your  mammals 
letter  at  Forres,  and  expect  one  here  from  her. — Yours,  &c., 

"  J.  A.  Haldanb.'^ 

They  remained  in  Caithness  for  a  fortnight,  and  went  by  the 
sea-shore  to  Dun  Robin  Castle,  where  Mr.  James  Haldane 
addressed  a  regiment  of  volunteers,  who,  although  out  on  a 
field-day,  were  dismissed  early,  that  they  might  hear  him  preach. 
They  returned,  by  Inverness  and  Himtly,  to  Aberdeen,  and 
thence  to  Edinburgh,  preaching  along  the  line  of  road. 

This  was  the  last  of  his  prolonged  and  very  extensive  sunomier 
tours.  In  the  following  year,  and  at  various  other  times,  he 
made  many  shorter  tours,  both  in  the  Highlands  and  the  west 
and  north  of  Scotland.  But  he  was  never  again  absent  for  many 
weeks  together.  The  number  of  faithful  ministers  throughout  the 
country  was  now  greatly  increased,  and,  not  to  dwell  on  the  great 
awakening  in  the  Establishment,  and  in  the  other  Presbyterian 
bodies,  there  were  already  dispersed  through  the  country,  from 
Mr.  Haldane's  seminaries,  nearly  two  hundred  preachers,  exclu- 
sive of  those  who  had  retired  from  the  service,  gone  to  America, 
or  died,  or  become  disqualified.  That  number  was  still  augment- 
ing, for,  in  1805,  there  were  sixty-four  students  in  Edinburgh, 
besides  those  at  Elgin  and  Armagh.     It  is  also  proper  to  take 


350        TESTIMONY   OF   DR.  RUSSELL,    OF   DUNDEE. 

into  account  the  growing  cares  of  a  large  Church  and  congrega- 
tion^ the  former  probably  then  consisting  of  six  hundred 
members,  irrespective  of  those  belonging  to  Mr.  Ailanan's. 

The  late  Dr.  Russell^  of  Dundee,  who  was  one  of  the  chief 
ornaments  of  the  seminaries  formed  after  their  removal  from 
Olasgow,  has  left  on  record  the  following  testimony : — 

**  By  means  of  the  movement  which  took  place  at  that  period,  there  was 
awakened  a  spirit  of  greater  zeal  in  various  religious  bodies.  A  more 
pointed  manner  of  preaching  was  adopted  by  many.  There  came  to  be 
more  discrimination  of  character.  The  empty  flourish  of  the  instrument 
gave  place  to  the  well-defined  tones  and  melodies,  which  awaken  all  the 
sympathies  of  the  soul.  The  unfettered  freeness  of  the  Gospel  was  more 
fully  proclaimed,  while  its  practical  influence  was  more  distinctly  unfolded. 
In  the  course  of  time,  there  appeared  an  increased  and  increasing  number 
of  Evangelical  ministers  in  the  Establishment,  and  a  beneficial  influence 
was  formed  to  operate  upon  other  denominations." 

When  the  Haldanes  and  their  early  coadjutors  entered  the 
field  they  were  almost  the  only  preachers  of  the  (Jospel  in  the 
destitute  parts  of  Scotland,  such  as  Caithness,  Kintyrc,  Arran, 
or  Breadalbane.  They  were  almost  the  only  promoters  of 
Sabbath-schools,  which  the  General  Assembly  denounced,  and 
the  only  distributors  of  religious  tracts.  But  now,  Scotland  was 
placed  under  a  new  spiritual  agency.  The  "  missionaries,''  as 
ihey  were  called,  were  found  preaching  in  every  village  and 
Highland  glen,  and  in  every  locality  they  had  their  schools  and 
lay  agency.  At  first,  they  had  all  the  prestige  which  belonged 
to  Reformers  in  the  Church  in  which  they  were  educated,  but 
after  the  institution  of  Congregationalism  they  lost  this  advan- 
tage, and  became  shackled  by  divisions  in  their  own  camp. 

**  There  are,"  says  a  well-informed  minister  belonging  to  the  Congre- 
gational Union,  writing  in  1849, — "  there  are  now,  spread  over  the  length 
and  breadth  of  Scotland,  perhaps  a  thousand  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
more  than  when  our  Evangelists  first  went  forth,  and  under  no  small 
obloquy,  misrepresentation,  and  opposition  broke  up  the  fallow  ground. 
Such  is  the  change  now,  that  some  of  our  itinerants  and  country  pastors 
can  get  a  good  congregation  in  their  preaching  excursions  only  by 
obtaining  permission  to  occupy  a  Free-Church  pulpit.'^ 

Provided  Christ  was  preached,  it  mattered  little  to  either  of 
the  Haldanes  what  instrumentality  was  employed.     To  them 


LETTER  FROM  MR.  SIMEON.  351 

Churchmen  or  Dissenters^  Baptists  or  Independents^  were  alike 
welcome,  if  they  proclaimed  the  Gospel  in  its  purity  and  power. 
An  extract  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Simeon,  written  at  this  time, 
will  show  how  he  too,  in  the  maturity  of  his  judgment,  continued 
to  overlook  party  distinctions : — 

"  My  very  deab  Fbiend  and  Brothee, — I  have  just  received  from 
you  a  parcel  containing  some  books  and  tracts,  both  of  your  own  and 
others,  for  which  I  most  sincerely  thank  you.  ...  I  suppose  that  you 
may  have  seen  my  sermon  on  the  Churchman's  confession,  and  appre- 
hended, from  the  note  that  is  in  it,  that  I  am  become  an  Arminian  and  a 
Methodist,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  I  am  happy  to  assure  you,  if 
this  be  your  fear,  that  you  may  dismiss  it  utterly.  My  sentiments  are 
precisely  the  same  as  when  I  had  the  happiness  of  travelling  with  you. 
But  persons  in  North  Britain  are  not  aware  of  the  use  that  is  here  ma&e 
of  the  word  Calvinism ;  they  do  not  know  that  all  religion  is  now  scouted 
under  that  term,  and  that  there  is  a  necessity  here  for  showing  that 
Christianity  existed  before  Calvin.  This  matter  also  has  been  so  strongly 
taken  up  (especially  of  late)  in  this  University,  that  I  was  compelled,  for 
the  Lord^s  sake,  to  insert  the  challenge  there  given  to  the  great  cham- 
pion,— a  challenge  he  has  never  dared  to  accept  I  merely  say  thus 
much  to  counteract  by  truth  what  I  know  to  be  the  impression  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Tweed.  My  object  is  to  inculcate  the  truth,  the  very 
truth  of  God,  and  not  to  stand  up  for  this  or  that  name.  As  to  Calvin,  I 
certainly  unite  with  him  in  many  things,  but  not  in  all :  he  carries  his 
ideas  of  reprobation  much  farther  than  I. 

"  You,  my  dear  brother,  have  been  stirred  up  to  activity  in  the  service 
of  your  God ;  and  I  rejtnce  unfeipnedly  in  all  the  good  thai  you  have  been 
enabled  to  do.  You  alone  can  judge  how  far  your  original  design  (some- 
what according  with  the  first  intentions  of  the  Methodists)  has  been  kept 
in  view;  but  I  apprehend  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  such  weak 
creatures  as  we  to  execute  any  new  projects  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to 
find,  at  a  future  period,  that  there  was  some  room  for  improvement. 

**  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that,  all  things  considered,  we  have  great 
reason  for  thankfulness  at  Cambridge.  The  work,  on  the  whole,  is  going 
on  both  in  the  town  and  University,  and  souls  are  added  to  the  Lord. 

"  I  hope  your  good  lady  is  prospering,  both  in  soul  and  body,  and  that 
our  gracious  God  will  continue  both  to  you  and  her  his  richest  blessings. 
"  Believe  me,  my  dear  friend,  most  affectionately  yours, 

"  lUv,  J,  Haldane,**  "  C.  Simeon. 


CHAPTER  XVL 

PROGRESSIVE  CHANGES  THE  RESULT  OF  aRCUMSTANCES— 
MR.  EWING'S  ZEAL  FOR  CONGREGATIONALISM  AND 
WEEKLY  FELLOWSHIP  MEETINGS  — CONSTITUTION  OF 
CHURCHES  AT  GLASGOW— DISCUSSIONS  ABOUT  CHURCH 
ORDER,  APOSTOLIC  PRACTICE,  AND  BAPTISM  —  DISRUP- 
TION  IN  THE  NEW  CONNEXION  —  ITS  CONSEQUENCES  — 
CONTROVERSY  WITH  MR.  EWING  —  ANECDOTE  OF  DR. 
STUART  AND  LORD  BROUGHAM— LETTER  FROM  MONT- 
AUBAN— MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE  ON  CHURCH  ORDER— HIS 
BROTHER'S  SENTIMENTS  ON  THE  SAME  SUBJECT. 

[1799—1810.] 

The  institution  of  Congregational  Churches  separate  from  the 
Scottish  Establishment  was  the  result  of  unforeseen  circum- 
stances^ and  not  of  a  preconcerted  plan.  For  a  long  time  after 
the  formation  of  the  Tabernacle  Church,  questions  of  eccle- 
siastical discipline  never  seemed  to  impede  the  hallowed  object 
to  which  its  pastor  had  consecrated  his  life.  To  use  his  own 
language,  *'  It  was,  in  fact,  no  separation  from  the  Establish- 
ment. It  was  merely  opening  another  place  of  worship  for 
preaching  the  Gospel  without  regard  to  forms  of  external 
arrangement  or  Church  order,  and  where  the  pastor  and 
many  of  the  members  showed  their  catholic  spirit  by  going 
to  the  Sacrament  in  the  Established  Church.  Add  to  this,  that 
the  preaching  was  almost  entirely  addressed  to  the  people  of  the 
world.'*  It  might  have  been  well,  had  it  been  possible,  that 
these  views  and  objects  had  always  remained  the  same.  But  in 
the  very  nature  of  things  this  was  not  to  be  expected,  although 
years  elapsed  before  attention  to  the  apostolic  order  of  primitive 
Churches  seriously  distracted  attention,  and  necessarily  produced 
difference  of  opinion,  accompanied  by  divisions. 


PROTEST   AGAINST    SANDEMANIANISM.  353 

Mr.  Ewing,  as  might  be  anticipated^  was  foremost  in  the 
promotion  of  a  new  system  of  Church  order^  and  to  him^  no 
doubt^  may  be  conceded  the  title  which  has  been  claimed  for 
him  as  '^  the  Father  of  modem  Congregationalism  in  Scotland/' 
No  one  can  turn  over  the  early  pages  of  his  "  Missionary  Maga- 
zine^' without  discovering  something  more  than  the  germ  of 
every  progressive  change  which  afterwards  took  place  in  trying 
to  approximate  to  the  ideal  model  of  primitive  Christianity. 
His  intimacy  with  his  Baptist  friend.  Dr.  Charles  Stuart,  tended 
to  this  residt,  as  well  as  his  early  partiality  for  the  works  of 
61as  and  Sandeman.  In  1801,  Mr.  James  Haldane  addressed 
to  him  a  letter  from  Dumfries,  amongst  other  things,  warning 
him  against  their  introduction  into  the  Seminary,  and  complain- 
ing of  his  '^  enthusiastic  manner''  of  speaking  of  these  frigid 
and  bitter  theologians.  Mr.  Ewing  replied,  that  he  had  so 
much  approved  of  this  letter  as  a  whole,  that  he  had  read  it  all 
to  the  class,  excepting  that  part  of  it  which  related  to  Olas  and 
Sandeman.      . 

In  1808,  Mr.  Aikman  declared,  that  before  the  secession 
from  the  Establishment,  mixed  communion  in  the  Lord's 
Supper, — ^that  is,  communion  with  inconsistent  or  worldly  pro- 
fessors,— ^had  been  to  him  and  others  an  ''  intolerable  burden." 
It  became,  therefore,  one  of  the  first  principles  of  the  new 
Church,  that  none  should  be  admitted  whose  sentiments  and 
consistency  of  conduct  did  not,  in  the  judgment  of  charity, 
evince  the  truth  of  their  own  vital  Christianity.  It  was  asked, 
with  much  force,  whether  this  was  not  a  vain  and  Utopian 
endeavour  after  a  beautiful  ideal  purity,  which  never  can  be 
attained  until  the  day  when  the  tares  and  the  wheat  shall  be  for 
ever  separated.  Such,  however,  was  their  leading  principle,  and 
it  necessarily  involved  an  implied  protest,  which  gradually 
became  more  distinct,  against  an  alliance  with  the  State  as 
interfering  with  pure  communion.  It  was  next  assumed  by  the 
new  Church  as  a  principle,  that  Christians  are  religiously  boimd 
to  conform  their  ecclesiastical  usages  to  the  practice  or  customs 
of  the  apostolic  Churches.  Proceeding  on  this  assumption,  Mr. 
Ewing  first  introduced  at  Glasgow  the  practice  of  celebrating 

A   A 


jQkl   iiifc-  Kwwe  s  mvLES  or  church  govejlnment. 


Lpnl*s  Supper  every  LordVday.  This  innovation  on  the 
Sci>Ct»h  cttsUHn  of  having  it  only  twice  a-year  was  adopted  in 
Kdiuburgh  not  long  afterwards^  and  finally  in  all  the  new 
churches  in  Scotland  from  the  date  of  Mr.  James  A.  Haldane^s 
treatise^  published  in  1802^  to  prove  that  it  was  agreeable  to  the 
•poatoUc  order  and  the  practice  of  the  primitive  Churches. 
Mr.  Ewingy  in  his  published  "  Rules  of  Church  Government," 
next  added,  "  Besides  the  ordinary  public  worship  of  the 
Lord's-day,  there  shall  be  a  Church-meeting  weekly,  for  the 
purposes  of  social  worship,  discipline,  and  mutual  edification." 
In  social  worship,  Mr.  Ewing  intended  to  include  the  practice 
of  the  pastor's  occasionally  asking  any  private  member,  who 
appeared  to  have  a  gift  in  prayer,  to  lead  the  devotions  of  the 
Church.  The  "mutual  edification"  was  to  be  carried  on  by 
any  private  member,  spontaneously  or  by  appointment,  offering 
an  "exhortation,"  or  address  to  the  Church,  on  a  passage  of 
Scripture.  This  last  plan  was,  no  doubt,  an  innovation  calcu- 
lated to  usurp  the  pastor's  office,  but  it  was  originally  proposed 
by  Mr.  Ewing,  as  his  amiable  biographer  records,  "  as  affording 
what  he  had  long  before  wished  for,  namely,  a  fellowship  meet- 
ing on  a  large  scale." 

In  1804,  Dr.  Innes  published  his  "Reasons  for  separating 
from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  a  Series  of  Letters,  chiefly 
addressed  to  his  Christian  Friends  in  that  Establishment." 
About  the  same  time,  Mr.  Carson,  who  had  left  the  General 
Synod  of  Ulster  in  Ireland,  published  a  pamphlet  containing 
Ids  reasons  for  separation.  Mr.  James  Haldane,  in  1805,  next 
produced  a  volume,  which  quickly  ran  through  two  editions, 
entitled,  "  Views  of  the  Social  Worship  of  the  first  Churches," 
&c.,  "  a  work,"  says  Mr.  Orme,  "  which  contained  much 
important  truth,  in  a  spirit  with  which  even  the  adversaries 
of  his  system  could  scarcely  be  offended." 

These  publications  drew  forth  replies  from  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Brown,  parish  minister  of  Langton,  and  some  other  writers, 
which  were  answered  by  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  Mr.  Ewing,  and  Mr. 
Carson;  but  it  was  not  till  1807  that  there  was  any  open 
manifestation  of  division  in  the  new  Churches.     At  length. 


DISCUSSIONS    ON    CHURCH    ORDER.  355 

however,  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Kinniburgh,  in  his  very 
candid  "Historical  Survey/' — "A  withering  blast  came  from 
the  north,  which  was  attended  with  direful  consequences.  We 
refer  to  the  circulation  of  Ballantyne's  '  Treatise  on  the  Elders' 
Office.' ''  Mr.  Ballantyne  had  been  at  first  placed  in  Thurso, 
but  afterwards  removed  to  a  Tabernacle  at  Elgin,  also  built  by 
Mr.  Haldane,  capable  of  holding  1,500  people,  where,  also,  a 
class  of  missionary  students  was  under  his  tuition.  In 
1805  Mr.  James  Haldane's  "View  of  Social  Worship'*  had 
indicated  his  decided  opinion,  that,  instead  of  having,  what  Mr. 
Ewing  termed  '^  fellowship  meetings  on  a  large  scale,''  only  on 
the  week-days,  when  many  of  the  Church  could  not  attend, 
they  should  be  held  on  the  day  consecrated  to  the  worship  of 
the  Lord.  He  argued  that,  if  ''exhorting  one  another"  was 
really  one  of  the  means  positively  appointed  by  Christ  for  the 
public  edification  of  the  Church,  as  Mr.  Ewing  had  contended,  it 
was  difficult  to  comprehend  why  it  should  be  observed  in  a  comer, 
and  not  be  deemed  proper  on  the  Lord's  own  day.  The  Bev. 
John  Newton  himself,  in  the  third  letter  of  his  '' Apologia,'' 
considered  mutual  exhortation  to  be  so  clearly  an  apostolic  prac- 
tice, that  he  there  states  the  neglect  of  it  to  have  been  one 
reason  for  his  not  having  joined  the  Dissenters ;  and  he  argued, 
that,  if  they  did  not  observe  this  apostolic  practice.  Dissenters 
could  not  blame  him  for,  in  'other  respects,  deviating  from  the 
primitive  model. 

But  the  views  propounded  by  Mr.  James  Haldane  were  never 
intended  by  him  to  have  been  prematurely  forced  into  practice 
at  the  risk  of  fomenting  division.  In  these  matters  he  felt  it 
his  duty  honestly  to  state  his  own  convictions,  and  then  to 
leave  them  to  work  their  way,  acting  on  the  apostolic  model, 
"  Whereunto  we  have  attained,  let  us  walk  by  the  same  rule." 
His  brother  had  the  same  convictions  as  to  apostolic  usages, 
and  was,  moreover,  less  disposed  to  delay  the  experiment  of 
carrying  them  into  actual  operation.  In  1805,  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Ballantyne,  he  made  a  journey  to  England,  preaching  at 
different  places;  and,  both  at  Newcastle  and  in  London, 
remained  for  some  time,  practising  the  views  of  social  worship 

A   A   2 


866  REV.  J.  HARINGTON    EVANS. 

which  were  developed  in  his  brother's  book,  and  which  both  of 
them  then  thought  calculated  to  call  into  exercise  the  gifts  of 
the  private  members,  and  to  minister  to  the  edification  of  the 
Church.  The  late  Rev.  James  Harington  Evans  appears,  at  a 
much  later  period,  in  the  maturity  of  his  judgment,  to  have 
entertained  the  same  views  which  so  many  years  before  com- 
mended themselves  in  theory  to  the  two  Haldanes.  It  was 
probably  well  for  the  Church  in  John-street,  Bedford-row,  that 
'^only  occasional  addresses  were  given,''  although  his  recently 
published  and  interesting  Memoirs  show  that  he  considered  his 
Church  incomplete  in  its  constitution,  because  it  had  not  a 
plurality  of  elders  ''to  labour  co-ordinately  with,  or  subordi- 
nately  to  him,"  and  did  not  enjoy  the  supposed  advantage  of 
mutual  exhortation  by  those  of  the  deacons  and  members  who 
were  supposed  to  be  peculiarly  gifted.*  In  the  midst  of  these 
debates  the  paramount  importance  of  preaching  the  Gospel  was 
upheld  as  firmly  as  ever  by  both  the  brothers,  whilst  their  views 
of  Christian  forbearance  remained  unshaken  to  the  close  of  life, 
Mr.  Ballantyne's  pamphlets,  which  also  contended  for  a  presby- 
tery, or  pluraUty  of  elders,  in  every  Church,  were  circulated  by 
Mr.  Robert  Haldane,  and  embodied  his  own  views. 

Into  a  discussion  of  these  topics  it  is  needless  to  plunge. 
Whether  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be  observed  twice  a  year, 
once  a  month,  or  once  a  week ;  whether  the  mutual  exhortation 
of  the  brethren,  by  means  of  public  speaking,  be,  or  be  not,  a 
binding  duty;  whether  a  plurality  of  elders  be,  or  be  not, 
imperative  in  every  properly  constituted  Church;  whether 
collections  should  be  made  at  the  doors  from  the  public,  or 
only  privately  amongst  the  communicants ;  these  were  questions 
which  may  be  weighed  and  decided  in  their  proper  place,  but 
must  be  regarded  but  as  the  tithe  of  mint,  anise,  and  cummin, 
compared  with  those  great  and  saving  doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
with  which  the  time,  the  talents,  and  labours  of  the  two 
brothers  were,  after  all,  supremely  occupied.  It  is  enough 
for  the  purposes  of  these  Memoirs,  to  give  an  outline  of  the 
facts  faithfully  and  without  partiality. 

•  "  Memoir  of  Rev.  J.  H.  Evans,''  p.  61. 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  357 

After  these  debates  had  been  for  souie  time  in  agitation^  Mr. 
James  Haldane^  in  a  letter,  dated  February  19th,  1808,  informs 
Mr.  Campbell,  that  at  various  intervals  he  had  entertained 
doubts  as  to  the  scriptural  authority  for  infant  baptism,  although 
he  had,  again  and  again,  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  pre- 
sumptive evidence  in  its  favour  preponderated.  Still  the  recur- 
rence of  these  doubts  led  him  to  suspect  that  he  had  not  fully 
fathomed  the  subject,  and,  therefore,  after  his  return  from 
England,  at  the  end  of  1804,  he  had  determined  fully  to 
examine  the  Scriptures  at  his  leisure,  with  prayer  for  direction 
and  a  desire  to  be  led  to  a  right  conclusion.  He  felt  that,  on 
former  occasions,  his  examinations  had  been  conducted  under 
the  influence  of  a  fear  of  diminishing  his  usefulness,  if  he  were 
obliged  to  renounce  infant  baptism,  but  at  last  he  was  ^'  delivered 
from  this  snare,''  and  became  satisfied  that  the  more  simply  he 
followed  the  Lord,  the  more  useful  he  should  in  reality  be.  In 
short,  he  now  viewed  the  conflict  of  duty  and  usefulness  as  one 
that  was  absurd.  The  result  was,  that,  after  mature  deliberation 
and  reading  deeply  on  the  subject,  his  doubts  so  much  increased 
that,  on  an  occasion  when  he  was  requested  to  administer  infant 
baptism,  he  was  obliged  to  inform  the  Church,  that,  although 
his  mind  was  not  made  up  to  become  himself  a  Baptist,  yet 
that,  at  present,  he  could  not  conscientiously  baptize  children. 
He  concludes  his  letter: — "If  I  had  not  been  compelled  to 
baptize,  I  should  never  have  mentioned  my  doubts  till  they 
were  fully  satisfied.  At  the  same  time,  I  informed  the  Church 
that,  although  I  were  baptized,  I  should  be  of  the  same  mind  as 
formerly,  that  the  Baptists  and  Psedo-baptists  might  have  fellow- 
ship together.'' 

On  the  21st  of  April  he  again  addresses  Mr.  Campbell, 
informing  him  that  the  crisis  was  past,  and  that  he  had  been 
baptized,  but  that,  with  regard  to  the  Church,  this  was  to  be  a 
matter  of  forbearance.  He  adds,  "  If  we  are  all  acting  on 
conviction,  and  both  desiring  to  know  the  will  of  Jesus  in  this 
and  in  all  other  respects,  I  have  no  apprehension  of  disunion. 
Of  one  thing  I  am  sure,  that  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus 


358  DIVISIONS. 

should^  BO  far  as  they  agi'eed^  walk  by  the  same  rule  aud  mind 
the  same  things;  and  if  it  be  improper  for  Baptists  to  be  in 
fellowship  in  the  same  Church,  it  must  be  equally  improper  to 
have  occasional  fellowship  in  private/' 

These  letters,  and  much  more  that  might  be  produced,  indi- 
cate Mr.  J.  Haldane's  anxiety  to  prevent  disunion  on  a  point 
upon  which  Christians  differ.  But  these  fond  hopes  were 
doomed  to  disappointment.  His  views  of  mutual  forbearance, 
however  strongly  urged,  were  not  reciprocated,  and  a  rupture 
took  place  in  the  Edinburgh  Tabernacle  Church,  which,  to  use 
the  words  of  Mr.  Orme,  severed  "  one  of  the  most  numerous 
and  respectable  Independent  Societies  that  had  ever  been  in 
Britain.^' 

The  manner  of  the  disruption  is  detailed  in  the  following 
extract  from  Mr.  Haldane's  "  Answer  to  Mr.  Ewing : " — 

«  Some  of  the  members  went  back  to  the  Established  Church,  some  to 
the  Church  in  College-street  (Mr.  Aikman's),  others  to  that  in  Niddry- 
Btreet  (Mr.  Maclean's),  while  a  considerable  number  determined  to  become 
a  separate  Church  and  rent  a  large  room  to  meet  in.  The  rest  remained 
with  my  brother,  in  the  Tabernacle.  These,  which  were  more  numerous 
than  any  of  the  other  divisions,  were  of  one  mind,  except  on  the  subject  of 
baptism,  which  they  thought  might  be  made  a  matter  of  forbearance." 

The  division  spread,  not  only  in  the  Edinburgh  Churches, 
but  throughout  the  whole  of  Scotland.  In  Edinburgh  the 
excitement  was  great.  Nearly  200  members  followed  their 
pastor;  and,  within  a  year,  his  elder  brother  also  embraced 
Baptist  sentiments.  Still  it  might  be  matter  of  surprise  that 
the  separation  between  the  Baptists  and  Psedo-baptists  in 
the  new  connexion  should  have  been  so  complete.  But  the 
numbers  who  followed  their  pastor,  and  the  great  influence  of 
both  the  brothers,  as  well  as  the  proselytizing  zeal  of  some  of  the 
more  fonvard  and  inexperienced  of  the  students  and  preachers, 
probably  alarmed  Mr.  Aikman,  and  urged  him  to  take  a  more 
decided  line  of  opposition  than  appears  consonant  with  his 
amiable  spirit  and  the  strong  personal  respect  and  attachment 
with  which  he  still  regarded  his  old  friends.     The  following 


MR.  AIKMAN    SEPARATES.  859 

letter  will  exhibit  the  views  which  actuated  the  leaders  of  that 
large  and  respectable  section  of  the  Tabernacle  Churches  which 
decUned  forbearance : — 

From  Mr.  Aikman  to  Mr,  Campbell. 

"  Edinburgh,  15/A  April,  1808. 
'*  Mt  dear  Brother, — Had  ability  been   afforded   me,    I    would 
certainly  have  written  you  before  this,  to  communicate  to  you  the  very 
painful  situation  in  which   the  Churches  have  been  placed  for  some 
months  past." 

After  speaking  of  his  own  health  and  the  suffering  state  of 
his  eyes,  he  proceeds, — 

"  I  have  seen  it  my  duty  totally  to  withdraw  from  the  connexion  at  the 
Tabernacle,  as  well  as  a  number  of  the  most  respectable  members  of  the 
Church,  who  now  assemble  at  Bernard's  rooms.  My  stipulated  supplies 
from  the  Tabernacle  are  now  cut  off  Indeed,  I  hate  now  completely  given 
them  up,  as  I  perceive  it  to  be  of  much  importance  for  the  general  good 
of  the  cause  to  have  no  visible  or  Church  fellowship  with  brethren  who 
have  for  years  past,  at  Newcastle  and  London,  been  acting  upon  a  system 
which  appears  to  me  to  be  destructive,  both  of  the  pastoral  office  and  of 
all  order  in  the  house  of  God.  This  I  have  fully  stated  to  both  our 
dear  brethren  and  to  our  Church,  who  have,  after  long  and  painful  discus- 
sion, decided  to  continue  to  act  upon  their  acknowledged  principles,  and 
to  decline  the  relation  of  a  sister  Church  with  a  Church  composed  of 
Baptists  and  Pcedo-Baptisto,  under  a  Baptist  pastor."  He  adds,  **  Our 
necessity  is  now  ver}*  great,  and  I  can  no  longer  reckon  on  supplies." 

The  allusion,  in  the  foregoing  letter,  to  the  schism  at  New- 
castle, is  to  Mr.  Robert  Haldane's  proceedings  on  the  journey, 
in  1805,  already  noticed,  when  he  first  introduced  the  practice 
of  mutual  exhortation,  three  years  before  it  was  commenced  in 
Edinburgh.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  was,  in  this  matter,  rather 
more  cautious  than  his  brother.  But,  although  he  gave  no 
countenance  to  the  meetings  at  Newcastle  or  London,  he  never, 
like  his  colleague,  Mr.  Aikman,  dreamed  of  stigmatizing  them,  as 
"  schism,  for  which  Mr.  Haldane  and  Mr.  Ballantyne  ought  to 
have  been  excommunicated.^'  ''A  sinful  respect  of  persons,*' 
says  Mr.  Aikman,  '^  prevented  his  brother  (Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane), 
as  I  believe,  and  certainly  myself,  from  making  that  business  a 
matter  of  Church  discipUne.*'  Such  were  the  views  of  Christian 
liberty  entertained  even  by  so  good  and  holy  and  amiable  a  man 


360  CONS£qU£NC£S. 

as  Mr.  Aikman.      Mr.  Haldane's  own  defence  of  his  conduct 

is  contained  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Campbell^  dated  December  26, 

1807:— 

"  Everything,"  he  says,  "  ought,  indeed,  to  have  its  proper  place  in  our 
esteem.  But  is  it  reverential  to  God  to  suppose  that  He  has  enjoined 
some  things  which  have  a  tendency  to  lead  us  away  from  heaven,  or  that 
everything  He  has  revealed  is  not  in  itself  directly  subservient  to  his  glory 
and  our  salvation  ?  Are  the  things  spoken  of  not  a  part  of  his  revelation  ? 
Then  let  them  not  be  called  snuUl  things  and  non-essentials.  Let  them  be 
called  nothing,  and  then  we  ought  decidedly  to  oppose  them,  as  forming 
no  part  of  our  duty.  But,  if  they  are  a  part  of  it,  then  it  is  surely  both 
irreverent  and  unwise  to  set  them  aside  under  any  name  whatever.  This 
is  changing  times  and  laws.    It  is  taking  too  much  upon  us." 

But,  in  order  to  comprehend  clearly  how  it  was  that  the 
shock  arising  out  of  these  divisions  was  so  fatal  to  the  progress 
of  Congregationalism  in  Scotland,  it  is  necessary  to  observe  how 
much  the  whole  of  the  recent  ecclesiastical  movement  depended 
on  the  two  brothers.  It  was  easy  for  Mr.  Ewing  to  complain, 
that  it  was  improper  that  their  theological  seminary  should  be 
dependant  on  the  will  of  ''an  individual ; ^^  and  it  was  quite 
open  for  him  and  other  leaders  to  unite  in  the  declaration,  that 
they  would  have  "  no  visible  or  Church  fellowship "  with  Mr. 
Haldane  or  his  brother.  But  it  was  not  so  easy  to  neutralize 
their  influence,  or  to  get  on  without  it.  One  important  part  of 
this  influence  is  stated  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander, 
whose  own  talents  and  weight  of  character  have  now  made 
himself  a  chief  pillar  of  the  "  Scottish  Congregational  Union.'^ 

"  In  estimating,"  says  Dr.  L.  Alexander,  *'  the  causes  which  furthered 
the  rapid  growth  of  Congregationalism  in  Scotland  at  the  first,  beyond 
what  the  intrinsic  energies  of  the  system,  left  to  their  own  operation, 
would,  in  all  probability,  have  effected,  something  must  be  assigned  to 
the  excitement  of  the  public  mind  at  the  time ;  something,  also,  to  the 
novelty  of  the  plans  adopted  by  the  founders  of  that  system ;  and  not  a 
little  to  the  sympathy  which  was  felt  for  men  of  high  character  and 
talents,  who  were  made  the  objects  of  ecclesiastical  censure  and  personal 
obloquy,  simply  in  consequence  of  their  zeal  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
their  countrymen.  The  chief  of  these  extrinsic  causes  of  prosperity,  how- 
ever, was,  beyond  all  question,  liberal  pecuniary  aid  afforded  to  the  party 
by  Mr.  Robert  Haldane. 

"  The  establishment  of  a  new  religious  sect  in  such  a  country  as  this  is 


INFLUENCE   OF   MR.  HALDANe's    PECUNIARY    AID.     361 

always,  of  necessity,  connected  with  heavy  expenses,  or  a  serious  weight 
of  pecuniary  obligation.  Places  of  worship  must  be  built,  and  funds  for 
carrying  on  the  cause  must  be  provided ;  and  where  the  adherents  of  the 
new  party  are  neither  numerous  nor  wealthy,  the  impediment  thus  thrown 
in  the  way  of  their  progress  is  often  insurmountable.  From  all  such 
difficulties  the  first  propagators  of  Congregationalism  in  Scotland  were,  in 
a  great  measure,  exempted,  by  the  liberality  with  which  Mr.  Haldane 
employed  his  great  wealth*  in  advancing  the  interests  of  their  cause. 
By  the  support  of  itinerant  preachers,  by  money  advanced  to  erect 
chapels,  and  by  aid  rendered  to  Churches  that  were  unable  of  themselves 
adequately  to  support  their  pastors,  Mr.  Haldane  contributed  very  mate- 
rially to  give  Congregationalism  a  prosperous  footing  in  Scotland.  The 
influence,  however,  thus  exerted  was  rather  from  without  than  within ;  it 
was  a  system  rather  of  forcing  than  of  natural  growth ;  and  the  conse- 
quence was,  a  show  of  flower  and  fruit  much  greater  than  the  plant,  when 
left  to  itself  and  to  ordinary  influences,  could  sustain." 

All  this  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  or  overlooked^  when 
the  disruption^  on  account  of  questions  of  ecclesiastical  polity^ 
was  precipitated^  in  spite  of  the  earnest  public  and  private 
remonstrances  of  both  the  Haldanes.  But  was  it  reasonable  to 
suppose  that^  when  the  body  was  thus  torn  asunder^  Mr.  Hal- 
dane should  continue  to  lavish  his  fortune  upon  that  section  of 
it,  which  had  thus  peremptorily  resolved  to  have  ''no  visible 
Church  fellowship ''  with  him  or  his  brother  ?  Had  he  at  once 
withdrawn  his  support  from  all  the  Churches  by  whom  he  was 
practically  excommunicated;  had  he  at  once  shut  up  all  the 
chapels  in  the  possession  of  those  who  came  to  such  a  violent 
conclusion,  who  could  have  justly  blamed  him?  Was  it  not 
rather  strange  that  those  who,  for  such  trivial  reasons,  refused 
all  ''  visible  connexion  "  with  him  in  Church  fellowship,  should 
have  consented  to  avail  themselves  of  his  property  ? 

But,  unhappily,  there  was  also  another  ''  root  of  bitterness,*' 
which  had  in  fact  secretly  tended  to  precipitate  the  disruption, 
connected  with  a  personal  misunderstanding  between  Mr.  Robert 

*  Grtat  and  small  are  comparative  terms.  But  the  term,  great  weaUh^ 
by  no  means  applied  to  Mr.  Haldane's  fortune,  according  to  the  scale  of 
modem  opulence.  The  amount  which  he  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the 
Gospel  was,  indeed,  very  large,  but  it  was  still  more  remarkable  as 
^lontrasted  with  the  comparatively  moderate  extent  of  his  income. 


362  MR.  EWING. 

Haldane  and  Mr.  Ewing.  For  the  first  few  years  of  their  inter- 
course, Mr.  Haldane  had  admired  the  persevering  industry  of 
Mr.  Ewing,  as  well  as  his  natuml  talents  and  ardent  character. 
But  almost  from  the  moment  when  a  pecuniary  relation  was 
established  between  them,  conferring  on  Mr.  Haldane  the 
rights  incident  to  the  management  of  his  own  property,  and  the 
oversight  of  the  students  whom  he  supported,  almost  from  that 
moment  Mr.  Ewing  became  jealous  of  Mr.  Haldane's  relative 
position  and  impatient  of  his  control.  The  removal  of  the 
Seminary  from  Glasgow  was  the  natural  consequence,  but  the 
management  of  the  Glasgow  Tabernacle  still  left  occasion  for 
painful  collision.  The  details  of  Mr.  Ewing^s  complaints,  for 
the  most  part  in  themselves  unimportant,  were  contained  in  a 
pamphlet  of  206  pages,  which  it  is  impossible  to  read,  at  the 
distance  of  more  than  forty  years,  without  something  like  a 
feeling  of  ^^  melancholy  mirth  ^^  at  the  jaundiced  medium  through 
which  a  grieved  or  troubled  spirit  viewed  Mr.  Haldane^s  motives, 
not  only  in  regard  to  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Seminary,  but  even 
as  to  the  proposal  that  Mr.  Ewing  should  have  a  distinguished 
place  in  the  Indian  Mission.  Mr.  Haldane  had  already  printed 
letters  addressed  to  Mr.  Ewing  on  the  subject  of  the  matter  in 
discussion,  but  probably  the  annals  of  controversy  never  produced 
a  more  complete  and  detailed  refutation  than  was  published  by 
him  in  the  year  1810,  in  a  volume  of  406  octavo  pages,  which 
was  sold  for  the  nominal  sum  of  one  shilling,  and  gives  a  minute 
history  of  every  one  of  his  transactions  with  Mr.  Ewing  from 
the  beginning  of  their  acquaintance.  It  would  be  far  more 
agreeable  to  allow  the  whole  to  sleep  in  oblivion,  and  yet  it 
seems  needful,  as  a  matter  connected  with  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  Scotland,  to  offer  a  few  words  of  brief  explanation. 
Happily  these  are  to  be  found  under  Mr.  Haldane^s  own 
hand,  written  not  long  before  his  death,  when  every  spark  of 
irritation  against  Mr.  Ewing  had  been  long  extinguished,  and  he 
was  looking  forward  to  his  own  departure  at  no  very  distant 
period.     Mr.  Haldane  writes  as  follows  : — 

*<  The  UDhappy  difference  which  arose  between  Mr.  Ewing  and  me  was 
not  matter  of  private  discuBsion.    Every  particular,  even  the  minutest  and 


MR.  ualdane's  statement.  363 

most  ridiculous,  was,  thirty  years  ago,  brought  before  the  world,  and  into 
every  single  one  of  his  charges  I  entered  fully  and  particularly,  in  a  volume 
which  was  widely  circulated,  which  was  never  answered,  and  which,  I  fear- 
lessly add,  was  unanswerable. 

"  With  Mr.  Ewing  I  became  acquainted  in  the  year  1 795,  when  he  was 
introduced  to  me  by  his  brother-in-law,  then  minister  of  Stirling,  as  one 
whose  talents  and  character  fitted  him  to  be  a  coadjutor  in  a  plan,  which 
I  at  that  period  entertained,  for  the  promotion  of  Christianity  in  Bengal. 
Mr.  Ewing  was  then  the  assistant  minister  of  Lady  Glenorchy's  Church  in 
Edinburgh,  with  a  salary  of  120/.  per  annum.  In  arranging  the  scheme 
of  the  Bengal  Mission,  I  thought  it  right  to  secure  the  temporal  interests 
of  those  whom  I  designed  to  carry  with  me  to  India.  I  therefore  agreed 
to  pay  to  Mr.  Ewing,  as  well  as  my  other  coadjutors,  3,500/.  before  leaving 
England,  and  also  to  convey  them  to  Calcutta  at  my  own  expense. 
The  design  failed,  in  consequence  of  the  opposition  of  the  East  India 
Company  Directors  and  of  the  Board  of  Control.  Baffled  in  my  endeavour 
to  be  useful  in  India,  I  turned  my  attention  to  the  state  of  religion  in 
Scotland,  and  among  other  plans  to  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  advert,  I 
purchased  a  building  at  Glasgow,  which  I  converted  into  a  Chapel,  or,  as 
it  was  called,  a  Tabernacle,  and  there  placed  Mr.  Ewing.  The  cost  of  the 
building  was  3,000/.,  and  I  secured  it  to  Mr.  Ewing  for  life,  on  the  condi- 
tion that  he  should  fulfil  certain  stipulations  connected  with  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel,  the  celebration  of  Divine  ordinances,  and  other  objects  of 
a  similar  character. 

**  For  some  time  the  plan  answered  exceedingly  well.  Mr.  Ewing 
preached  to  a  large  congregation,  and  formed  an  Independent  Church. 
He  also,  in  connexion  with  his  other  engagements,  taught  a  theological 
seminary,  which  was  a  sort  of  appendage  to  the  Tabernacle,  where  a 
number  of  young  men  were  educated  for  the  ministry,  solely  at  my 
expense.  By  the  bond  securing  the  chapel  to  Mr.  Ewing,  I  made  myself 
responsible  that  he  should  receive,  at  all  hazards,  200/.  a-year  from  the 
Church,  but  that  the  surplus  of  the  seat-rents,  if  any,  should  be  devoted  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  seminary,  for  conducting  which  Mr.  Ewing  was 
also  to  have  an  annual  payment  of  200/.  In  the  course  of  time,  however, 
difierences  arose  between  us.  Mr.  Ewing  was  unwilling  that  I  should 
exercise  that  control  over  the  class  which  I  never  felt  it  my  duty  to 
abandon,  and  by  degrees  he  also  deviated,  in  several  important  particulars, 
from  the  views  which  he  had  undertaken  to  support.  In  the  midst  of  the 
discussions  to  which  these  differences  gave  rise,  Mr.  Ewing  intimated  his 
opinion  that  I  should  not  only  leave  him  in  the  full  control  of  the  semi- 
nary, but  that  I  should  also  resign  to  others  the  property  which  I  retained 
in  the  Tabernacle.  The  absurdity  of  such  a  proposal  is  self-evident,  more 
especially  when  viewed  in  connexion  with  the  fact,  that  the  Church  and 
congregation  being  numerous,  were  well  able  to  defiray  the  expenses  of  a 


364  MR.  haldane's  statement. 

building  in  which  to  meet  for  divine  ivorship.  But  while  I  at  once 
rejected  the  unreasonable  proposal,  it  immediately  occurred  to  me  that  it 
would  be  in  every  way  preferable  that  Mr.  Ewing's  wish  as  to  his  inde- 
pendence of  me  should  be  carried  into  effect,  although  not  by  the  uncalled 
for  sacrifice  of  my  property.  I  therefore  offered  to  part  with  the  Taber- 
nacle to  his  Church ;  and  in  order  tp  make  the  matter  easier,  I  intimated 
my  willingness  to  sell  it  for  two-thirds  of  the  price  which  it  cost.  This 
might  have  been  enough  to  satisfy  both  Mr.  Ewing  and  his  supporters, 
but  the  offer  was  rejected,  and  I  was  still  urged  to  surrender  it  into  their 
hands,  and  without  reserve. 

**  It  was  at  this  stage  of  the  business  that  I  began  to  see  the  unsatis- 
&ctory  character  of  the  arrangement  we  had  originally  entered  into,  and, 
in  my  turn,  I  requested  Mr.  Ewing  to  resign  his  interest  in  the  house,  and 
to  call  upon  his  Church  to  provide  accommodation  for  their  minister  and 
themselves  at  their  own,  and  not  at  my  expense.  To  prompt  Mr.  Swing's 
determination,  I  assured  him  that  the  price  which  I  was  willing  to  accept 
should  not  be  employed  for  my  own  private  advantage,  but  should  be 
devoted  to  some  public  object  connected  with  the  translation  and  distri- 
bution of  the  Scriptures. 

**  Such  is  the  history  of  this  transaction.  I  never,  as  Mr.  Ewing  at  one 
period  chose  to  imagine,  intended  to  deprive  him  of  his  life-rent  interest 
in  my  property  by  any  legal  process.  My  appeal  was  solely  to  his  sense 
of  justice  and  his  Christian  principles,  and  in  the  sequel  he  did  resign  the 
chapel,  although  not  till  after  a  painful  discussion,  in  which,  as  I  have 
already  said,  I  did  not  leave  unanswered  one  charge,  however  minute, 
that  was  brought  against  me.  Mr.  Ewing  had  departed  publicly  from 
the  views  on  which  we  had  agreed  to  act  He  had  attacked  the  seminary 
which  he  had  engaged  to  conduct,  and  which  was  to  have  been  supported 
out  of  the  surplus  produce  of  the  house.  He  had  attacked  the  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  at  Home.  He  had  fomented  the  schism  in  my 
brother's  Church  in  Edinburgh,  of  which  I  was  a  member.  He  was 
impatient  of  my  retaining  my  property  in  the  chapel.  Was  it  wonderful, 
then,  that  I  should  seek  to  put  an  end  to  a  connexion  which  was  only 
calculated  to  occasion  pain  to  both  parties  ?  And  was  not  my  conduct  in 
desiring  the  termination  of  our  disputes,  by  the  means  there  pointed 
out,  at  least  as  reasonable  as  the  conduct  of  those  who  were  willing  to 
maintain  possession  of  the  chapel,  and  to  enjoy,  at  my  expense,  that 
accommodation  which  they  were  so  well  able  to  procure  for  themselves,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  were  publicly  and  violently  opposing  the  princi- 
ples, on  the  profession  of  which  it  was  dedicated  to  their  use  ?  It  is 
unnecessary  to  enter  on  the  particulars  of  some  of  the  charges  then 
brought  against  me  by  Mr.  Ewing.  My  answer  to  these  charges  will  be 
found  in  the  history  of  the  thirty  years  which  have  passed  over  me  since 
they  were  first  advanced.    But  as  almost  all  of  these  charges  resolved 


MR.  HALD aide's    OUTLAY.  365 

themselves  into  some  form  of  coYetousness,  I  may  add  that,  at  the  time 
when  they  were  advanced,  I  had  in  the  course  of  nine  years  (from  1799 
to  1807)  expended  between  50,000^  and  60,000/.  on  objects  connected 
with  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  at  home,  with  which  Mr.  Ewing  was 
well  acquainted." 

Such  was  the  outline  of  these  painful  differences.  To  this 
expenditure  must  be  added  that  of  the  other  years  not  included 
in  the  co-operation  with  Mr.  Ewing^  besides  the  loss  on  loans, 
on  which  interest  ought  to  have  been  paid.  Reckoning  from 
1798  to  1810,  the  years  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  extraordinary  exer- 
tions, it  appears  that,  in  roimd  figures,  he  had  given  away  within 
that  period  considerably  more  than  seventy  thousand  pounds. 

The  difference  with  Mr.  Ewing  was  one  which  occasioned  pain 
to  Mr.  Haldane  in  proportion  to  the  pleasure  he  bad  taken  in 
their  mutual  co-operation.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  one 
of  Mr.  Haldane's  letters  to  Mr.  Ewing,  before  the  latter  published 
on  the  subject : — 

"  On  looking  back  on  the  intercourse  you  and  1  had,  I  see  many  things 
amiss  on  both  sides,  while  I  trust  there  is  also  cause  for  thanksgiving. 
But  while  we  should  be  humbled  in  the  dust  on  account  of  all  that  has 
been  wrong,  we  should  remember  with  gratitude  that  the  door  of  mercy 
and  pardon  through  a  Redeemer  stands  open,  and  we  ought  to  be  ready 
mutually  to  explain,  to  repent,  and  to  intercede  for  one  another.  Should 
the  matter  for  the  present  unhappily  end  otherwise,  1  shall  regret  it 
exceedingly,  but  1  thus  exonerate  myself;  and  in  order  to  make  the 
return  on  your  part  to  the  path  of  duty,  at  any  time  afterwards,  as  easy  as 
possible,  1  declare  it  is  my  determination,  through  grace,  that  no  sinful 
distance  or  interruption  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  love  shall  in 
future  rest  with  me." 

With  reference  to  the  charge,  which  at  this  distance  of  time 
seems  so  utterly  absurd,  that  in  reclaiming  the  Glasgow  Taber- 
nacle Mr.  Haldane  was  influenced  by  mercenary  motives,  the 
following  is  an  extract  from  another  letter : — "  I  have  informed 
Mr.  Harley  and  you  that  pecuniary  reimbursement  is  not  my 
object.  If  you  now  purchase  the  hou.se,  or  give  it  up,  it  is  my 
intention  to  apply,  without  delay,  what  I  receive  from  the  pro- 
perty in  translating  and  multiplying  copies  of  the  Scriptures.^' 
This  voluntary  pledge  was  faithfully  observed.  After  some  delay^ 
the  Glasgow  Tabernacle  was  restored  by  Mr.  Ewing,  and  a  new 


366  GROUNDLESS    COMPLAINTS. 

one  built  by  his  congregation.  The  old  one  was  sold  to  Mr. 
Macgavin  at  a  price  below  the  original  cost,  but  rather  above 
that  at  which  it  had  been  offered  to  Mr.  Ewing^s  Church.  The 
produce  was  devoted  by  Mr.  Haldane  to  the  translation  and 
circulation  of  the  Scriptures.  Interest  was  added  every  year  on 
the  capital  not  expended,  and  the  whole  account  was  settled  by 
auditors,  so  scrupulous  was  he  with  reference  to  the  matter,  in 
which  his  motives  had  been,  in  the  heat  of  passion,  so  unwar- 
rantably assailed.  But  there  is  one  lesson  which  Mr.  Haldane 
was  anxious  to  enforce,  which  it  may  be  right  to  mention.  It  is 
this :  "  I  wish  solemnly  to  warn  others,  who  may  be  afterwards 
placed  in  circumstances  similar  to  those  in  which  I  stood,  never 
to  deviate  so  far  from  the  line  of  duty,  under  the  idea  of  doing 
a  service  acceptable  to  God,  as  to  place  their  talents  by  a  legal 
instrument  at  the  disposal  of  another  person,  however  highly 
they  may  esteem  him.  This  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
laying  down  property  at  the  feet  of  an  apostle.'^ 

After  what  has  been  said,  it  is  scarcely  needful  to  allude  to 
another  of  the  charges  frequently  brought  against  Mr.  Haldane 
in  the  heat  of  controversy,  namely,  that  of  distressing  the 
Churches  which  did  not  embrace  his  views,  or  suddenly  with- 
drawing his  support  from  their  preachers.  No  doubt  the 
cessation  of  his  bounty  was,  in  itself,  **  distressing,^^  but  it  was 
attributable  to  those  who  refused  to  practise  mutual  forbearance, 
and  was  to  a  considerable  extent  compensated  by  the  contribu- 
tions which  it  prompted  from  the  Congregationalists  in  England, 
as  well  as  Scotland.  It  might  be  contradiction  enough,  to 
state  one  broad  fact,  that  out  of  a  sum  amounting  to  26,295/. 
expended  upon  chapels,  excluding  the  original  cost  of  that  at 
Edinburgh,  Mr.  Haldane  never  received  back  more  than  5,596/. 
But  to  the  groundless  charge  of  harshness,  in  recalling  his 
property  from  those  who  rejected  his  communion,  he  pub- 
lished two  conclusive  answers,  the  one  in  1810,  and  the 
other  in  1816.  The  whole  of  his  pecuniary  transactions  with 
the  Scottish  Congregationalists  had  been  managed  by  the  late 
excellent  and  respected  William  Dymock,  Esq.,  of  George-square, 
Edinburgh,  W.S.,  who  himself  adhered  to  Mr.  Aikman,  and 


DR.  INNES.  367 

was  opposed  to  Mr.  Haldane^s  sentiments^  both  on  baptism 
and  Church  government.     Mr.  Dymock's  testimony  was  there- 
fore the  more  important^  because  it  was  not  only  backed  by 
knowledge^  but  characterized  by  candour.     By  desire  of  Mr. 
Haldane^  his  letter-books  were  opened  to  full  examination^  and 
it  was  proved  by  the  exhibition  of  his  correspondence  and  the 
chapel   accounts^   that  none  of  the  complaints   had   any  just 
foundation.      Never^  in  any  solitary  case^   had   Mr.  Haldane 
resorted  to  coercion,  in  order  to  recover  his  money.     On  the 
contrary,  he  often  remitted  a  great  part  of  the  capital  due,  and 
still  oftener  all  the  interest.     In  regard  to  the  chapels,  the  real 
grievance  was  this,  that  he  did  not  convert  into  a  gift  what 
was  only  intended  as  a  loan ;  and  so  far  as  the  preachers  were 
concerned,  he  distributed  amongst  them  no  less  than  700/.  out 
of  his  own  purse,  in  the  year  following  the  disruption.     Dr. 
Ryland  had  heard  of  subscriptions  being  called  for  in  England, 
to  repay  Mr.  Haldane^s  demands  on  chapels,  and,  as  if  it  had 
been  intended  that  this  charge  should  be  published,  in  order 
to  secure  a  public  refutation,  the  good  Doctor  mentioned  the 
report  in  his  "  Life  of  Andrew  Fuller.^'     But  when  called  upon 
for  his  authority,  he  had  none;  and,  after  a  full  examination 
of  Mr.  Dymock's  evidence,   he   appended  an  apology  to  his 
volume,  saying,  ^^I  am  now  coifviuced  that  the  report  there 
stated  (in  the  "Life  of  Fuller '')  is  utterly  without  foundations^ 
The  part  which  Dr.  Innes,  from  a  high  sense  of  duty,  took 
in  satisfying  Dr.  Ryland,  unfortunately  gave  umbrage  to  his 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  Ewing ;  but  Dr.  Innes^  testimony  to  Mr. 
Haldane  was  all  the  more  valuable,  because,  without  any  breach 
of  friendship  or  angry  disputation,  he  had  voluntarily  relin- 
quished a  bond,  securing  to  him  an  income  out  of  the  Tabernacle 
of  Dundee,  similar  to  that  which  Mr.  Ewing  held  in  respect  of 
Glasgow.     On  quitting  Dundee,  Dr.  Innes  came  to  Edinburgh, 
in  the  first  instance  to  assume  the  care  of  the  seceders  from  the 
Tabernacle,  but  shortly  afterwards  he  himself  having  changed 
his  own  sentiments  on  infant  baptism,  became  the  pastor  of  a 
Church  composed  of  Christians  holding  various  views  on  this 
subject,   but   not   practising   exhortation   on   the    LordVday 


368  DR.  STRUTHERS'    HISTORY. 

forenoon.  To  that  Churcli  he  has  since  ministered^  attracting 
round  him  the  respect  and  the  love  which  are  due  to  his 
consistent  hoUness  of  life^  his  devoted  zeal^  and  his  great  sacri- 
fices for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel^  as  well  as  to  his  ministerial 
faithMness  and  amiable  character. 

It  may  now  seem  almost  unnecessary  to  have  even  referred 
to  the  complaints  made  against  Mr.  Haldane^  but  as  they  have 
been  more  or  less  publicly  hinted  at,  in  Mr.  Orme's  "  Historical 
Sketch,*^  published  in  1819,  it  might  seem  as  if  there  really 
had  been  some  just  ground  for  them,  if  in  the  Memoirs  of 
his  Life  they  had  not  been  glanced  at  and  repudiated  on 
evidence  which  is  beyond  all  dispute.  More  recently,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Struthers,  in  a  "  History  of  the  Relief  Church,'*  has,  from 
a  deficiency  of  information,  in  several  instances  been  betrayed 
into  grave  errors,  one  of  which  is  too  glaring  to  be  omitted. 
At  page  405,  he  observes : — 

'^  It  is  impossible  to  look  at  the  extent  and  expensive  nature  of  the 
apparatus  which  was  set  up,  without  perceiving  that  Mr.  Haldane  had 
involved  himself  in  obligations  which  he  would  soon  be  unable  to  meet. 
'  I  felt,'  says  he, '  the  calls  on  me,  firom  different  quarters,  increasing  very 
fast.'  This  led  him  to  take  measures  to  diminish  the  expense  of  the 
semmaries,  by  offering  Mr.  Ewing  100/.  annually,  instead  of  200/. ;  to  be 
more  sparing  in  the  sums  given  firom  the  Home  Mission  Fund,  and  to 
suggest  that  the  Glasgow  congregation  should  relieve  him  of  the  purchase 
money  of  the  Circus,  at  1,000/.  less  than  it  cost  him." 

It  may  be  observed,  with  reference  to  these  statements,  that 
they  furnish  a  new  instance  of  the  little  dependance  that  can 
be  placed  on  what  is  often  called  history.  Here  is  a  state- 
ment apparently  supported  by  extracts  from  Mr.  Haldane^s  own 
writings,  whereas  the  historian  has  omitted  to  observe,  that  his 
authorities  by  no  means  support  the  weight  of  his  precipitate 
conclusions.  The  quotations  from  Mr.  Haldane^s  answer  to  Mr. 
Ewing  refer  to  a  period  hefiyre  the  commencement  of  his  greatest 
expenditure,  when  he  was  just  beginning  to  discern  the  vastness 
of  the  field  on  which  he  had  entered,  and  the  necessity  of 
economising  his  gifts  to  individuals,  in  order  to  have  more  to 
bestow  upon  the  masses.  He  commenced  by  securing  to  Mr. 
Ewing  200/.  a  year  for  the  Tabernacle,  and  adding  200/.  more  for 


DR.  STEUTHEES'   HI8T0ET.  369^ 

the  seminary.  But,  as  he  increased  the  number  of  his  seminaries, 
Mr.  Haldane  began  to  think  that  300/.  a-year  was  enough,  and 
therefore  proposed  to  reduce  the  allowance  for  the  seminary, 
more  especially  as  he  had  just  given  Mr.  Ewing  a  further 
allowance  of  100/.  a-year  for  an  assistant  in  the  Tabernacle.  In 
like  manner  the  proposal  that  Mr.  Swing's  congregation  should 
take  the  Glasgow  Tabernacle,  was  not  a  measure  of  retrench** 
ment,  but  an  attempt  to  terminate  aU  occasion  of  dispute,  by  a 
very  handsome  contribution  of  1,000/.,  or,  more  strictly,  l,160/.j 
to  a  plan,  which  would  have  gratified  Mr.  Swing's  desire,  that 
he,  with  his  large  and  wealthy  congregation,  should  be  inde- 
pendent of  the  private  bounty  of  an  individual. 

But,  apart  from  these  details,  it  is  proper  to  observe,  what 
can  be  proved  to  demonstration,  that  Mr.  Haldane  never 
involved  himself,  as  Dr.  Struthers  supposes,  ''in  obligations,'' 
either  immediate  or  prospective,  which  he  was  not  fully  able 
to  meet.  The  Tabernacles  were  aU  paid  for,  and  free  from  debt 
to  any  one  but  himself,  and  in  regard  to  those  chapels  on 
which  he  lent  money,  he  generally  paid  off  all  the  other 
creditors,  as  in  the  case  of  Perth,  where  he  became  sole  pro- 
prietor; and,  as  in  the  case  of  Dumfries,  which  had  been  built 
by  himself  and  his  brother,  at  the  joint  cost  of  nearly  2,000/. 
It  was  the  same  with  regard  to  the  seminary.  The  ''obliga- 
tions" he  undertook  were  not  in  perpetuity,  but  simply  for  a 
particular  class  of  students,  for  one,  two,  or,  at  most,  three 
years.  In  fact,  it  never  was  and  never  could  have  been  his 
intention,  that  a  man  of  Mr.  Haldane's  income  should  have 
gone  on  giving  away  nearly  7,000/.  a-year.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  only  designed  to  meet  a  great  exigency,  and  to 
give  the  Home  Mission  a  fair  start.  He  always  made  his 
prospective  calculations  with  the  systematic  minuteness  of  an 
official  budget,  and  by  different  wills  left  to  his  brother  ample 
funds  to  carry  out  every  "  obligation  "  into  which  he  had  him- 
self ever  entered,  whether  it  related  to  the  chapels,  the  African 
children,  the  seminary,  or  the  Propagation  Society.  The  sum 
varied  according  to  circumstances,  but  at  the  period  of  which 

B   B 


870  OVERTURES   OF   RECONCILIATION. 

Br.  Struthers  speaks^  Mr.   Haldane   estimated  that   12^000/. 
would  have  amply  fulfilled  all  his  engagements. 

But  although  Dr.  Struthers  is  so  much  mistaken  on  these 
points,  yet  the  spirit  which  characterizes  his  work,  is  truly  praise- 
worthy.    His  observations  on  the  disruption  are  as  follow : — 

'*  Though  too  many,  no  doubt,  chuckled  over  this  rupture,  which, in  a  great 
measure,  laid  in  ruins  one  of  the  noblest  schemes  which  modem  times  have 
witnessed  for  diffusing  religion,  and  evangelizing  the  population  of  the 
country;  yet  the  good  and  the  liberal  of  all  parties,  who  rejoiced  in  the  spread 
of  religion,  grieved  over  it,  and  could  have  wished  it  had  been  obviated.'' 

Happily  in  very  few  cases  did  these  divisions  interrupt  the 
continuance  of  the  mutual  friendship  and  esteem  of  the  parties 
concerned.  Even  in  that  of  Mr.  Ewing,  although  the  bitterness 
of  his  attacks  migtit  have  seemed  to  render  any  advance  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Haldane  impossible,  terms  of  reconciliation  were, 
year  after  year,  proposed  by  the  latter.  Mr.  Aikman,  as  a 
mutual  friend,  was  the  mediator,  but  unhappily  without  success. 
Mr.  Haldane  desired  a  reconciliation  on  the  ground  of  burying 
the  past  in  obUvion,  and  assuming  that  there  might  have  been 
&ults  on  both  sides.  Mr.  Ewing,  on  the  contraiy,  demanded 
an  acknowledgment  of  error,  and  as  if  to  render  the  acknow- 
ledgment impossible,  also  required  the  payment  of  a  sum  of 
money,  ''were  it  only  a  shilling,'^  in  token  that  the  Glasgow 
Tabernacle  had  been  unjustly  reclaimed.  Mr.  Haldane^s  last 
attempt  at  reconciliation  ought  not  to  be  omitted  in  a  Memoir 
of  his  life,  were  it  only  as  an  illustration  of  his  Christian  prin- 
ciple, and  of  the  depth  of  kindly  feeling  which  was  some- 
times concealed  under  a  manner  that  to  strangers  appeared 
rather  stately  and  reserved.  Indeed,  when  it  is  remembered 
how  much  there  was  in  his  composition  of  a  spirit  naturally 
lofty  and  unbending,  the  pathos  with  which  he  pleads  for  recon- 
ciliation, both  on  the  ground  of  principle  and  of  feeling,  will 
appear  all  the  more  remarkable.  The  following  letter  was 
written  at  Montauban  a  few  months  before  he  left  that  field 

of  useful  labour.     It  is  as  follows : — 

''  Montauban. 
**  Mt  deab  Sib, — Having  had  the  other  night  a  pleasing  dream 


LETTER   fROM    MONTAUBAN.  371 

respecting  an  interview  which  I  thought  I  enjoyed  with  you,  and  which 
recalled  all  that  tenderness  of  affection  I  once  had  for  you,  I  cannot  let 
the  feeling  it  excited  pass  without  sending  you  these  lines.  Life  is  too 
short  for  such  a  prolonged  contention.  A  great  portion  of  yours  and 
mine  has  passed  since  the  unseemly  strife  began.    Peace  be  with  you ! 

"  I  Would  not,  however,  desire  to  place  so  important  a  matter  merely 
on  the  foundation  of  feeling,  but  it  appears  to  me,  considering  the  com- 
plication of  circumstances  which  were,  and  perhaps  still  are,  viewed  by  ns 
in  different  lights,  and  the  long  period  that  has  elapsed  since  we  met, 
that  while  to  each  of  us  there  are  strong  grounds  of  searching  of  heart, 
all  real  or  supposed  offences  may  now  be  mutuaUy  set  aside  and  give 
place  to  peace  and  cordial  goodwill.  May  He  who,  I  trust  I  may  say, 
has  loved  us  both,  and  washed  us  in  his  blood,  subdue  all  our  iniquities 
and  cast  our  sins  behind  him  into  the  depths  of  the  sea !  Being  at  such 
a  distance,  it  is  uncertain  if  we  shall  ever  meet  on  earth.  May  we  enjoy 
a  blessed  eternity  in  his  presence ! 

*'  I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours, 

"  Robert  Haldane." 

This  letter  was  not  sent  from  Montauban^  but  carried  orer  to 
Scotland,  and  delivered^  through  Mr.  Aikman^  in  1821^  to 
whom  Mr.  Haldane  writes :  ^'  The  feeling  it  expresses  towards 
Mr.  Ewing  has  long  possessed  my  mind,  and,  I  trust,  will 
never  be  eflFaced.''  Mr.  Ewing  replied  with  courtesy,  and  even 
kindness,  adhering  to  his  refusal  of  a  public  reconciliation,  and 
yet,  with  strange  inconsistency,  concludes :  "  Aid  us  with  your 
prayers.^'  Mr.  Haldane  replied  in  an  elaborate  letter  to  Mr. 
Aikman,  striving  to  prove,  that  although  he  could  not  con- 
scientiously comply  with  the  unreasonable  demand  to  acknow- 
ledge himself  to  be  in  the  wrong,  whilst  he  beUeved  himsdf 
to  be  right,  yet  that  reconciliation  was  surely  a  duty.  "  If," 
he  said,  ^'  we  both  expect  to  meet  together  in  the  presence  of 
God  and  the  Lamb,  surely  we  ought  to  be  able  to  live  in  peace 
and  love  in  the  presence  of  men."  He  begun  this  letter  by 
noticing,  that  "  it  was  with  no  small  emotion  I  once  more  saw 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Ewing  addressed  to  me  in  the  style  of  former 
affection  and  reciprocal  regard,  afteif  so  long  an  interruption  of 
friendship."  And  he  concludes:  ''The  time  cannot  now  be 
very  distant  when  reeonciliation  between  us  in  this  world  will 
be  in  our  power  no  more.     May  we  not  only  enjoy  together  a 

B  B  2 


372  SERMON    IN    MARCH,    180B. 

blessed  eternity  in  the  presence  of  God,  but  be  once  more  again 
united  in  the  presence  of  men  ! ''  These  efforts  were  in  vain  so 
far  as  concerned  a  public  reconciliation,  but  it  may  be  charitably 
concluded,  from  the  tone  of  Mr.  Ewing's  reply  to  the  Montauban 
letter,  that  all  personal  bitterness  and  animosity  was  at  an  end. 

There  was  another  circumstance  connected  with  the  disruption 
which  is  worthy  of  record.     It  was  the  manner  in  which  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  evinced  his  unchanging  conviction  of  the  infi- 
nitely superior  importance  of  the  Gospel  itself  as  compared  with 
any  point  of  controversy  in  regard  to  its  ordinances.    The  public 
excitement  produced  by  the  announcement  of  his  change  of 
sentiment  in  regard  to  baptism,  was  proportioned  to  the  notoriety 
of  his  character  and  his  popularity  as  a  preacher.    He  announced 
his  intention  of  stating  his  reasons  on  the  following  Lord's-day, 
and  the  Tabernacle  was  crowded  as  when   he   preached  with 
reference   to  Lord  Camelford^s  duel,  or  more  recently  on  the 
death   of  his   venerable  friend,   John   Newton.     He  observed 
many  persons  present,  chiefly  attracted  by  motives  of  curiosity, 
some  of  them   men  of  station,   others   men   of  literature   or 
science,  professors,  philosophers,  and  magistrates.     It  was  not 
in  his  heart  to  allow  a  congregation  of  4,000  souls  to  feed  on 
the  husks  of  a  barren  controversy  about  the  meaning  of  fiairTeo 
and  fiairr^^o),  or  vnrrto,  or  even  about  the  proper  objects  of 
Christian  baptism.    Looking  round,  therefore,  on  the  vast  assem* 
blage  with  a  solemn  and  scrutinizing  glance,  he  pointedly  asked, 
and  paused  as  if  for  an  answer  to  the  question,  what  were  the 
motives  which  had  drawn  them  together  ?   "  Was  it,''  he  inquired, 
"  to  hear  a  man  who  had  changed  his  opinion  ?     Ah  !  my  friends, 
there  is  something  of  infinitely  deeper  importance,  which  con- 
cerns the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of  the  immortal  soul  of 
every  one  now  present.''     Starting  from  this  point,  he  pressed 
home  upon  them  a  sense  of  their  lost  and  ruined  state,  and 
called  on  them  to  behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world.     He  then  noticed  the  differences  which 
subsisted  between   believers,   and  the   stumbling-block  which 
these  differences  proved  to  the  world.     It  was,  in  fact,  a  sermon 
in  which  he  found  no  opportunity  to  speak   particularly  of 


CONGREGATIONAL   UNION.  873 

baptism^  and  he  postponed  his  promised  statement  till  the 
following  Lord^s-day.  The  effect  was  solemnizing  and  striking, 
and  the  sermon  might  have  been  sufScient  in  itself  to  have 
stayed  the  impending  disruption. 

Such  was  not  the  will  of  God.  The  two  brothers  had  been 
raised  up  as  extraordinary  instruments  to  effect  an  extraordinary 
work.  They  were  not,  however,  ambitious  to  be  the  founders  of 
a  new  sect,  or  the  leaders  of  a  new  party.  Much  good  service 
was  still  reserved  for  them,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  but  it 
was  not  to  be  in  reviving  apostolic  usages  or  primitive  Church 
order.  What  would  have  been  the  history  of  Congregationalism 
in  Scotland,  had  no  division  taken  place,  it  may  be  difBcult  to 
conjecture.  But  as  its  popularity  was  already  on  the  wane, 
so  it  may  be  fairly  surmised  that  its  star  had  culminated, 
and  that,  even  if  Mr.  Haldane's  pecuniary  support  had  been 
continued  for  some  years  longer,  the  results  would  have  been 
far  from  realizing  the  sanguine  expectations  of  those  who  have 
spoken  of  their  '^  flinging  a  golden  sceptre  of  Evangelical 
reform,  which  the  prayerful  in  Scotland  had  hailed  with  rapture, 
and  which  both  awed  and  improved  the  Kirk  and  the  Secession.'' 
The  work  of  Evangelical  reform  had  indeed  begun,  but  it  was  to 
be  shared  with  other  instruments,  nor  did  it  comport  with  the 
will  of  Grod,  that  the  new  party  should  rise  on  the  ruins  either 
of  the  Kirk  or  the  Secession. 

In  a  very  able  and  faithful  review  of  the  position  and  pro- 
spects of  the  Scottish  Congregational  Union  at  the  end  of  fifty 
years,  the  Rev.  W.  Swan  candidly  admits, — 

"  It  is  evident,  from  the  history  of  our  Churches,  that  they  have  never 
been  popular,  and  the  present  aspect  of  things  around  them  gives  no 
indication  of  their  rising  in  public  favour.  It  is  stated  that  these 
Churches  numbered,  in  1849,  less  than  100  in  all,  comprising  a  member- 
ship of  between  8,000  and  9,000.  During  the  first  years  of  our  history, 
Churches  multiplied  rapidly,  but  then  it  was  because  conversions  were 
frequent,  and  the  accession  to  the  Churches  so  planted  were  numerous." 

The  disruption  not  only  divided  and  diminished  the  Church, 
but  shattered  the  great  congregation  in  Edinburgh  to  which 
Mr.  James  Haldane  was  wont  to  preach,  and  probably  reduced 


874  DR.  CHARLES    STUART. 

it  to  one-third  of  its  former  average  number.  This  must  have 
been  a  subject  of  regret  to  him^  but  it  was  one  to  which  he 
seldom  alluded,  and  seemed  not  at  all  to  feel  as  a  personal 
mortification.  "  I  am  the  LorJPs  servant,^*  was  a  striking 
expression  of  his,  and  whether  he  preached  to  thousands  or  to 
hundreds,  seemed  only  to  concern  him  so  far  as  it  afforded  the 
opportunity  of  proclaiming  the  everlasting  Gt>spel.  To  the  love 
of  popularity  he  was  insensible,  and  considered  any  sacrifice 
made  for  this  end  to  be  derogatory  to  the  profession  of  the 
Gkmpel  and  degrading  to  the  character  of  a  minister  of  Christ. 

In  October,  1810,  Dr.  Charles  Stuart,  always  in  extremes  of 
joy  or  depression,  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  Campbell :  '^  All  here  is 
dark  indeed.  I  once  thought,  that  if  Mr.  James  Haldane  was 
but  convinced  that  none  but  disciples  should  be  baptized,  / 
should  9ee  the  consummation  of  my  earthly  bliss  !  But,  alas  1 
this  conviction  has  been  attended  with  causes  of  misery,  which 
have  ever  since  broken  my  heart.^'  Much  pains  had  Dr.  Stuart 
taken  to  inculcate  his  own  views  on  his  friend.  He  had 
attended  his  ministry,  listened  to  his  preaching  with  rapt 
admiration,  and  called  on  him  two  or  three  times  in  every 
week  to  discuss  the  topics  which  were  delivered  from  the  pulpit. 
He  had  gone  so  far  as  to  say  he  would  sacrifice  half  his  fortime 
to  see  Mr.  James  Haldane  a  Baptist.  But  much  as  he  had 
contributed  to  force  on  the  attention  of  his  friend  this  and  other 
subjects,  his  cultivated  taste  was  not  prepared  for  what  he  very 
justly  stigmatized  as  "  useless  talk,  under  the  name  of  exhorta- 
tion, by  persons  quite  unqualified.^^ 

Dr.  Stuart  was,  no  doubt,  in  one  of  his  gloomy  frames  when 
he  thus  wrote,  and  gravely  added,  that  the  changes  which  he  so 
much  contributed  to  promote  were  ''  bringing  some  of  us  to  our 
graves.'^  It  was  about  this  period,  and  very  probably  at  the 
very  date  of  the  foregoing  letter,  that  the  good  Doctor  had  been 
much  mortified  by  an  interview  with  the  celebrated  Henry 
Brougham,  whom  he  met  at  his  son's  house  in  the  country. 
The  great  orator  and  future  Lord  Chancellor,  well  knowing 
Br.  Stuart's  connexion  both  with  Mr.  Ewing  and  the  Taber* 
nade,  and  probably  not  ^X  all  soi:ry  to  dwell  on  the  divisions 


DR.  CHARLES    BTUART.  876 

which  had  taken  place^  would  only  talk  about  Mr.  Haldane'a 
controversy  with  Mr.  Ewing.  He  professed  to  have  read  the 
pamphlets  with  great  interest^  and  particularly  noticed  the 
acuteness  and  argumentative  power  of  Mr.  Haldane's  reply. 
All  this  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  Dr.  Stuart,  but  his  low 
spirits  did  not  long  continue,  for  suddenly  Dr.  Chalmers  shot 
like  a  briUiant  meteor  across  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  that 
great  man, — great  in  intellect  as  in  Christian  attainments, — 
together  with  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  M'Bie,  and  other  Presbyterian 
ministers,  absorbed  the  sympathies  and  admiration  which  at 
one  time  Dr.  Stuart  seemed  to  have  concentrated  on  Mr.  James 
Haldane  and  the  Tabernacle.  Indeed,  it  is  a  circumstance  not 
without  instruction,  that  Dr.  Stuart  ended  his  career  where  it 
began,  if  not  as  a  communicant,  at  least  as  a  worshipper  within 
the  pale  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Still  it  will  be  seen  here- 
after, that  in  his  unabated  regard  for  Dr.  Stuart,  there  was 
another  instance  of  the  steadiness  of  Mr.  James  Ualdane's 
friendships. 

There  was  for  some  years  a  lack  in  the  Edinburgh  Tabemaclei 
according  to  the  views  entertained  of  apostolic  times,  and  that 
was  a  Presbytery,  or  plurality  of  elders,  "in  every  Church.'' 
It  was  not  easy  to  find  one  whom  the  Church  in  Edinburgh 
would  permanently  endure  as  a  colleague  for  their  pastor.  At 
last  the  office  was,  in  a  manner,  forced  upon  his  brother,  but 
with  the  express  understanding  that  it  should,  in  his  casei 
be  deemed  only  temporary  and  provisional  till  others  were 
appointed.  Many  able  discourses,  particularly  an  Exposition  of 
the  Epistles  of  Peter,  were  delivered  by  him  during  the  few 
years  he  thus  officiated.  After  he  went  to  the  Continent 
another  attempt  was  made  to  secure  a  Presbytery,  or  plurality 
of  elders,  for  the  Church,  but  it  did  not  succeed,  and  furnished 
one  of  the  grounds  of  the  frank  and  candid  admission  made 
in  1821  by  Mr.  Haldane  to  his  friend  Dr.  Bogue,  that  "the 
system  did  not  work.''  What  were  Mr.  James  Ilaldane's  senti- 
ments on  this  subject  might  be  seen  from  a  letter  written  to 
his  son  on  his  going  to  reside  in  London.  The  following  are 
extracts,  which  exhibit  the  simplicity  of  his  aim,  and  his  earnest 


376  LETTER   OF   MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE. 

desire,  like  Caleb  of  old,  to  follow  the  Lord  wholly.     After 

plainly  stating  that  he  had  no  wish  to  influence  his  son  to  unite 

himself  to  the  communion  of  any  of  the  Churches  whose  order 

resembled  that  observed  in  his  own,  he  proceeds : — 

*'  There  is  something  in  the  conduct  of  Divine  Providence,  in  regard  to 
the  Churches,  which  I  do  not  understand.  I  am  sure  all  the  Lord's  ways 
are  right,  and  it  is  our  folly  and  ignorance  which  prevents  us  from  seeing 
His  wisdom  and  goodness  in  them  all.  I  think  it  evident  that  the 
apostles  were  most  jealous  of  any  deviation  firom  the  ordinances  delivered 
by  them  to  the  Churches,  and  that  they  foretold  that  this  would  issue  in 
the  establishment  of  the  Man  of  Sin.  ...  I  would  wish  you  to  be  con- 
nected with  that  Church  in  which  most  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  was 
exemplified,  where  the  deepest  impressions  of  the  value  of  your  soul,  and 
the  importance  of  eternity,  the  riches  of  the  love  of  God,  the  fireeness  of 
His  salvation,  and  the  glory  and  beauty  of  holiness,  should  be  maintained 
in  your  heart,  where  you  would  have  fewest  temptations  to  conformity  to 
this  present  evil  world,  and  where  the  doctrine  you  heard  was  most 
scriptural  and  impressive.  Perhaps  you  go  too  far  about  bigotry  and 
illiberality.  These  are  terms  which  are  bandied  about  among  all  sects, 
and  not  without  reason.  There  is  much  party  spirit  among  all.  The 
Churchman  really  thinks  the  Dissenter  a  great  bigot;  the  Dissenter 
conscientiously  returns  the  compliment.  The  Independent  is  impatient 
of  the  illiberality  of  the  Baptist,  and  he  is  at  a  loss  to  reconcile  the 
unfairness  of  the  Independent's  arguments  with  a  good  conscience.  The 
liberality  which  chiefly  prevails,  I  think,  in  England  is  most  unscripturaL 
It  is  an  idea  that  Scripture  has  laid  down  no  rules  for  Church  order,  and 
that  we  are  to  do  what  appears  to  us  most  calculated  for  usefulness.  If  I 
adopted  this  sentiment,  I  8?iould  myself  be  mttch  disposed  to  join  the 
Established  Church,  for  in  many  respects  the  field  of  usefulness  there 
is  greatest  But  I  see  plainly  that  the  order  of  a  Church  is  not  unim- 
portant, and  that,  although  at  present  there  are  many  defects  in  all 
parties,  we  ought  to  love  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that 
our  love  to  them  ought  to  abound  in  proportion  as  we  see  the  great 
features  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost  abounding  in  them,  and  when  these  are  observed  it  ought  to 
enable  us  to  throw  a  mantle  of  love  over  their  defects.  There  is  much 
more  apology  for  what  is  commonly  called  bigotry  in  those  who  think 
they  are  obeying  the  Word  of  God,  than  when  people  are  acting  under 
the  idea  of  expediency  or  usefulness.  The  former  think  they  are  obeying 
Ood,  the  latter  are  confessedly  acting  upon  their  own  judgment.  The 
former  may  think  an  opposite  course  dishonouring  to  God,  but  if  the 
latter  have  not  much  forbearance,  it  must  arise,  in  a  great  degree,  from 
self-will  and  dissatisfaction  that  others  will  not  agree  with  them.    May 


MR.  baldane's  sentiments.  377 

the  Lord  look  on  His  Church  on  earth !    Its  state  is  very  low,  and  He 
alone  can  send  times  of  refreshing.    •     .    . 

**  May  the  Lord  Himself  abundantly  bless  you,  and  guard  you  firom 
every  danger,  and  preserve  you  to  His  kingdom,  is  the  prayer  of  your8» 
most  affectionately,  "  J.  A.  H." 

Other  letters  of  a  similar  purport  might  be  produced^  teaching 
the  same  important  lesson^  and  proving  how  little  there  was  of 
bigotry  in  his  views,  how  his  heart  glowed  with  love  to  all  the 
Lord's  people,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  he  held  fast  by  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  will  of  his  Master,  without  looking  to  conse- 
quences or  regarding  the  opinions  of  men.  His  brother,  on  his 
death-bed,  spoke  more  strongly  on  this  subject.  He  said,  that 
he  perceived  no  flaw  in  his  principles,  but  had  come  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  Church  was  in  the  wilderness,  and  that  it 
was  vain  to  go  before  the  leadings  of  Providence  or  hasten  the 
time  when  the  Lord  himself  should  appear  for  its  deliverance. 
He  added,  that  he  saw  that  the  Lord  had  always  blessed  the 
preaching  of  the  true  doctrines  of  the  Grospel  in  sincerity  and 
truth;  that  this  blessing  had  sometimes  rested  on  one  deno* 
mination  and  sometimes  on  another :  but  that,  whilst  an  endea- 
vour to  restore  apostolic  order  had  failed,  a  blessing  had  never 
failed  to  attend  the  faithful  preaching  of  soimd  doctrine. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that,  from  first  to  last,  both  of 
the  brothers  adhered  firmly  to  a  beUef  in  the  communion  of 
saints,  of  whatever  denomination  they  may  be  in  this  imperfect 
world.  In  every  pubhc  prayer  Mr.  J.  Haldane  uniformly  offered 
up  intercession  for  all  the  people  of  God  upon  earth,  ^'  by  what- 
ever name  they  are  known  amongst  men;''  and  he  never 
allowed  the  question  of  baptism  to  become  a  term  of  commu- 
nion. His  brother's  views  were  the  same.  '^  It  appears  to  me," 
he  says,  in  a  letter,  dated  August  1,  1810,  "  that  the  following 
may  be  laid  down  as  a  principle,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
New  Testament  which  authorizes  us  either  to  do  anything  that 
(rod  has  forbidden,  or  to  neglect  anything  that  he  has  com- 
manded, for  the  sake  of  maintaining  fellowship  with  others. 
But  the  maintenance  of  this  principle  does  not  prevent  our 
acting  with  others  whom  we  believe  to  be  Christians  on  the 


878  MR.  HAU)AN£'S    SENTIMENTS. 

things  on  which  we  are  agreed.  It  appears  to  me^  that  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament  proceeds  upon  this  principle,  and 
enforces  it.  Our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
and  must  be  maintained  by  constant  obedience  on  our  part,  and 
appUcation  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling  when  we  come  short. 
Our  fellowship  with  each  other  arises  out  of  this  fellowship,  and 
can  only  be  maintained  so  far  as  fellowship  with  God  is  main- 
tained. We  are  never  to  attempt  to  maintain  Christian  fellow- 
ship with  each  other  at  the  expense  of  fellowship  with  God.'' 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  efibrts  to  promote  union  amongst 
believers — union  without  compromise, — ^were  not  discouraged  by 
their  ill-success  at  the  time  when  even  Mr.  Aikman  could  not 
forbear  with  those  who  denied  the  validity  of  infant  bi^tism. 
Three  years  later  he  published,  in  1811,  a  treatise  on  the  duty 
of  forbearance.  It  was  answered  by  Mr.  William  Jones,  the 
pastor  of  a  strict  communion  Baptist  Church,  in  London,  author 
of  the  '^  History  of  the  Waldenses,''  and  a  writer  of  considerable 
talent,  but  much  asperity.  Mr.  Jones  considered  Mr.  James 
Haldane's  argument  as  covertly  levelled  at  the  Scotch  Baptists, 
with  whom  Mr.  Jones  was  associated ;  and,  at  almost  the  same 
moment,  one  of  Mr.  Haldane's  late  students,  an  Independent 
pastor,  of  Mr.  Swing's  class,  wrote  another  pamphlet,  to  show 
that  the  real  object  was  to  subvert  the  Congregational  preachers. 
In  1812  Mr.  James  Haldane  replied,  in  a  pamphlet,  which  is  a 
model  of  good  spirit.  Unmoved  by  the  ill-humour  of  the  strict 
communion  Baptist,  or  the  doleful  imaginings  of  the  Inde- 
pendent, he,  in  the  first  place,  mildly  remonstrates  against  the 
evils  of  controversial  irritation,  and  the  mistaken  supposition 
that  harsh,  contemptuous,  or  sarcastic  language,  is  calculated  to 
promote  the  cause  of  Christ.  He  then  alludes  to  the  supposi- 
tion that  he  was  ^*  haunted  by  the  idea  of  these  preachers  day 
and  night;"  but,  with  much  good  humour,  assures  both  his 
assailants  that  they  are  mistaken.  '^  I  am  full  satisfied,"  he  says, 
'^that,  in  so  far  as  either  the  Psedo-baptist  preachers,  or  the 
Churches  to  which  Mr.  Jones  refers,  oppose  the  will  of  Grod, 
their  system  wiU  come  to  nought  f  and,  in  so  far  as  they  do  his 
win,  I  heartily  wish  the  prosperity  of  both."     He  adds,  that  he 


MR.  haldane's  sentiments.  379 

had  referred,  not  to  Churches,  or  individuals,  but  to  principles, 
in  his  previous  treatise.  "  But,  if  I  had  any  Churches  parti- 
cularly  in  view,  it  was  those  which  bear  the  name  of  Mr.  Glas, 
because  I  believe  they  carry  the  principle  of  non-forbearance 
further  than  any  other.'*  To  many  of  the  principles  of  Glas 
and  Sandeman,  and  especially  to  their  bitter  intolerant  spirit, 
it  has  been  already  stated,  that  both  the  brothers  were  at  all 
times  strongly  opposed.  There  were,  indeed,  some  parts  of 
their  writings  which  were  regarded  as  exhibiting  noble  views  of 
the  freeness  of  the  Gospel  and  the  simplicity  of  faith,  but, 
as  a  whole,  the  Glasite,  or  Sandemanian  system,  was  most 
abhorrent  to  their  principles  and  feelings.  On  one  occasion 
Mr.  Haldane  was  speaking  on  this  subject  whilst  walking  by 
the  side  of  one  of  his  plantations  on  the  undrained  moss  at 
Auchingray.  He  stopped  and  pointed  to  the  slow  and  stunted 
^wth  of  these  young  trees,  as  contrasted  with  the  rapid  growth 
)f  those  which  had  been  planted  on  a  prepared  soil,  and  said, 
with  a  smile,  '^  there  is  a  picture  of  Sandemanianism.  There  is 
life,  but  its  expansive  powers  are  contracted  and  dwarfed." 

On  the  subject  of  faith  it  may  be  mentioned,  that  one  of  the 
most  useful  and  valuable  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  practical  works 
is  a  treatise  on  the  *'  Doctrine  and  Duty  of  Self-examination.^ 
It  contains  the  substance  of  two  sermons  preached  in  1806.  A 
new  edition  was  published  in  1823.  Both  the  brothers  ha?e 
remarked,  with  regard  to  faith,  that  trust,  or  confidence,  in 
Christ,  seemed  substantially  to  express  the  meaning  of  the 
term.  It  was  the  dying  declaration  of  their  father, — '^  I  have 
fall  confidence  in  Jesus ;  **  and  they  both  adopted  the  terms  as 
their  own  definition  of  faith.  It  is  at  onee  simple  and  com« 
prehensive. 


CHAFPER  XVII. 

KB.  HALDANE  PURCHASES  AUCHINGEAY  AS  A  COUNTRY 
BESIDENCE— HIS  IMPROVEMENTS— PLANS  FOR  THE  CON- 
TINENT—AIRDRIE— EVIDENCES  OP  CHRISTIANITY— LET- 
TERS OP  MR.  HARDCASTLE  AND  MR.  HILL—"  EDINBURGH 
CHRISTIAN  INSTRUCTOR"— MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE  CONTINUES 
TO  PREACH  IN  THE  VILLAGES  ROUND  EDINBURGH- 
PORTO  BELLO-SIR  DAVID  MILNE— SCENE  AT  NORTH 
BERWICK  — VISIT  TO  HARROWGATE  —  THE  HIGHLANDS 
—  ANECDOTE  —  DEATH  OP  MRS.  JOASS  —  ABERCROMB Y 
FAMILY- CAPTAIN  GARDNER— DEATH  OP  MRS.  J.  A.  HAL- 
DANE. 

[1810—1819.] 

Fmm  the  time  when  Mr.  Haldane  first  planned  his  mission  to 
India  down  to  the  summer  of  1810,  the  variety  and  extent  of 
his  occupations  were  such  as  to  render  it  surprising  that  he  had 
been  able  to  devote  so  much  of  his  time  to  private  reading  and 
study.  After  he  left  Airthrey,  in  1798,  and  embarked  in  plans  for 
propagating  the  Grospel  at  home,  he  had  been  employed  in  widely 
circulating  Bibles  and  tracts,  in  establishing  Sabbath-schools, 
building  chapels,  and  sending  out  home  missionaries,  as  well  as 
in  superintending  the  education  of  young  men  as  preachers, 
catechists,  and  Scripture-readers.  All  this  was  done  under  his 
own  superintendence  and  at  his  own  expense,  so  that,  in  fact, 
there  is  hardly  an  object  to  which  he  at  first  devoted  his  indi- 
vidual energies  for  which  there  has  not  since  been  established  a 
special  Society. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  engagements  there  was  much  to 
distract,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  an  interval  of  leisure 
was  desirable  for  calm  repose  and  quiet  meditation.     This 


AUCHINGRAY.  881 

interval  seemed  to  be  graciously  vouchsafed;  whilst  his  labours 
on  the  Continent^  as  well  as  his  after«writings^  indicate  how 
wisely  he  spent  the  comparative  leisure  which  intervened  between 
the  close  of  his  earUer  labours  and  his  first  visit  to  Geneva,  in 
1816. 

Towards  the  end  of  1809  he  bought  the  estate  of  Auchingray, 
in  Lanarkshire,  on  which  he  soon  afterwards  erected  a  comfort- 
able and  spacious  residence.  Amongst  those  who  watched  his 
career  with  an  unfriendly  eye  were  some  who  criticised  his 
conduct  in  retiring  to  the  country^  as  if  it  were  inconsistent 
with  the  motives  which  influenced  him  in  the  sale  of  Airthrey. 
But  such  critics  usually  seize  upon  points  that  seem  open  to 
their  censure^  without  taking  a  view  of  all  the  circumstances. 
There  was  a  great  difference  between  occupying  a  place  like 
Auchingray  and  one  like  Airthrey.  The  original  cost  of 
Auchingray  amounted  to  a  very  inconsiderable  portion  of  the 
price  of  Airthrey.  Some  farms  adjoining  Airthrey  had  been 
resierved  by  Mr.  Haldane  out  of  the  original  contract  of  sale^ 
but  these,  too,  were  disposed  of  before  the  new  purchase.  The 
manner  in  which  he  acted,  in  regard  to  the  last  sale,  was  often 
mentioned  by  Sir  Robert  Abercromby  as  stamping  Mr.  Haldane's 
character  as  a  gentleman.  The  farms  unsold  were  much  more 
valuable  to  Sir  Robert,  as  the  owner  of  Airthrey  Castle,  than  to 
any  one  else.  It  would,  therefore,  have  been  easy  to  have 
extracted  a  considerably  larger  price,  to  prevent  annoyance^ 
had  this  element  of  value  been  brought  into  the  calculation. 
But  Mr.  Haldane  dechned  taking  advantage  of  this  circum* 
stance,  and,  having  obtained  an  estimate  from  his  land-surveyor, 
Mr.  Morison,  he  sent  the  result  to  Sir  Robert,  offering  the 
farms  at  the  price  there  named,  which  was  30,000/.  A  proposal 
so  liberal  was  at  once  gladly  accepted,  and  these  lands  became 
reunited  with  Airthrey. 

It  was  after  the  sale  of  these  lands  and  of  the  estates 
of  Lochton  and  Keithock,  that  Mr.  Haldane  purchased 
Auchingray.  Some  country  residence  was  necessary  for  the 
purposes  of  health,  retirement,  and  recreation.  For  himself 
and  Mrs.  Haldane^  the  selection  proved  both  agreeable  and 


882  AUCHINGRAY. 

convenient,  although  the  place  was  not  adapted  to  persons 
dependent  on  society.*  At  a  comparatively  small  cost,  he 
obtained  a  large  tract  of  land.  Its  wildness  pleased  his  taste, 
as  its  improvement  furnished  an  agreeable  refreshment  to  his 
energetic  spirit.  A  great  part  of  Auchingray  was  then  a  moor, 
lying  on  the  bleak  summit  level  between  Edinburgh  and  Glas- 
gow. His  plans  for  draining,  and,  in  some  instances,  cutting 
away  the  moss,  were  conducted  with  equal  skill  and  enterprise. 
He  covered  several  hundi*eds  of  acres  with  larch,  firs,  birch,  ash, 
and  coppice.  As  he  had  been  one  of  the  first  to  transplant  full- 
grown  trees  at  Airthrey,  so,  at  Auchingray,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  attempt  planting  on  the  moss.  On  an  estate,  consisting 
of  upwards  of  2,000  British  acres,  there  was  but  one  solitary 
tree,  a  weather-battered  ash,  which  stood  beside  the  door  of  the 
farm-house  in  which  the  Principal  of  the  University  of  Glasgow^ 
Dr.  Macfarlane,  was  bom.  Mr.  Haldane  found  the  greater 
part  a  barren  wilderness.  He  left  it  a  waving  forest,  studded 
with  slated  cottages  and  new  farm-homesteads,  an  ornament  to 
the  surrounding  country,  the  improvement  of  which,  by  drainage 
and  the  appUcation  of  Ume,  had  been  stimulated  by  his  example. 
The  grounds  and  farm-buildings  were  laid  out  and  planned 
chiefly  by  himself,  sometimes  aided  by  his  old  friend,  Mr. 
Morison,  of  Alloa,  with  whom  he  had  arranged  most  of  the 
improvements  at  Airthrey.  The  walks  through  the  plantations 
were  also  made  with  so  much  science  that  a  stranger  might  lose 
himself  amidst  vending  foliage,  where,  formerly,  there  was 
nothing  to  interrupt  the  sweep  of  the  north-eastern  blast  from 
the  estuary  of  the  Forth  to  the  estuary  of  the  Clyde. 

But  these  pursuits  were  merely  the  pleasant  relaxation  of  a 
mind  at  peace  with  God  and  able  to  enjoy  the  temporal  bounties 
of  his  providence,  in  consistency  with  the  pursuit  of  far  higher 
objects.  His  estabhshment  was  but  little  increased,  whether  he 
lived  at  Edinburgh  or  Auchingray.  He  kept  only  one  riding- 
horse,  and  no  carriage.  Whenever  it  was  necessary,  a  post- 
chaise  was  ordered  from  the  inn  at  West  Crai^ ;  and,  whilst  he 
maintained  an  abundant  hospitaUty,  nothing  was  sacrificed  to 
ornament  or  show.     To  live  in  this  quiet,  unostentatious  way. 


PLANS  FOH  THE  CONTINENT.  883 

at  Aucbingray,  waa  something  very  different  from  occupying 
Airthrey  and  keeping  up  its  park,  its  ornamental  woods,  uid 
walks,  and  pleasure-grounds.  The  following  letter  will  show 
how  little  his  new  occupations  at  Auchingray  diverted  his 
thoughts  from  the  great  missionary  works  he  had  in  view  when 
he  parted  with  Airthrey.  It  is  addressed  to  Mr.  Campbell,  and 
dated  25th  December,  1810  :— 

**  I  now  trouble  you  with  this,  to  ask  you  if  there  be  any  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  which  you  think  would  be  useful  and  is  not  likely  to  be 
carried  into  effect  by  the  secretaries  in  London;  or  if  you  have  any 
opportunity  of  an  enlarged  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  which  you  are 
not  able  at  present  to  embrace  ?  I  should  be  glad  to  consider  anything  of 
this  kind  that  you  should  recommend.  In  giving,  perhaps,  considerable 
assistance  to  such  objects,  I  would  wish  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  would 
be  an  addition  to  what  is  at  present  going  on.  Do  you  know  if  anything 
in  this  way  could  be  done  on  the  Qmtineni  t  Can  anything  more  be  done 
for  Spain  and  Portugal,  &c.  ?  I  suppose  nothing  could  be  attempted  as 
to  France, — or  would  it  be  possible  to  send  over  more  copies  of  the  Bible 
to  that  country  ?  When  convenient,  I  shall  be  happy  to  hear  from  you 
on  the  subject ;  and,  as  I  am  writing  to  other  places,  I  should  be  glad 
that  it  were  soon.    All  your  friends  here  are  well." 

For  two  summers  after  he  purchased  Auchingray,  he  occupied 
the  house  of  Hillend,  belonging  to  the  Monkland  Canal  Com- 
pany, situated  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  great  reservoir^ 
— a  sheet  of  water  extending  along  the  high  road,  two  miles  in 
length,  in  front  of  Auchingray,  and  said  to  be  the  largest 
artificial  lake  in  the  world.  The  capabilities  of  ornament  con- 
nected with  this  beautiful  lake,  no  doubt,  constituted  one  of  Mr. 
Haldane's  chief  inducements  to  select  Auchingray  as  a  place  of 
residence.  After  the  house  was  finished,  it  was  his  usual  retreat 
during  those  months  which  he  spent  away  from  Edinburgh.  On 
the  Lord^s-day  he  was  for  several  years  in  the  habit  of  going  to 
Airdrie,  where  there  was  a  Church  formed  on  the  model  of  that 
with  which  he  was  connected  in  Edinburgh.  He  generally  him- 
self delivered  an  exposition,  in  the  forenoon,  of  some  part  of 
Scripture,  which  was  always  carefully  studied,  and  full  of  useful 
practical  instruction  and  profound  theology.  In  the  offices  at  a 
little  distance  from  the  house,  he  had  a  chapel  fitted  up,  where 


884  EVIDENCES   OP   CHRISTIANITY. 

Mr.  James  Haldane  used  to  preach  two  or  three  times  a-week 
when  he  visited  his  brother,  and  where  he  himself,  after  his 
return  from  the  Continent,  usually  conducted  pubhc  worship 
every  Lord^s-day.  On  the  week-days,  after  the  family  worship 
and  breakfast  at  nine  o'clock,  he  generally  remained  in  his  own 
room,  with  his  door  bolted,  declining  to  be  disturbed  till  one 
or  two  o'clock,  studying  the  Scriptures  and  other  books,  or 
writing.  In  the  evenings  he  generally  was  occupied  with  lighter 
reading,  including  the  newspapers,  the  periodical  publications^ 
and  new  books  of  useful  information.  He  was  also  at  this  time 
preparing  his  work  on  the  Evidences  and  Authority  of  Divine 
Revelation,  the  first  edition  of  which  he  published  in  1816,  and 
contained  the  fruit  of  his  early  and  laborious  inquiries. 

His  motive  for  writing  that  book  was  his  own  dissatisfaction 
with  most  of  the  works  which  professed  to  exhibit  the  evidences 
of  Christianity.  Looking  along  the  whole  line  of  the  most 
popular  defenders  of  its  historical  truth,  it  was  too  manifest  that 
the  most  eloquent  and  argumentative  had  not  always  been  the 
most  evangelical  of  its  apologists.  Warburton,  Faley,  Lardner^ 
and  Watson  were  great  names,  but  of  which  of  these  distin- 
guished writers  could  it  be  said  with  confidence,  that  he  received 
the  Gospel  in  its  native  power  and  simplicity  ?  Bishop  War- 
burton  was  a  giant  in  learning,  but  his  views  of  the  Mosaic 
economy  were  sufficient  to  indicate  his  unsoundness.  Archdeacon 
Paley,  in  his  latest  days,  is  said  to  have  been  greatly  changed  for 
the  better ;  but  speaking  of  him  as  a  writer  on  Christianity,  his 
principles  exhibit  a  man  groping  in  the  dark,  whilst  his  system 
of  morals  falls  below  the  standard  6f  a  virtuous  Pagan.  Dr. 
Lardner  was  an  Ariau,  disbelieving  the  Deity  and  atonement  of 
Christ ;  whilst  Bishop  Watson's  own  sentiments  were  as  hetero- 
dox as  his  characteristic  worldliness  was  inconsistent  with  his 
apostolic  office.  The  works  of  such  writers,  although  admirable 
in  composition,  unanswerable  in  argument,  or  valuable  as  a  mine 
of  information,  betray  in  every  page  the  absence  of  vital  acquaint- 
ance with  those  truths,  whose  outward  strength  and  glory  they 
profess  to  establish.  It  appeared  also  to  Mr.  Haldane  that  these^ 
and  such  like  books  of  evidences,  were  generally  addressed  ta 


EVIDENCES    OP   CHRISTIANITY.  385 

Infidels^  and  assumed  the  possibility  that  Ghnstianity  might 
prove  a  fable.  On  the  contrary,  he  beUeved  that  the  proo& 
of  Christianity  could  only  be  properly  set  forth  by  those  of  whom 
it  may  be  said,  that  the  eyes  of  their  understanding  have  been 
enlightened  to  know  the  exceeding  riches  of  the  grace  of  Gk>d  in 
Jesus  Christ;  and  further,  that  the  evidences  of  the  truth  of 
Revelation  ought  to  be  peculiarly  studied  by  disciples,  not 
because  they  doubt,  but  because  they  desire  to  know  more  of 
the  certainty  of  those  things,  which  they  most  surely  believe. 

The  work  was  considerably  enlarged  and  improved  at  a 
much  later  period  of  his  life.  The  first  edition,  although  less 
complete,  contained  a  body  of  conclusive  evidence  in  favour  of 
Christianity,  written  by  a  powerful  reasoner,  who  had  himself 
doubted,  and  profoundly  fathomed  the  subject,  whilst  it  was  also 
an  admirable  exposition  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation.  One  of  his 
reviewers  justly  points  out  the  singular  skill  and  adroitness,  with 
which  he  involves  the  antagonists  of  Christianity  in  the  most 
awkward  entanglement  of  self-contradiction.  Out  of  the  insinua- 
tions of  Gibbon  and  the  subtleties  of  David  Hume,  which  he  had 
scanned  with  an  eye  that  pierced  through  all  their  sophistry^ 
he  elicits,  by  a  masterly  examination,  a  conclusive  answer  of 
their  own  objections.  He  strips  them  of  their  boasted  claims  to 
candour  and  philosophy,  reduces  them  to  that  most  humiliating 
of  all  discomfitures,  self-refutation,  and  shows  triumphantly  not 
only  the  weakness,  but  the  malice  of  their  aggression.  From 
his  youth  up,  he  excelled  as  a  reasoner  in  the  Socratic  method; 
and  it  will  be  found  that  at  Geneva  and  Montauban  it  was  by 
the  same  process  that  he  was  enabled,  most  successfully  to 
convince  inquirers  of  the  hoUowness  of  their  anti-scriptural 
doctrines.  The  concluding  chapter,  addressed  to  the  various 
classes  who  hear  the  Gospel,  was  described  by  the  same  reviewer 
as  ''an  impressive  compendium  of  glorious  and  awful  truths, 
forcibly,  and  sometimes  eloquently,  written.^' 

Before  he  left  this  country  for  the  Continent,  Mr.  Haldane 
received  many  tokens  of  the  estimation  in  which  his  work  was 
held,  and  especially  &om  some  of  those  old  friends  with  whom 
he  first  set  out  in  his  plans  for  propagating  the  Gospel.    The 

c  c 


886  LETTEB   OF   MR.  HARDCASTLE. 

two  following  letters  are  amongst  the  few  which  he  deemed 
peculiarly  worthy  of  preservation.  The  first  is  from  Joseph 
Hardcastle^  Esq.,  the  Treasurer  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  with  whom  he  had  taken  so  much  counsel  in  connexion 
with  his  Mission  to  India,  the  education  of  the  African  children, 
and  the  estahlishment  of  a  Village  Itinerancy  Society  in  London. 
It  was  in  a  suite  of  rooms  connected  with  Mr.  Hardcastle's 
counting-house,  as  a  Russia  merchant,  that  most  of  the  religious 
Societies  established  at  the  end  of  the  last  century  were  instituted, 
and  for  several  years  carried  on.  There  the  London  Missionary 
Society  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  the  Hibernian  Society,  and 
the  Village  Itinerancy  Society,  were  long  conducted  at  Mr. 
Hardcastle's  expense.  There,  too,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  held  its  first  meetings. 

"  Hatcham  House,  October  2,  1816. 

"  My  deab  Sib, — Your  important  and  very  valuable  publication  on  the 
'  Evidence  and  Authority  of  Divine  Revelation,'  was  sent  to  me  about  a 
fortnight  ago,  and  I  received  it  with  much  pleasure,  as  an  acceptable  token 
from  a  friend  whom  I  have  not  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  for  many 
years,  but  for  whom  I  have  not  ceased  to  retain  an  affectionate 
remembrance. 

"  But  although  I  felt  the  obligation  due  to  your  kindness,  yet  I  thought 
it  best  to  delay  my  acknowledgments  till  I  had  perused  the  work,  which  I 
have  now  done,  and  I  can  say,  with  the  greatest  sincerity,  that  it  has 
afforded  me  very  much  pleasure,  and  I  hope  improvement  also.  I  regard 
it  as  a  work  of  great  importance,  admirably  adapted  for  much  usefulness, 
and  I  hope  the  blessing  of  God  will  accompany  its  perui^al,  and  fulfil  your 
wish  in  rendering  it  the  occasion  of  promoting  His  glory,  the  honour  of 
His  word,  and  of  that  glorious  Messiah,  to  whose  person,  offices,  and 
salvation  it  bears,  through  all  its  parts,  so  full  and  complete  a  testimony. 

**With  what  satisfaction  and  thankfulness  must  we  contemplate  the 
aspect  of  the  times  in  which  we  live,  and  especially  the  operations  and 
success  of  our  Bible  and  Missionary  Institutions.  I  have  lately  read  over 
the  last  Report  of  both  Societies,  and  am  induced  to  think  that  we  are 
witnessing  the  effects  of  a  remarkable  effusion  of  the  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  that  we  are  probably  discerning  the  dawn  of  that  bright 
day  which  is  predicted  to  shed  Divine  light  on  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

"  An  energy  seems  to  pervade  the  Christian  world,  unknown  for  several 
preceding  ages ;  and  a  generation  appears  springing  up,  who  are  likely  to 
follow  up  with  increaned  eeal  the  measures  of  their  predecessors. 
.  '*  I  consider  myself  as  standing  on  the  verge  of  the  eternal  world,  and 


*** 


LETTER   OF   REV.  ROWLAND    HILL.  88T 

the  decays  of  nature  firequently  admonish  me  that  the  time  of  my  depar- 
ture cannot  be  very  remote.  But  I  am  cheered  sometimes  with  the 
contrast  which  the  present  state  of  things  exhibits,  compared  with  that 
which  existed  when  I  first  became  acquainted  with  society;  and  I  am 
thankful  to  God  for  the  privilege  I  have  enjoyed  of  associating  with  to 
many  excellent  fHends,  who  have  been  made  instrumental  in  producing 
results  so  beneficial  and  so  extensive. 

"  AU  my  family  unite  in  the  desire  of  being  kindly  remembered  by 
yourself  and  Mrs.  Haldane,  and  by  your  brother  and  sister,  whose  inter- 
views occasionally  at  our  house  afforded  the  greatest  pleasure,  the  recol- 
lection of  which  is  cherished  in  all  our  minds. — Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir, 

"  Respectfully  and  affectionately, 

"  Itobert  Haldane,  Esq.**  "  Joseph  Hardcastlb. 

The  second  letter  is  from  his  venerable  friend^  Rowland  Hill, 
whose  attachment  remained  unshaken  by  the  changes  that  had 
taken  place : — 

**  My  deab  Sis, — ^I  feel  much  ashamed  that  I  have  not  before  now  sent 
my  very  affectionate  acknowledgment  of  your  present  of  your  volumes  on 
the  Evidences  of  Revelation ;  but  I  first  read  them  over  attentively  myself, 
and  then  lent  them  to  others,  before  I  ventured  to  pass  my  estimate  on 
them ;  and  however  feeble  my  testimony  may  be,  and  highly  worthy  aa 
your  work  may  be  of  approbation  of  superior  minds,  yet  a  better  compila- 
tion of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  because  so  perspicuous  and  so  easy 
to  be  understood,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection  I  never  read  before. 

^  You  have  done,  dear  Sir,  not  only,  I  trust,  the  most  essential  service 
to  the  general  cause  of  Christianity  in  what  you  have  written,  but  also  to 
the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  Gospel,  by  wisely  dropping  all  those  inferior 
differences  that  are  of  no  essential  importance  when  compared  to  the 
cause  itself. 

**  Yes,  dear  Sir,  and  the  older  we  get,  and  the  riper  we  grow  in  the 
Divine  life,  the  less  we  shall  regard  matters  that  are  disputatious  and 
non-essential,  because  not  so  much  the  positive  subject  of  Divine  revela- 
tion, and  consequently  the  cause  of  minor  differences  among  those  who 
are  the  happy  recipients  of  the  same  grace,  and  partakers  of  a  Divine 
union  with  the  same  spiritual  Head.  And  in  this  I  desire  to  express  my 
thankfulness  before  God  for  the  concluding  pages  of  your  volumes. 

*'  While  some  have  vindicated  Christianity  as  a  mere  nominal  religion, 
you  have  not  only  pleaded  for  the  Temple  of  Truth,  but  shown  that  God 
himself  is  to  be  the  inhabitant  of  His  own  temple,  and  that  men  are  to  be 
unspeakably  blessed  in  Him. 

"  On  a  subject  similar  to  this,  I  cannot  express  what  high  satisfaction 
and  delight  my  mind  has  received  in  perusing  a  recent  publication  by  Diu 

c  c  2 


S88  "EDINBURGH    CHRISTIAN    INSTRUCTOR. 


99 


Mason,  of  New  York.    As  it  is  sold  in  Edinburgh,  I  should  suppose  it 
has  attracted  your  attention. 

"  If  all  the  world  were  of  his  opinion,  what  a  peaceable,  united  Church 
would  be  exhibited  on  earth,  and  what  a  strong  argument  against  the 
sacred  cause  of  Christianity  would  its  enemies  lose,  if  all  manifested  it  by 
being  possessed  of  the  same  delightful  mind  which  is  so  evident  through 
the  whole  of  that  invaluable  publication  ! — Believe  me  to  be,  dear  Sir, 

"  Most  faithfully  and  respectfully  yours, 

"  Rowland  Hill." 

There  was  a  review  of  "  The  Evidences  "  which  appeared  in 
the  "  Edinburgh  Christian  Instructor/*  in  1820,  from  the  pen 
of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  before  Mr.  Haldane 
was  personally  known  to  that  great  champion  of  the  Bible 
and  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  review  was  written  with 
somewhat  of  that  vivacity  which  was  characteristic  of  the  author^ 
but  which  for  a  religious  periodical,  seemed  to  border  too 
closely  on  the  flippant  gaiety  of  the  early  numbers  of  the 
"Edinburgh  Review.**  Dr.  Thomson  bestowed  considerable 
praise  on  the  excellences  of  the  book,  but  dropped  some  good- 
humoured  jokes  about  ^^  lay  preaching,**  and  warned  the  author 
that  he  could  not  expect  to  gather  many  ^^  laurels  of  triumph,'* 
or  much  of  ^^  popular  acclaim,**  on  a  field  which  had  been  already 
traversed  by  so  many  "champions  of  renown.**  There  was 
nothing  in  the  review  to  cause  annoyance,  although  the  article 
was  in  the  style  of  one  who  adhered  closely  to  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  was  not  without  suspicion  of  those  connected  with 
any  other  denomination.  It  was  not,  therefore,  from  any  feeling 
of  resentment  towards  his  future  friend  and  coadjutor  in  defence 
of  the  integrity  of  the  Bible,  that  Mr.  Haldane  on  this  occasion 
addressed  a  letter  to  Dr.  Thomson.  It  was  rather  from  a  desire 
to  draw  attention  to  the  danger  connected  with  books  of  evidence^ 
written  by  men  who  had  not  themselves  a  hving  belief  in  the 
(jospel.  The  celebrity  both  of  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  and  of  his 
magazine,  seemed  to  present  a  favourable  opportunity  for  inter- 
esting the  public  mind  on  the  very  subject  which  had  induced 
Mr.  Haldane  to  write  a  book  of  evidences.  The  publication  of 
his  pamphlet,  entitled,  "  A  Letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  Christian 
Instructor^'  was,  however,  an  instance  of  his  fearless  nature,  for 


"EDINBURGH    CHRISTIAN    INSTRUCTOR,"  889f 

Dr.  Thomson  was  then  in  the  vigour  of  his  colossal  faculties^  and 
in  the  full  blaze  of  his  great  popularity.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  it  was  worth  while  to  reclaim  against  the  judgment  of 
the  reviewer  with  regard  to  Warburton,  Paley,  Watson,  and 
Campbell,  as  people  were  sure  to  imagine  that  the  remonstrance 
was,  at  least  in  some  measure,  dictated  by  personal  dissatisfaction 
with  Dr.  Thomson^s  criticisms.  But  whether  this  was  the  case 
or  not,  the  Letter  was  a  powerful  exposure  of  the  unfitness  of 
those  great  '^champions  of  renown,'^  in  whose  hands,  for  the 
most  part,  the  defence  of  Christianity  had  been  left,  and  it 
contained  a  forcible  remonstrance  against  the  lawfulness  of 
seeking  for  '^  laurels  of  triumph  '*  in  any  work  connected  with 
the  Gospel. 

The  concluding  passage  is  characteristic  of  Mr.  Haldane.  He 
tells  Dr.  Thomson  that  he  was  the  more  anxious  to  deliver  this 
warning,  because,  although  ''  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of  being 
personally  acquainted  with  theEditor  of  the  'Christian  Instructor/ 
I  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  what  is  calculated  to 
produce  respect  for  him.^'     The  passage  thus  concludes, — 

"  Dismiss,  then,  your  *  champions  of  renown/  your  *  popular  acclaim/ 
your  '  laurels  of  triumph/  Give  them  back  to  him  who  has  such  base  and 
unworthy  considerations  ever  at  hand,  to  dazzle  and  seduce  his  votaries 
to  their  ruin.  Expressions  like  these  become  not  so  sacred  a  subject. 
We  are  all  too  prone  to  pursue  '  lying  vanities,^  But  shall  we  for  a  moment 
allowedly  entertain  such  ideas  ?  Shall  a  f!hristian  Instructor  gravely  hold 
them  up  as  objects  of  ambition,  or  ends  of  legitimate  pursuit  ?  If  it  be 
not  a  'desire  to  be  useful*  that  prompts  us  to  whatever  we  do  in  the 
service  of  the  Gospel,  we  had  better  employ  our  time  and  our  labour  in 
any  other  way,  than  in  acting  upon  principles  which  debase  its  nature,  and 
divert  from  its  proper  object  all  its  tendencies." 


Meanwhile  nothing  had  occurred  to  damp  Mr.  James  Haldane's 
zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  Grospel.  In  some  respects  his  labours 
were  increased,  because  he  had  less  assistance  at  command;  but 
he  was  no  longer  able  to  make  wide  tours,  occupying  two,  three, 
or  four  months  in  duration.  Since  1799,  and  the  formation 
of  the  Circus  Church,  Mr.  Aikman  had,  for  the  most  part. 


890     MR.  J.  A.  HALDANe's  LABOUES  EOUND  EDINBURGH. 

ceased  from  his  labours  as  an  itinerant  in  the  summer  months. 
Mr.  Bate  was  now  quietly  and  usefully  settled  as  minister  of 
a  Presbyterian  Church  at  Alnwick.  Mr.  Innes  could  seldom 
absent  himself  from  his  own  duties  at  Dundee^  or  Mr.  Ewing 
from  Glasgow.  Mr.  Campbell  was  removed  to  Kingsland^  and, 
although  Mr.  James  Haldane  was  the  last  to  quit  the  field, 
which  he  was  the  first  to  enter,  yet  he  too  began  to  experience 
the  increasing  difficulties  connected  with  a  prolonged  absence 
from  home,  and  from  the  Church  of  which  he  was  still  the  sole 
pastor.  The  necessity,  too,  had  become  less  urgent,  and  the 
Gospel  was  now  flourishing  in  districts  where  it  had  been  almost 
unheard  of  by  the  present  generation.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, home  duties  having  increased,  he  felt  himself  less  called 
upon  to  continue  his  missionary  tours. 

During  the  summers  of  1808  and  1809,  he  was  particularly 
lealous  in  preaching,  sometimes  on  the  Calton  Hill,  sometimes 
under  a  rock,  near  St.  Anthony^s  WeU,  in  the  King's  Park; 
sometimes  on  Bruntsfield  Links,  and,  at  other  times,  at  New- 
haven,  Leith,  Fortobello,  Musselburgh,  Dalkeith,  Lasswade^ 
and  other  places,  either  in  the  open  air,  or  imder  shelter,  as 
the  weather,  the  audience,  or  convenience  dictated. 

In  1809,  he  was  also  much  occupied  with  the  formation  of 
the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society,  of  which  he  was  always  an  active 
member,  and  afterwards  beq^me  a  Vice-President. 

The  village  of  Portobello,  to  which  he  was  frequently  accus- 
tomed to  resort,  with  his  family,  during  the  summer  months, 
was  the  scene  of  many  of  his  occasional  labours,  for  a  period  of 
no  less  than  half  a  century.  The  following  letter,  referring  to 
his  preaching  there,  is  from  the  daughter  of  a  well-known 
magistrate  of  Edinburgh,  the  late  Baillie  Jamieson,  whose  name 
is  associated  with  the  rise  of  that  favourite  and  now  populous 
marine  appendage  to  Edinburgh : — 

"  Summerfeld,  March  22dy  1851. 

"  Deab  Miss  Haldane,— I  have  read  with  the  deepest  intereat  the 

little  sketch  of  the  life  and  labours  of  your  venerated  father,  which  you 

had  the  goodness  to  send  me,  and  haye  been  reminded  vividly  of  many 

circumstances  in  his  history,  which,  long  ago,  I  had  often  the  happiness 


PORTOBELLO.  891 

to  hear  from  his  own  lips.  Few,  comparatively,  are  now  alive,  who 
remember  your  dear  father,  in  the  full  force  of  his  early  zeal  and  success, 
who  witnessed  the  crowds  that  then  attended  his  preaching,  or  who  had 
the  privilege  of  enjoying  his  friendship  and  conversation.  To  me,  who  waa 
so  favoured,  the  details  of  the  sketch  are  peculiarly  interesting,  and  I  am 
glad  to  understand,  that  a  narrative,  still  more  extended,  is  in  contemplation, 
which,  I  have  no  doubt,  will,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  most  useful  to  many 
inquirers.  Will  you  allow  me  to  suggest,  that,  in  the  event  of  a  mors 
complete  memoir  being  published,  some  notice  should  be  taken  of  Mr. 
Haldanc's  ardent,  affectionate  labours  at  my  native  village,  Portobello, 
where,  for  a  series  of  years,  his  efforts  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  people, 
by  preaching  and  private  ministration,  were  unwearied  and  highly  appro* 
ciated.  The  more  so,  perhaps,  that,  at  the  outset,  he  had  to  contend  with 
certain  prejudices,  which  the  enemies  of  pure,  evangelical  preaching 
had  created  in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  Mends  of  the  Government,  by 
insinuating  that  he  was  inimical  to  the  *  Powers  that  be,'  and  that  he  did 
not  even  pray  for  the  King,  or  the  minister  of  the  parish ! 

*'  The  oldest  proprietor  at  Portobello,  on  whose  lands  most  of  the  village 
was  then  built,  who  had  many  of  the  common  people  in  his  employment* 
and  enjoyed  their  implicit  confidence,  had  heard  these  rumours.  H9 
was  a  zealous  supporter  of  the  Government,  and  he  was  advised  by  certain 
parties  about  Edinburgh,  that,  in  their  unsettled  state  of  political  feeling, 
he  should  use  any  influence  he  had,  to  suppress  Mr.  Haldane's  efforts,  as 
calculated,  they  said,  to  set  the  minds  of  the  people  adrift,  and  to  unhinge 
the  institutions  of  the  country.  It  was  reported  that  Mr.  Haldane  was, 
on  a  certain  day,  to  preach  near  the  high  road,  and  the  proprietor  referred 
to  appeared  on  that  occasion  among  the  numerous  audience  collected 
around  him,  and  of  whom  many  had  come  from  Duddingstone,  and  other 
neighbouring  districts. 

**  His  purpose  (agreeably  to  the  information  he  had  received)  was  to 
remonstrate,  at  least,  with  the  people  under  his  own  care,  or  even,  if 
necessar}',  to  exert  his  authority  as  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  dispersing 
them.  He  had  not  listened,  however,  but  a  few  minutes  to  the  fervent 
discourse  which  was  then  being  delivered,  so  suitable  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  audience,  before  he  saw  that  he  had  been  misinformed  and  mis- 
taken; and  with  that  contrition  which  honest  minds  feel  when  they 
perceive  they  are  about  to  act  unjustly,  my  father  at  once  confessed 
his  error.  Fortunately,  the  falling  of  a  heavy  shower  afforded  him  an 
opportunity  of  requesting  Mr.  Haldane  and  his  congregation  to  adjourn 
to  a  large  bam,  which  had  been  lately  furnished  with  coarse  benches,  and 
where  the  minister  of  the  parish  occasionally  met  his  people.  The  offer 
was  cheerfully  accepted,  and  the  services  of  the  evening  were  peacefully 
concluded.  Thus  began,  my  dear  Miss  Haldane,  an  acquaintance,  which 
X  still  look  back  upoo,  as  one  of  the  happiest  circumstances  of  my  life. 


892  PORTOBELLO. 

In  the  Bame  place  Mr.  Haldane  continued  his  labours  on  many  a  winter 
as  well  as  summer  evening  for  years,  sometimes  alternating  afterwards 
with  Mr.  Ewing  or  Mr.  Aikman,  and  having  frequently  for  his  auditor 
the  amiable  and  pious  Mr.  Bennet,  then  minister  of  Duddingstone,  who 
felt  delighted  to  encourage,  by  his  presence  and  example,  any  effort  which 
was  likely  to  arouse,  or  quicken  the  piety  of  his  people.  Your  excellent 
fi&ther  resided  with  his  family  in  the  village  for  several  seasons,  when,  in 
addition  to  his  exertions  in  the  pulpit,  by  Christian  counsel  and  advice  he 
was  the  means  of  awakening  and  comforting  many  an  afflicted  mind.  In 
my  own  case,  I  owe  much  to  Mr.  Haldane.  He  was  fully  alive,  I  think, 
to  the  gratitude  I  felt  to  him,  for  early  leading  my  attention  to  those 
views  which,  he  told  me,  could  alone  give  peace  to  the  conscience,  and 
which,  in  my  declining  age,  I  find  now  my  chief  solace.  You  will  forgive 
me,  therefore,  for  the  wish  I  have  expressed,  to  see  in  the  record  of  his 
life  some  notice  of  his  devoted  labours  in  a  sphere  to  which  I  once  felt 
much  attached.  Since  the  time  I  speak  of,  what  was  a  mere  village  has 
grown  into  a  sizeable  town;  the  population,  I  dare  say,  more  than 
quadrupled,  and  a  number  of  churches  have  been  built  I  question,  how- 
eyer,  if  more  real  good  is  now  efiected  than  when  Mr.  Haldane  laboured 
unostentatiously  by  himself,  in  the  way  of  private  ministration,  or  when, 
on  the  summer  evenings,  his  warm  and  thrilling  appeals  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  were  listened  to  by  a  deeply-impressed  audience,  in  the  old 
bam  at  Portobello."    .    .    . 

There  is  a  postscript  to  Mrs.  Robertson's  letter^  which  recals 
Mr.  James  Haldane's  intimacy,  when  at  sea,  with  one  who  was 
in  early  life  a  kindred  spirit,  the  late  gallant  Admiral  Sir 
David  Milne,  whose  achievements  in  the  navy,  and  especially  as 
second  to  Lord  Exmouth  at  Algiers,  have  rendered  his  name 
justly  celebrated.  The  other  gentleman  alluded  to,  sailed  in 
the  same  ship  with  Mr.  James  Haldane : — 

'*  On  reading  over  the  above,  incidents  occur  to  my  mind  connected 
with  your  dear  father,  during  the  time  of  his  valuable  labours  at  Porto- 
bello.  His  old  Mends  and  shipmates,  Admiral  Sir  David  Milne  and  Mr. 
Chalmers,  had  just  returned  from  abroad,  and  hearing  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
fiune  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  expressed  a  desire  again  to  meet  with 
him.  This  they  soon  did  in  my  father's  house,  and  heard  from  himself 
how  the  change  in  his  vievrs  and  habits  had  been  brought  about  He 
did  not  hesitate  to  state,  with  his  usual  firmness,  simplicity,  and  candour, 
the  circumstances  which  had  led  to  the  unlooked-for  change.  The  detail 
was  interesting,  and  the  evening  passed  most  happily,  with  interchange  of 
kind  feelings  towards  each  other;  for,  although  differing,  alas !  from  Mr. 


SCENE   AT   NORTH   BERWICK.  398 

Haldane  on  spiritual  subjects,  the  gallant  Admiral  and  his  friend  found 
that  the  manly  worth  and  affection  which  had  always  distinguished  their 
old  acquaintance,  were  in  nothing  impaired.** 

Long  afterwards^  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  in  a  letter  dated 
May  10,  1845,  notices  the  sudden  death  of  Sir  David  Mihie, 
in  the  steamer  on  his  way  to  Scotland/  and  observes :  *'  Many 
years  ago  we  were  at  Bombay.  He  was  second  mate  of  the 
General  Elliot,  and  I  of  the  Montrose.  He  was  five  years 
older,  but  we  were  then  rather  intimate  friends.  When  we 
got  home,  war  had  broken  out,  and  as  he  had  previously 
passed  as  lieutenant,  he  joined  the  Boyne  under  Sir  John 
Jervis.^'  * 

In  connexion  with  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  preaching  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh  there  is  another  incident,  which 
belongs  to  an  early  date.  It  relates  to  an  excursion  which  he 
made  to  North  Berwick,  as  it  is  believed,  in  1798.  He  had 
announced  the  intended  sermon  in  the  usual  manner,  and  had 
begun  to  preach  one  summer's  evening  not  far  from  the  shore 
of  that  beautiful  bay,  stretching  nearly  twenty  miles  along 
the  coast,  at  one  extremity  of  which  the  Bass  Rock  and  North 
Berwick  Law  rise,  as  from  the  ocean,  to  con&ont  the  ancient 
Castle  of  Edinburgh  and  the  majestic  rocks  of  Arthmr's  Seat. 
At  that  period  the  convivial  habits  of  East  Lothian  were  noto- 
rious, even  in  an  age  when  Scottish  hospitality  had  become  stained 
with  the  vices  of  riotous  excess.  There  were  many  of  the  East 
Lothian  squires  who  drank  so  hard  and  so  habitually,  that  it  is 
said  by  those  who  knew  them  well,  that  they  never  went  to 
bed  sober.  It  happened  that  the  officers  of  the  East  Lothian 
yeomanry,  and  certain  justices  of  the  peace,  including  one  who 

*  In  the  action  between  the  Blanche  and  a  French  frigate  in  1790, 
the  gallant  Captain  Faulkner  was  shot  through  the  heart,  just  as  Lieut. 
Milne  and  himself  had  fastened  with  their  own  hands  the  enemy's 
bowsprit  to  the  capstan  of  the  Blanche.  The  boats  of  the  latter  being  all 
destroyed,  Lieut  Milne,  with  ten  men,  swam  to  the  Pique,  and  hoisted 
the  British  flag  on  board  the  captured  frigate.  **  For  his  consunmiate 
intrepidity"  in  this  desperate  action  Lieut.  Milne  was  promoted,  and 
from  that  time  his  career  became  conspicuous  in  the  annals  of  the  British 
navy. 


394  SCENE   AT   NORTH    BERWICK. 

long  sat  in  Parliament  for  the  county,  were  dining  with  the 
Provost  and  magistrates  of  North  Berwick.  According  to  the 
wretched  habits  of  the  times,  they  were  already  deep  in  their 
potations,  when  they  were  informed  that  Mr.  J.  Haldane  was 
preaching  in  their  immediate  vicinity  to  the  assembled  people  of 
North  Berwick.  The  sound  of  the  Grospel  had  no  charms  for 
them,  nor  were  they  willing  that  others  should  hear  it.  Already 
heated  with  wine,  they  began  to  consult  in  what  way  they 
should  put  down  this  missionary  invasion  of  their  own  terri- 
tories. One  of  them,  more  reckless  than  the  rest,  said  that 
it  would  be  a  capital  plan  to  seize  on  the  preacher,  as  had  been 
done  in  the  case  of  some  political  lecturers  in  England  during 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  send  him  at  once 
on  board  a  man-of-war.  It  was  replied,  that  this  would  be 
rather  dangerous,  and  besides,  that  it  would  be  awkward,  as 
the  Admiral  of  the  North  Seas  was  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  uncle  by 
blood,  whilst  it  was  again  observed,  that  the  Commander  of  the 
King^s  Land  Forces  was  his  uncle  by  marriage.  But  as  they 
drank  on,  they  became  more  and  more  resolved  that  in  some 
way  he  should  be  put  down,  and  open-air  preaching  crushed  in 
North  Berwick.  Rising  from  the  table,  the  Provost  and  magis- 
trates sallied  forth,  threatening  that  if  the  preacher  did  not 
desist,  they  would  make  a  law  to  stop  him  if  they  did  not  find 
one.  In  this  infuriated  mood  they  rushed  forward  to  the  spot, 
a  boisterous  throng,  not  omitting  oaths,  with  horrid  impreca- 
tions, and  other  melancholy  proofs  of  their  half-inebriated 
state.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  received  them  with  calm  self-posses- 
sion, and  in  reply  to  their  demands,  intimated  that  he  was 
^  infringing  no  law  and  interrupting  no  thoroughfare.  He  said^ 
at  the  same  time,  that  if  as  magistrates  they  required  him  to 
desist  from  preaching  in  that  particular  spot,  he  would  certainly 
obey,  but  added,  that  when  he  heard  men  in  authority  setting 
such  an  example  of  profane  swearing — "What!'^  exclaimed 
the  magistrates,  eagerly  interrupting  the  half-finished  sentence, — 
''what  do  you  say  of  us?''  '^I  would  not,''  he  replied,  with 
firmness, — ^'I  would  not  say  what  I  think  of  you."  ''Con- 
science," it  has  been  truly  said,  "makes  cowards  of  us  all;" 


SCENE   AT   NORTH    BKEWICK.  395 

and  the  same  determined  composure  of  spirit,  whicli  a  few 
years  before  had  overawed  the  intoxicated  mutineers  at  the  door 
of  the  powder  magazine  of  the  Button,  seemed  now  to  have 
paralyzed  the  godless  throng  who  had  rushed  from  their  revel 
to  seize  upon  the  preacher.  In  the  meantime,  great  was  the 
indignation  that  arose  amongst  the  people  who  witnessed  this 
wanton  and  indecent  interruption,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  what 
might  have  been  the  result,  had  not  a  respectable  farmer  come 
forward  and  requested  Mr.  J.  Haldane  to  adjourn  to  his  field, 
which  was  private  property,  and  where  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Provost  ceased.  He  did  so,  and  drawing  a  moral  from  the 
enmity  to  the  Gospel  just  witnessed,  preached  a  powerful  and 
impressive  sermon,  which  sent  away  the  people  awed  and 
solemnized.  It  was  long  remembered  at  North  Berwick  and  in 
the  neighbourhood.  That  sermon  was  not,  however,  permitted 
to  end  without  interruption,  for  such  was  the  rancorous  feeling 
of  the  Provost  and  magistrates,  that,  nettled  at  the  defeat  they 
had  sustained,  they  prevailed  upon  one  of  the  county  gentlemen 
who  commanded  the  Yeomanry  to  lend  his  drum,  for  the 
purpose  of  drowning  the  preacher^s  voice.  This  undignified  act 
of  magisterial  interference  did  not,  however,  succeed,  as  the 
drummer  was  not  allowed  to  enter  the  field,  and  the  interrup- 
tion was  more  vexatious  than  successful. 

There  was,  however,  a  sequel  to  the  story.  Shortly  after* 
wards  Mr.  James  Haldane  was  returning  home,  and  as  he 
reached  his  house  in  Edinburgh,  No.  16  (then  No.  8),  George* 
street,  he  observed  the  unusual  spectacle  of  a  great  funeral 
procession  with  two  hearses  passing  his  door.  He  inquired 
whose  funeral  it  was,  when  he  was  shocked  to  learn  that  it  was 
the  funeral  of  the  Provost  of  North  Berwick,  and  his  wife,  who 
had  both  died  suddenly,  and  were  about  to  be  buried  in  the 
same  grave.  Another  and  more  pleasing  reminiscence  has  been 
since  associated  with  this  scene  of  interruption.  Twenty  yean 
afterwards,  when  walking  one  summer's  evening  near  Porto- 
bello,  with  some  of  his  children,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  met  a  tall, 
portly  gentleman,  of  commanding  presence,  who,  on  seeing 
him,  immediately  left  the  foot-path,  and  uncovering,  made  a 


396  THE    CHANGE. 

profound  bow,  and  passed  on.  Mr.  J.  Haldane  returned  the 
unlooked-for  courtesy  of  the  stranger,  and  next  day  discovered  that 
it  was  the  officer  who  lent  the  diiim  at  North  Berwick.  Since 
that  evening  he  had  never  met  the  preacher,  but  had  deeply 
repented  of  the  part  which  he  was  tempted  to  take  in  that  affair ; 
it  was  a  recollection  that  lay  heavy  on  his  conscience;  and  he 
afterwards  charged  his  sons  to  do  what  in  them  lay  to  show  respect 
for  Mr.  J.  Haldane  and  kindness  to  his  family.  It  is  still  more 
pleasing  to  think  that  this  officer  himself  was  a  trophy  of  Divine 
grace,  and  that  the  preacher  to  whom  he  had  once  refused  to 
listen,  and  whose  voice  he  had  tried  to  drown,  spoke  to  him  the 
words  of  peace  and  prayed  by  his  side  when  laid  on  the  bed  of 
death.  Four  gallant  sons  of  his  had  engaged  in  defence  of  their 
country ;  one  of  them  distinguished  himself  as  the  colonel  of  a 
Highland  regiment,  and  another  received  promotion  for  his  zeal 
and  conduct  on  the  field  of  Waterloo.  Both  became,  what  was  far 
better,  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  last  time  that  Mr. 
James  Haldane  preached  near  London,  was  in  the  year  1848^ 
when  he  proclaimed  the  Gospel  to  a  crowded  military  audience 
at  Woolwich,  where  he  had  been  invited  by  the  excellent 
Minister  of  the  Scottish  Free  Church,  at  the  request  of  Colonel 
Anderson,  who  holds  an  important  command  in  that  garrison, 
and  is  the  eldest  surviving  son  of  him  who,  just  fifty  years 
before,  had  been  a  party  to  the  interruption  at  North  Berwick. 

The  occurrence  of  such  incidents  naturally  grew  less  common, 
as  Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  work  fell  more  within  the  usual  routine  of 
an  ordinary  labourer  in  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel.  But  seldom 
has  there  been  a  man  of  whom  it  might  be  more  truly  said,  that 
he  was  ^^  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season.^^  As  a  visitor  of 
his  own  people,  and  of  all  who  sought  his  spiritual  aid,  he  was 
an  example  even  in  old  age,  down  to  the  close  of  his  lengthened 
days.  Misery  or  wretchedness  only  constituted  a  fresh  claim  on 
his  sympathy,  and  the  dread  of  contagion  or  infection  never 
interrupted  his  errands  of  mercy.  On  one  occasion  a  pesti- 
lential fever  was  raging  in  a  house  at  Stockbridge,  and  Dr. 
Alison,  the  eminent  brother  of  the  distinguished  historian,  left 
fL  person  in  charge,   expressly  to   stop  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's 


PASTORAL   CHARACTER.  397 

entrance  into  a  house  where  the  danger  was  imminent.  But 
the  warning  made  no  impression.  He  said  he  was  in  the  path 
of  duty^  and  ought  not  to  be  deterred  from  it  by  any  personal 
apprehension.  If  the  desertion  of  duty  would  be  deemed  an 
act  of  cowardice  on  the  part  of  a  soldier  or  sailor,  why  should 
there  be  less  of  loyalty  or  boldness  in  a  soldier  and  servant 
of  Christ  f 

His  gentle  and  soothing  manner  in  a  sick  room  was  the 
index  to  the  sympathy  of  his  heart,  and  contrasted  finely  with 
the  natural  energy  of  his  fearless  nature.  His  experimental 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  his  wonderful  familiarity  with  Scrip- 
ture, and  his  remarkable  unction  in  prayer,  rendered  his  visits 
peculiarly  acceptable  to  those  who  sought  for  and  valued 
spiritual  comfort.  Often  was  he  invited  to  attend  on  those 
who  were  not  connected  with  his  Church,  and  it  was  remarked 
by  many  who  had  seceded  from  it  at  the  time  of  the  disruption, 
that  in  seasons  of  afSiction  they  still  gladly  turned  to  him  who 
had  been  their  pastor  in  the  Circus  and  the  Tabernacle. 

In  the  summer  of  1810  he  visited  Harrowgate,  on  account 
of  his  wife's  health,  and  during  the  weeks  he  remained  there 
embraced  frequent  opportunities  of  preaching  in  the  Assembly- 
room  and  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  1811,  he  took  his  two 
eldest  boys  a  short  Highland  tour,  but  whilst  introducing 
them  to  the  beauties  of  Dunkeld,  or  the  wild  grandeur  of 
KilUecranky  and  Blair  Athol,  and  beguiling  the  journey,  as 
they  returned  by  Perth  to  StirUng  and  Linlithgow,  with 
tales  of  other  times  and  reminiscences  of  his  own  and  his 
brother's  boyish  days,  he  never  forgot  his  one  great  -vocation. 
At  every  place  where  they  stopped  he  endeavoured  to  be  useful, 
whether  by  preaching,  as  at  Dunkeld,  by  distributing  tracts, 
or  speaking  a  word  in  season  as  opportunity  offered.  One 
day,  when  stopping  at  a  rude  country  inn  in  the  Ochill 
Hills,  not  far  from  the  Bumbling  Bridge,  there  were  two 
gentlemen  in  the  same  room,  with  whom  he  entered  into  friendly 
conversation.  At  that  time  French  brandy  was  scarce  and 
costly,  unless  it  happened  to  be  smuggled,  and  some  was 
brought  which  one  of  the  gentlemen  pronounoed  to  be  ''excel* 


398  NEWCASTLE   AND    CARLISLE. 

lent  upon  his  salvation/'  Mr.  J.  Haldane  did  not  notice  this 
profanity^  but  continued  to  converse  with  him  imtil  their 
carriage  was  announced.  They  took  leave  with  politeness^  when 
Mr.  James  Haldane^  following  them  to  the  door^  requested  the 
gentleman  to  accept  of  a  tract  of  his  own^  entitled  "  The  Great 
Salvation .''  "  You  were  talking^  Sir/'  he  said,  "  of  your 
salvation;  perhaps  you  will  permit  me  to  offer  something  that 
I  have  written  upon  that  important  subject/'  The  stranger 
coloured  at  the  implied  rebuke  thus  deUcately  conveyed,  but 
expressing  his  sincere  acknowledgments,  drove  off. 

In  the  spring  of  1812  he  made  a  journey  to  Newcastle, 
where  the  pastor  of  a  Church,  who  had  been  educated  at  Mr. 
Haldane's  early  class  in  Glasgow,  had  apostatized  into  Soci- 
nianism.  This  was  one  of  the  comparatively  few  amongst  all 
these  students  who  actually  denied  the  faith.  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
preached  with  great  power  "  on  the  Person  of  Christ,"  and  the 
substance  of  his  sermon  was  afterwards  pubhshed  in  a  very 
excellent  little  treatise,  embodying  the  testimony  of  Scripture 
both  to  the  Godhead  and  manhood  of  the  Saviour.  His  labours 
at  Newcastle  and  in  the  neighbouring  towns  were  highly  prized, 
and  were  deemed  most  important  on  this  occasion. 

In  the  following  year  he  made  another  tour  through  the 
south  of  Scotland  to  Carlisle,  where  he  was  as  indefatigable  as 
in  his  earlier  years  in  fulfilling  his  commission  to  preach  the 
Gospel.  He  also  visited  the  late  Rev.  John  Fawcett,  of 
Stanwix,  an  excellent  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England, 
under  whose  tuition  he  was  desirous  of  placing  his  eldest  son, 
now  deceased.  Mr.  Fawcett's  numbers  were  complete,  but  he 
recommended  his  friend,  the  Rev.  L.  Grainger,  of  Wintringham, 
who  had  been  the  much-esteemed  curate  and  usher  of  Joseph 
Milner,  the  historian,  and  the  tutor  of  Henry  Kirke  White. 
With  him  Mr.  James  Haldane  successively  placed  his  two  eldest 
sons,  a  circumstance  worthy  of  record  as  exhibiting,  in  a 
practical  form,  his  love  for  good  men  and  his  superiority  to 
mere  sectarian  prejudices. 

In  1814,  he  repaired,  first  to  Buxton,  and  then  to  Harrow- 
gate,  for  the  health  of  his  beloved  wife,  taking  with  them  their 


BUXTON.  399 

eldest  daughter^  and  his  second  son^  then  on  his  way  to 
Wintringham.  On  their  journey  he  stopped  at  Millbank,  near 
Warrington,  the  residence  of  Mr.  Robert  Spear,  an  eminent 
merchant,  who  took  a  deep  interest  in  objects  connected  with 
the  propagation  of  the  Gk)spel.  He  had  then  repeated  oppor- 
tunities of  preaching  both  at  Millbank  and  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Warrington,  where  he  once  more  enjoyed  an  agreeable 
meeting  with  Mr.  Rowland  Hill,  then  a  septuagenarian,  and 
engaged  on  what  he  intended  to  be  his  last  tour  for  the  Mis- 
sionary Society.  On  the  following  Sunday  Mr.  J.  Haldane  went 
by  request  to  preach  in  the  open  air,  in  a  village  where  there  was 
a  large  manufacturing  population  and  no  Gk)spel  ministry.  He 
was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Thomas  Smith,  one  of  his  brother's 
students,  who  was  then  tutor  in  Mr.  Spear's  family,  and  after- 
wards Professor  at  the  Rotherham  Academy.  On  arriving  at 
the  place  where  the  sermon  was  to  have  been,  on  the  village- 
green,  the  constable,  addressing  Mr,  Smith,  told  him  that  he 
could  allow  of  no  preaching.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  with  great 
presence  of  mind,  took  out  his  Bible,  and  uncovering  his  head, 
observed,  that,  at  all  events,  there  could  be  no  objection  to  his 
reading  a  portion  of  the  Word  of  Ood.  The  constable  seemed 
perplexed,  and  was  struck,  as  it  was  said,  with  the  bearing  and 
appearance  of  the  stranger,  who  thus  quietly  assumed  his 
undoubted  right  to  read  the  Scriptures  to  the  people.  The 
result  was,  that  from  reading  he  began  to  expound,  and  by  and 
by  to  speak,  without  interruption,  directly  and  forcibly  to  the 
assemblage,  and  concluded  with  prayer. 

At  Buxton  he  constantly  officiated  on  the  Lord's-day,  and 
occasionally  on  week-days,  in  the  chapel  at  that  place,  attracting 
a  large  number  of  the  visitors,  as  well  as  of  the  ordinary 
inhabitants.  The  war  had  then  scarcely  ceased,  and  such 
watering-places  as  Buxton  were  much  frequented  by  the  aristo- 
cracy. In  his  old  age  Mr.  James  Haldane  became  more  silent 
in  mixed  company,  or  with  strangers ;  but,  in  his  earlier  years, 
he  had  a  happy  faculty  of  introducing  interesting  conversation, 
and  frequently  turning  it  to  good  account.  As  he  remained  at 
Buxton  long  enough  to  rise,  according  to  usual  rotation,  to  the 


400  BUXTON. 

head  of  the  public  table^  his  influence  was  more  and  more  feltj 
and  although  there  had  been^  at  firsts  a  dread  of  his  Methodism, 
he    afterwards    became    a    general   favourite    with   the    meet 
intelligent  portion  of  the  company^  which  comprised   Judges, 
Members  of  Parliament^  counsellors^  clergymen^  general  officers, 
and  country  squires.     There  was  there  a  Welsh  rector,  from 
Anglesea,  the  uncle  of  a  well-known  Baronet  and  Member  of 
Parliament,  who,  knowing  nothing  at  the  time  of  Mr.  James 
Haldane,  observed  that  ^'  these  poor  devils,  the  Calvinists,  make 
their  people  beheve  that  everything,  whether  good  or  evil,  is  of 
6od.'^     Without  appearing  to  take  any  umbrage  at  the  worthy 
and  good-humoured  rector's  unceremonious  description  of  the 
Calvinists,  and,  in  reality,  smiUng  at  his  prejudices,  Mr.  James 
Haldane  quietly  replied,  '^  Ah !    Sir,  that  is  a  grave  subject. 
Do  you  not  remember  the  vision  which  the  prophet  told  to  King 
Ahab,  how  he  saw  the  hosts  of  heaven  standing  around  the 
throne  of  God,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ;  and  how  the 
Ijring  spirit  received  his  commission  to  go  forth  and  persuade 
Ahab  to  go  up  to  Ramoth  Gilead;  and  how  Ahab  went,  and 
fell,  although  warned  of  his  folly  and  his  danger  ?''     Before  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  had  finished,  the  portly  and  well-meaning  but 
not  well-instructed  divine,  colouring  red  as  crimson,  professed 
himself  more  than  convinced,  and  gladly  turned  the  conversa- 
tion.    When  he  left  Buxton  he  received  letters  of  acknowledg- 
ment from  several  of  the  visitors,  thanking  him  for  his  tracts,  or 
expressing  their   gratitude   for  spiritual   instruction  they  had 
received.     The  few  weeks  he   remained  at    Harrowgate  were 
spent  in  the  same  manner,  preaching,  as  opportunity  offered, 
wherever  there  was  an  open  door,  and  trying  to  introduce  the 
Gospel  into  his  conversation,  without  forcing  it  on  others  in 
such  a  way  as  to  increase  the  offence  of  the  cross. 

In  l)ecember,  1814,  Mrs.  James  Haldane  lost  her  mother, 
who  had  survived  her  husband  more  than  twenty  years.  She 
was  a  very  superior  woman,  and  had  much  of  the  character 
which  belonged  to  her  family^  She  was  in  her  seventy-seventh 
year,  and  died  without  any  illness  or  previous  warning,  but 
leaving  behind  her  a  good  hope  that  she  had  entered  into  the 


SIR   RALPH    ABERCROMBY.  401 

rest  that  remaing  for  the  people  of  God.     Her  father^  Mr.  Aber- 

cromby,  of  Tulliebody^  who  was  bom  in  1704^  and  died  in 

1800^  was  remarkable  for  his  strong  sagacity^  as  well  as  for  his 

longevity.     There  was  something  remarkable  about  this  family. 

He  had  four  sons  and  four  daughters  by  his  wife^  Mary  Dundas, 

of  Manor^  a  niece  of  the  celebrated  Bishop  Burnet.    "  He  lived/' 

says  General  David  Stuart,  of  Garth,  in  his  "  History  of  the 

Highland  Regiments/^  ^'  to  see  all  his  four  sons  honoured  and 

respected,  and  at  the  head  of  their  several  professions.      At 

one  time,  whilst  his  eldest  son.  Sir  Ralph,  was  commanding  in 

chief  in  the  West  Indies,  his  youngest  son.  Sir  Robert,  held  the 

same  station  in  the  East  Indies,  each  having  the  red  ribbon  and 

star  of  the  Order  of  the  Bath.   Another  son,  Burnet  Abercromby, 

commanded  an  East  Indiaman,  and  retired  with  a  large  fortune ; 

whilst  his  remaining  son,  an  eminent,  learned,  and  accomplished 

Scotch  Judge,  by  the  title  of  Lord  Abercromby,  was  also  much 

distinguished  as  a  writer  in  the  literary  circles  of  Edinbui^h.'' 

After  stating  these  facts.  General  Stewart  adds,  ^^  Three  of  his  (Mr. 

Abercromby^s)  daughters  were  married  to  gentlemen  of  family  and 

fortune,  who  resided  so  near  him  that  he  could  dine  with  either 

any  day  he  chose ;  and  his  fourth  daughter,  continuing  unmarried, 

devoted  her  days  to  the  declining  years  of  her  father.     Latterly 

he  lived  with  his  son.''     Of  these  daughters,  Elizabeth  married 

her  cousin.  Major  Joass,  the  grandson  of  General  Abercromby, 

of  Glassaugh,  and  great-grandson  and  heir  of  line  to  George 

Lord  Banff.     Two  other  daughters  were  married,  the  one  to 

Colonel  Edmonstone,  of  Newton,  and  the  other  to  Mr.  Bruce,  of 

Kennett,  whose  family  claim  the  male  heirship  of  the  Royal 

house  of  Bruce,  but  who  was  himself  better  known  by  his  title  of 

Lord  Kennett,  as  an  eminent  and  much  respected  Scotch  Judge. 

Had  Greneral  Stewart  lived,  he  might  have  added  the  remarkable 

fact,  that  two  of  Mr.  Abercromby's  grandsons,  who  had  both 

reached  manhood  before  his  death,  were  destined  to  sit  at  the 

same  time  as  Peers  of  the  realm.     General  Stewart's  account  of 

Sir  Ralph's  departure  on  the  expedition  to  Egypt  is  interesting : — 

"  I  happened,"  he  says,  "  to  be  in  Edinburgh  in  May,  1800,  and  dined 
with  Lady  Abercromby  on  the  day  Sir  Ralph  left  her  to  embark  on  that 

D  D 


402  SIR   RALPH    ABERCROMBY. 

expedition  firom  which  he  never  returned.  A  King's  messenger  had 
arrived  from  London  the  day  before,  and  Sir  Ralph,  only  waiting  for  a 
few  family  arrangements,  set  out  on  the  following  morning.  When  at 
dinner  with  the  family,  after  his  departure,  I  was  affected,  in  a  manner 
which  I  can  never  forget,  by  the  respectable  old  gentleman's  anxiety 
about  his  son,  and  his  observations  and  inquiries  about  his  future  inten- 
tions, and  what  service  was  intended  for  him.  His  particular  destination 
was  not  known  at  that  time,  but  it  was  suspected  that  he  would  be  imme- 
diately employed.  *  They  will  wear  him  out,'  said  he,  *  too  soon '  (the 
son  was  then  in  his  sixty-eighth  year),  *  and  make  an  old  man  of  him 
before  his  time,  with  their  expeditions  to  Holland  one  year  and  the  West 
Indies  the  next;  and  if  he  would  follow  my  advice,  he  would  settle  at 
home  and  take  his  rest'  And  when  Lady  Abercromby  observed  that  she 
was  afraid  that  he  must  go  abroad, '  Then,'  said  he,  '  he  will  never  see  me 
more.'  The  verification  of  this  melancholy  prediction  was  to  be  expected, 
from  his  great  age,  being  then  in  his  ninety-seventh  year.  He  died  in 
the  month  of  July  following,  eight  months  before  his  son,  whose  absence 
he  regretted  so  much." 

In  1816  Mr.  J.  Haldane  spent  some  weeks  at  Gilsland^  in 
Cumberlandj  in  the  hope  of  recruiting  his  wife's  drooping 
health.  On  that  occasion  he  met  a  well-known  Roman  Catholic 
Archbishop^  the  late  Dr.  Everard^  titular  of  Cashel.  He  was 
one  of  the  old  school  of  Irish  priests^  before  the  well-educated 
and  well-mannered  race^  trained  in  France^  had  been  exchanged 
for  the  coarser  and  more  turbulent  pupils  of  the  College  of 
Maynooth.  Dr.  Everard  was  a  man  of  very  cultivated  mind^ 
who  had  lived  in  the  families  of  some  of  the  highest  English 
aristocracy^  and  had  seen  much  of  the  world.  Uis  character  was 
described  in  glowing  colours  by  Lord  Glenelg^  in  one  of  his 
speeches  on  the  Roman  Cathohc  emancipation  question.  At 
first  he  appeared  at  the  hotel  simply  as  Mr.  Everard;  and  the 
only  circumstance  which  created  any  suspicion^  in  regard  to  his 
rank^  was  the  awe  with  which  he  was  obviously  regarded  by  a 
priest,  who  was  also  staying  at  the  hotel,  and  whose  reserved 
conversation  and  altered  habits  denoted  a  restraint,  to  which  he 
had  not  been  previously  subjected. 

On  the  very  first  day  that  they  met  at  table,  Dr.  Everard 
singled  out  Mr.  James  Haldane  from  the  crowd  of  visitors,  and 
in  the  evening  made  up  to  him  and  engaged  him  in  very 


A    ROMISH    ARCHBISHOP.  403 

interesting  conversation.  Next  day  his  attentions  became  more 
marked,  and,  at  dinner,  it  appeared  that  the  Doctor's  servant 
had  received  orders  to  wait  on  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haldane  as  much 
as  on  himself.  The  intimacy  increased,  and  every  day  hours 
were  spent  in  the  walks  or  drives  around  Gilsland,  discussing 
the  claims  of  the  Romish  Church  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel.  Mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  and  armed  in  Christian 
panoply,  Mr.  James  Haldane  repelled  every  argument  drawn 
from  the  traditions  of  the  Church  or  the  authority  of  man ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  assured  his  new  acquaintance,  that,  if 
Romanists  refused  an  appeal  '^  to  the  law  and  to  the  testimony," 
it  must  be  because  there  was  no  light  in  them.  These  friendly 
discussions  were  carried  on  with  intense  earnestness,  and  in  a 
spirit  that  inspired  mutual  respect.  Dr.  Everard  confidentially 
disclosed  his  rank  and  position  in  the  Romish  Church,  but 
solemnly  appealed  to  heaven,  that  he  sought  only  the  truth,  and 
was  indifierent  to  all  secular  considerations.  The  conversations 
became  daily  more  interesting.  On  the  Lord's-day  Mr.  James 
Haldane  preached  in  the  assembly-room.  Before  the  sermon. 
Dr.  Everard  begged  the  daughter  of  his  Protestant  friend  to 
persuade  her  father  to  preach  in  the  drawing-room,  and  tell  him 
how  much  he  himself  desired  to  listen.  After  the  service  was 
over,  Dr.  Everard  asked  why  his  request  had  not  been  complied 
with,  and  why  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  not  preached  in  the  drawing- 
room,  "  where,''  he  said,  "  I  could  have  remained  and  listened 
without  any  breach  of  discipline  or  canonical  law,  although,  of 
course,  it  was  impossible  to  follow  you  to  another  place.''  Mr. 
J.  Haldane  explained  that  many  servants  and  cottagers  would 
have  been  excluded  from  hearing,  had  he  conducted  the  service 
in  the  drawing-room,  but  offered  to  go  over  all  the  leading 
topics  of  his  discourse.  This  he  did,  and  discussed  them  with 
his  usual  candour.  A  few  days  before  he  left  Gilsland,  Dr. 
Everard  confmed  himself  to  his  room  and  did  not  appear  in 
public.  He  afterwards  sought  a  parting  interview  with  his 
Protestant  friend;  it  was  at  once  solemn  and  affecting.  The 
Archbishop  told  Mr.  J.  Haldane  that  the  conversations  he  had 
enjoyed  with  him,  and  particularly  his  appeals  to  the  Bible,  had 

DD  2 


404  ARCHBISHOP    EVERARD. 

shaken  him  more  than  anything  he  had  ever  befoi*e  heard^  and 
that  it  had  made  him  very  uneasy;  that  he  had^  therefore, 
determined,  with  fasting  and  prayer,  once  more  to  seek  counsel 
of  God,  in  order  that  his  error,  if  he  were  in  error,  might  be 
shown  to  him.  He  added,  that  his  meditations,  during  his 
hours  of  fasting  and  retirement,  had  led  him  to  this  train  of 
thought :  "  Here  is  a  man  who  is  certainly  mighty  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  who  interprets  the  Bible  for  himself  and  depends  on 
his  own  private  judgment.  The  case  is  different  with  myself. 
If  I  err,  I  err  with  a  long  line  of  holy  men  who  have  lived  and 
died  in  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church/^  Mr.  James  Hal- 
dane  endeavoured  to  show  the  danger  of  tioisting  to  the  example 
or  opinions  of  fallible  men,  although  some  of  those  named,  such 
as  Pascal  and  Fenelon,  had  been  themselves  persecuted  for  their 
Protestant  tendencies ;  and  he  contrasted  the  opinions  based  on 
the  shifting  sands  of  human  opinion,  with  the  certainty  that 
belongs  to  the  written  Word  of  God,  read  by  the  light  of  God's 
Holy  Spirit  shining  on  its  pages.  He  also  said  something 
about  '^the  traditions  of  the  apostled.^^  "What,^'  said  Dr. 
Everard,  "  do  you  speak  of  traditions  ?  I  had  thought  you 
discarded  them  entirely."  The  reply  was,  "The  traditions  of 
fallible  men  I  reject^  but  the  traditions  of  the  apostles,  as 
recorded  by  the  finger  of  inspiration,  are  to  be  received  as  every 
other  part  of  the  inspired  Word  of  God."  Mr.  James  Haldane 
added,  "  Pardon  me,  but  I  must  tell  you,  in  faithfuhiess  and 
love,  that  it  is  my  firm  conviction,  that  the  Church  which  you 
so  much  esteem  is  no  other  than  the  woman  which  the  apostle 
John  beheld  in  the  Apocalypse  '  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the 
saints  and  martyrs  of  Jesus.'  "  Again  he  said,  "  Do  not  think 
me  rude."  The  Archbishop  affectionately  pressed  his  hand,  and 
said,  "  No,  my  dear  Sir ;  I  know  you  too  well  to  think  so.  I 
am  persuaded  that  you  only  speak  for  my  good."  Mr.  James 
Haldane  once  more  urged  on  the  Archbishop,  the  necessity  of 
further  investigation  of  the  Bible  with  prayer.  A  compliance 
with  this  request  was  promised,  coupled  with  an  urgent  entreaty 
that  his  Protestant  friend  would  do  the  same.  Mr.  James 
Haldane  repUed  that  his  convictions  were  based  upon  a  lock  too 


ARCHBISHOP    EYERARD.  405 

solid  to  be  shaken^  and  one  which  would  admit  of  being  again 
and  again  examined  with  minute  attention.  But  he  reminded 
Dr.  Everard^  that  all  the  claims  of  Popery  rested  on  human 
testimony ;  on  principles  that  would  not  bear  the  light  of  Grod'a 
Word,  and  around  which  there  was,  at  best,  a  lurid  halo  of 
doubt  and  uncertainty.  They  parted  with  mutual  expressions 
of  regard,  and  Dr.  Everard  died  a  few  years  afterwards,  at 
Cashel,  where  there  were  whispers  in  the  neighbourhood,  which 
intimated  that  his  dying  room  was  carefully  watched  to  prevent 
the  intrusion  of  those,  whose  presence  was  not  desired,  and  that 
the  mystery  which  was  kept  up,  as  to  his  illness,  arose  from 
suspicions  that  he  did  not  continue  stedfast  in  the  Romish  faith. 
The  death-bed  of  the  celebrated  Bishop  Doyle,  at  Carlow,  was 
attended  with  similar  suspicions,  which  have  been  since  con- 
firmed by  the  narrative  published  by  his  nieces,  who  were  not 
suffered  to  enter  his  chamber  until  the  lifeless  corpse  was  laid 
out  in  state,  in  his  Episcopal  robes,  attended  by  monks,  with 
lighted  torches,  chanting  his  requiem,  amidst  all  that  pompous 
ceremonial  with  which  Rome  strives  to  make  the  senses  the  slaves 
of  the  imagination. 

In  1817,  Mr.  James  Haldane  received  an  unexpected  visit 
from  his  old  friend.  Captain  Patrick  Gardner,  under  whose  care 
he  had  gone  to  sea,  and  to  whom,  in  1801,  he  had  so  earnestly 
written,  pressing  on  him  the  concerns  of  his  immortal  soul. 
The  pleasure  with  which  Captain  Gardner  was  welcomed,  the 
interest  taken  in  recalling  the  names  and  pursuing  the  history  of 
their  old  ship-mates  and  early  friends,  seemed  to  renew  the  days 
of  their  youth.  But  Captain  Gardner's  health  was  broken ;  and 
after  an  absence  from  Edinburgh  of  some  weeks,  on  inquiring 
for  him  at  his  hotel,  it  was  found  that  he  had  returned  danger- 
ously ill.  During  his  illness  he  was  daily  watched  by  his  friend^ 
who  did  everything  to  promote  his  comfort,  and  particularly 
sought  opportunity  to  call  his  attention  to  the  Word  of  Grod. 
Captain  Gardner  at  first  intimated  that  he  was  unable  to  listen 
long,  and  proposed  about  five  verses.  This  request  was 
pimctually  attended  to,  and  the  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  the 
pubhcau  was  read,  followed  by  a  short  prayer,  founded  on  the 


406  CAPTAIN    GARDNER. 

cry,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  smner."  By  degrees  Captain 
Gardner  came  to  listen  with  greater  interest,  and  after  he 
returned  to  London  he  wrote  to  his  old  friend,  thanking  him  for 
all  his  unremitting  kindness,  and  telling  him  that  he  was  now 
able  himself  to  pray.  He  died  rather  unexpectedly  in  Aprilj 
1818,  leaving  behind  the  hope  that  his  visit  to  Edinburgh  had 
not  been  in  vain.  His  will  had  been  made  many  years  before^ 
but  Mr.  James  Haldane  was  the  chief  executor, — a  circumstance 
which  called  him  to  London,  where  he  had  the  opportunity 
of  renewing  his  acquaintance  with  some  of  his  old  friends,  and 
particularly  at  Hatcham  House,  with  the  late  Mr.  Hardcastle, 
who  was  then  fast  approaching  the  confines  of  the  eternal 
world.  He  was  also  present  at  some  of  the  principal  meetings 
in  May,  and  particularly  took  part  at  the  anniversary  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  in  Freemasons^  Hall,  where 
he  delivered  a  short  but  effective  speech.  He  also  preached  as 
usual,  whenever  there  was  opportunity,  but  nowhere  with  greater 
interest  to  himself,  or  with  more  acceptance  to  his  audience^ 
than  in  the  Seaman^s  Floating  Chapel,  then  recently  established 
on  the  Thames. 

On  his  return  from  London,  it  was  with  deep  feeling  that  he 
found  his  beloved  wife,  the  mother  of  nine  children,  more  than 
ever  suffering  from  shattered  health.  Again  he  conducted  her 
to  Harrowgate,  in  quest  of  renovation.  The  change  of  air  and 
scene,  which  always  cheered  her  bright  spirit,  appeared  beneficial 
for  a  time,  and  there,  too,  her  husband  enjoyed  the  opportunities 
in  which  she  delighted,  for  preaching,  or  conversing  amongst 
strangers  concerning  the  things  which  pertain  to  the  salvation  of 
the  soul.  On  this,  as  on  former  occasions,  he  had  much  pleasure 
in  the  society  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hardy,  of  Thorpe  Arch,  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  England,  with  whom  he  had  frequent 
intercourse  during  several  visits  to  Harrowgate.  In  the  winter, 
the  chronic  ailments  of  Mrs.  James  Haldane  gradually  became 
more  serious,  and  in  February  a  course  of  mercurial  treatment 
was  proposed  by  three  eminent  physicians,  under  which  her 
constitution  rapidly  gave  way.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  tender- 
ness with  which  her  husband  watched  over  her  dying  couch,  and 


DEATH    OF   MBS.  J.  HALDANE.  407 

the  earnestness  of  his  prayers  for  her  recovery.  It  was  not^ 
however,  till  within  thirty  hours  of  her  death  that  any  immediate 
apprehensions  were  entertained.  The  moment  that  the  danger 
became  imminent,  he  gathered  all  his  children  together,  and 
kneeling  down  in  the  midst  of  them,  offered  up  a  prayer  never 
to  be  forgotten,  in  which  the  most  pathetic  and  earnest  suppli- 
cations for  her  recovery,  if  consistent  with  the  Lord's  will,  were 
mingled  with  expressions  of  unreserved  confidence  in  the  love  of 
God,  and  submission  to  the  Divine  pleasure.  In  particular,  he  gave 
thanks  that  on  a  former  occasion  of  dangerous  illness,  in  1808^ 
the  Lord  had  been  pleased  to  answer  prayer,  to  rebuke  the  fever, 
and  to  prolong  her  life  during  the  sixteen  years  that  had  inter- 
vened. He  therefore  prayed  as  one  who  knew  the  Lord  as  the 
hearer  of  prayer,  very  pitiful  and  full  of  compassion.  It  was 
a  night  much  to  be  remembered.  It  exhibited  the  struggle 
and  the  triumph  of  faith,  contending  with  the  fondest  earthly 
affection,  the  tenderest  and  deepest  feelings  of  the  husband  and 
the  father  controlled  by  the  resignation  of  the  believer,  enabled 
to  say,  ^*  Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him.''  It  was  the 
declaration  of  a  heathen,  that  a  good  man  struggling  with  adver- 
sity was  a  sublime  spectacle,  and  so  it  might  be  said  of  him,  whose 
faith  in  a  covenant  God  enabled  him  to  triumph  over  the  agony  of 
an  impending  calamity.  Prayer  was  at  all  times  the  weapon  which 
he  grasped  in  every  hour  of  need.  It  was  not,  however,  the  will 
of  God  on  this  occasion  to  listen  to  his  cry  to  spare  the  wife  of 
his  youth,  or  to  hear  the  supplications  of  those  whose  aid  he 
sought  in  intercession  with  their  heavenly  Father.  On  Saturday 
evening,  the  27th  of  February,  1819,  in  the  presence  of  her 
husband  and  eight  surviving  children,  she  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
The  blow  was  severe,  but  her  husband  knew  whence  it  came,  and 
where  to  look  for  comfort.  He  deeply  felt  his  loss,  but  he  sorrowed 
not  as  those  who  have  no  hope.  In  writing  shortly  afterwards 
to  her  only  remaining  uncle,  who  had  addressed  to  him  a  sympa- 
thising letter  of  condolence,  he  touchingly  remarked  :  '^  As  I 
closed  her  eyes,  a  tear  trickled  down  her  cheek,  and  I  thought  that 
it  was  the  last  she  would  shed,  for  she  had  gone  to  Him  who  wipes 
away  all  tears  from  the  eyes  of  His  people."    On  the  very  evening 


408  CHRISTIAN    RESIGNATION. 

of  her  death,  he  wrote  to  the  following  effect,  in  answer  to  the 
affectionate  inquiries  of  his  oldest  friend,  who  had  watched  over 
him  as  a  boy : — 

"  My  deakest  Aunt, — It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to 
remove  out  of  this  vale  of  tears  my  beloved  wife.  The  stroke  is 
heavy,  but  she  is  done  with  pain  and  sorrow,  and  is  gone  to  be 
present  with  the  Lord.  And  shall  we  murmur  because  another 
tie  to  earth  is  cut  away  ?  Not  surely  those  who  have  learned  to 
wait  for  the  appearing  of  their  Master,  and  to  account  themselves 
strangers  and  pilgrims  in  this  world,  who  declare  that  they  have 
here  no  abiding  city,  but  that  their  hearts  and  their  treasures 
are  in  heaven.'^ 

It  was  remarked  that  at  this  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  taken 

another  step  within  the  vail,  and  as  if  his  coYnmunion  with  the 

Father  and  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  had  become  closer  and  more 

intense.     His  feelings  on  the  vanity  of  the  world,  as  contrasted 

with  the  solid  resting-place  which  belongs  to  the  citizens  of  that 

city  which  is  stable  as  the  mount  of  God,  are  well  expressed  in 

a  letter  which,  many  years  afterwards,  he  wrote  on  the  death  of 

his  friend,  Mrs.  Hardcastle,  the  mother  of  his  daughter-in-law, 

Mrs.  Alexander  Haldane : — 

**  It  is  a  beautiful  remark  of  Leighton's,  that  the  apostle  contrasts  the 
dispersion  of  believers  in  this  world  with  their  election  in  heaven.  They 
are  spiritually  alienated  from  the  world,  and  interested  in  the  new 
Jerusalem.  Let  us,  my  dearest  Alexander,  highly  prize  our  privileges. 
Let  us  live  to  God.  The  night  is  far  spent,  and  the  day  is  at  hand,  and 
the  nearer  we  approach  to  the  full  enjo}7nent  of  blessedness,  the  more 
may  we  feel  the  attraction  of  Him  whom  our  soul  loveth !  Many  years 
ago,  I  read  in  the  <  Arabian  Nights '  of  a  mountain  of  loadstone.  Ships  at 
a  great  distance  felt  its  influence.  At  first  their  approach  to  it  was 
scarcely  perceptible.  There  was  a  declining  from  their  course  hardly  to 
be  noticed,  and  it  excited  little  apprehension.  But  the  attraction  gradually 
became  stronger,  until  the  vessel  was  irresistibly  impelled  onwards  with 
increased  velocity.  At  last  it  drew  all  the  nails  and  ironwork  to  itself,  and 
80  the  ship  fell  to  pieces.  *  The  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light' 
When  first  the  believer  feels  the  love  of  Christ,  it  is  like  a  mustard  seed ; 
but  it  increases,  and  he  is  constrained  by  its  influence  to  press  more 
earnestly  after  the  full  enjoyment  At  last  the  spirit  can  no  more  be  kept 
at  a  distance  from  Him  whom  it  loves.  It  flies  to  His  embrace,  and  the 
body  IB  dissolved." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MB.  HALDANE'S  VISIT  TO  PARIS— GENEVA— LETTER  TO  REV. 
E.  BICKEESTETH— OLORY  OF  GENEVA  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY— ITS  APOSTACY— STATE  IN  1816— MR.  HALDANE'S 
LABOURS— TESTIMONY  OF  DR.  PYE  SMITH— MR.  HALDANB 
EXPOUNDS  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  TO  THE  THEO- 
LOGICAL  STUDENTS  — LETTER  TO  M.  CHENEVIERE  — 
RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF  GOD— SOVEREIGNTY  OF  GOD— VIEWS 
OF  FORBEARANCE— LETTER  OF  M.  CHARLES  RTEU  TO 
MR.  HALDANE— M.  RIEU'S  TRIUMPHANT  DEATH— EXCITE- 
MENT AT  GENEVA  — DR  MALAN*S  CONVERSION  — HIS 
SERMON— CONFLICT  AT  GENEVA— CONVERSION  OF  THE 
THEOLOGICAL  STUDENTS— PERSECUTION— MR.  HALDANB 
PREPARES  TO  QUIT  GENEVA— PARTING  ADVICE— ARRIVAL 
OF  MR.  HENRY  DRUMMOND— HIS  ZEAL— CONVERSION  OF 
DR.  MERLE  D'AUBIGNE-M.  GAUSSEN'S  TESTIMONY. 

[1816-17.] 

Twenty  chequered  years  of  failure  and  success  had  not  damped 
the  youthful  ardour  with  which  the  two  brothers  had  devoted 
their  lives  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  Their  zeal  was  not  the 
offspring  of  wild  enthusiasm^  and  its  energy  was  not  dependent 
on  human  contingencies.  After  a  brief  period  of  comparative 
repose,  the  termination  of  the  great  revolutionary  war  opened  up 
to  Mr.  I^aldane  a  new  field  of  enterprise,  which  he  was  not  slow 
to  occupy.  In  the  summer  of  1816,  he  hastened  through  the 
press  his  work  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  for  which  he 
had  been  long  collecting  materials.  The  reason  of  his  urgency 
was  not  very  obvious  to  his  printer,  the  late  excellent  Mr. 
Ritchie,  who,  although  willing  to  go  to  India  as  the  superin- 
tendent of  a  missionary  press,  was  not  so  prompt  to  change  the 
slow-going  habits  of  the  olden  time.    But  the  explanation  shortly 


410  VISIT   TO    THE    CONTINENT. 

followed^  when  Mr.  Haldane  announced  his  intention  of  making 
a  missionary  tour  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  The  results  of 
that  Mission  stretch  into  eternity^  and  will  for  ever  connect  the 
name  of  Robert  Ualdane  with  the  revival  of  the  Gospel  in 
France  and  Switzerland.  The  distinguished  historian  of  the 
Reformation^  himself  a  trophy  of  this  work  of  grace^  has  said 
that  a  narrative  of  this  revival  would  form  "  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  episodes  in  the  history  of  the  Church.'^ 

The  materials  for  such  a  narrative  are  much  scattered^  for  it 
was  characteristic  of  both  the  brothers^  that  they  always  seemed 
to  dread  the  appearance  of  egotism^  or  of  anything  that  savoured 
of  glorying  in  man.  Nothing  was  more  cheering  to  their  spirits 
than  the  success  of  their  labours^  but  each  was  deeply  and 
habitually  persuaded  that^  in  regard  to  the  things  of  Grod^  they 
were  but  the  feeble  instruments  employed  by  Him^  who  has 
determined  to  stain  the  pride  of  all  himian  boastings  and  cause 
"  him  that  glorieth  to  glory  only  in  the  Lord."  If  there  were  a 
shadow  of  boastings  it  was  only  in  the  success  with  which  the 
Lord  vouchsafed  to  honour  the  exhibition  of  the  light  of  God's 
Word,  unclouded  by  man's  wisdom  and  man's  devices. 

Apart  from  the  scattered  notices  of  Mr.  Haldane's  Continental 
labours,  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  many  faithful 
pastors  in  Switzerland  and  France,  there  are  several  sources 
from  which  something  like  a  connected  account  of  his  proceed- 
ings may  be  gathered.  One  is  contained  in  his  own  letter  to  the 
Arian  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Geneva,  published  in  1824,  both 
in  French  and  English,  which  is  replete  with  massive  theology, 
as  well  as  with  valuable  and  delightful  particulars  connected 
with  the  results  of  his  visit  to  Greneva.  The  other  is  a  friendly 
letter  to  the  late  Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth,  correcting  some 
mistakes  of  the  Rev.  Richard  Burgess,  of  Chelsea,  pubUshed  in 
a  little  volume,  entitled  "  A  Voice  from  the  Alps."  Previous  to 
that  publication,  Mr.  Haldane  had  resisted  all  the  importunity 
used  to  induce  him  to  furnish  a  connected  narrative  of  his 
labours  at  Geneva  and  Montauban.  But  when  he  saw  so 
erroneous  an  account  of  a  great  work  of  God,  not  only  as  to  its 
extent,  but  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  had  been  carried  on,  he 


L£TT£R  TO   REV.  £.  BICKSR8TETH.  411 

felt  that  some  contradiction  was  necessary^  lest  silence  should  be 
mistaken  for  acquiescence.  It  was  always  his  conviction  that 
the  blessing  on  his  labours  was  designed  as  an  encouragement  to 
those  who  should  cast  away  worldly  policy,  and  in  the  strength 
of  Ood,  rest  boldly  on  the  blessing  promised,  both  to  the  written 
and  spoken  word.  Prejudices  are  not  needlessly  to  be  ofiended. 
Opposition  is  not  needlessly  to  be  encountered.  But  neither 
prejudices  nor  opposition  were,  in  Mr.  Haldane's  reckoning,  any 
just  apology  for  keeping  back  the  whole  counsel  of  Grod. 

^'  Auchmgray,  Sept.  4,  1889. 

**  My  dear  Sir, — Among  the  valuable  books  with  which  you 
kindly  presented  me  during  your  late  visit  to  Edinburgh,  I  turned 
with  interest  to  the  work  you  have  published  under  the  title  of 
^  A  Voice  from  the  Alps.'  I  rejoice  to  find  that,  in  the  midst  of 
your  other  useful  labours  in  the  missionary  cause,  you  have  not 
been  unmindful  of  Continentid  Europe,  and  that  you  are  desirous 
of  stimulating  the  zeal  which  has  of  late  years  been  kindled  in 
the  breasts  of  British  Christians,  in  behalf  of  those  countries 
where  the  candle  of  the  Lord  had  been  well  nigh  extinguished. 

"In  the  ^ Voice  from  the  Alps,^  I  foimd  an  address  to  a 
clerical  meeting  by  the  Rev.  R.  Burgess,  of  Chelsea,  which 
contains  an  account  of  my  own  proceedings  at  Geneva  altogether 
erroneous.  Mr.  Burgess  has  doubtless  been  misinformed  on  the 
subject ;  but  his  mistakes  have  been  shared  or  adopted  by  Mr. 
Meston,*  in  his  recent  'Observations  on  the  Present  State  of 
Religion  in  France.'  To  prevent  the  further  currency  of  these 
misstatements,  which,  if  uncontradicted,  will  be  repeated  by 
others,  I  shall  first  notice  the  errors  into  which  these  gentlemen 
have  fallen,  and  then  briefly  relate  the  leading  circumstances 
connected  with  my  residence  on  the  Continent,  in  which  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  may  be  clearly  seen,  to  the  praise  of  the  glory 
of  His  grace. 

"  The  narratives  of  Mr.  Burgess  and  Mr.  Meston  alike  confound 
dates  and  circumstances.     It  was  not  in  1818,  as  stated  by  both 

*  Mr.  Meston  is  a  valuable  preacher  at  Lille,  vrho  afterwardB  explained 
that  he  had  implicitly  trusted  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Borgeit. 


412  LETTER   TO    REV.  E.  BICKERSTETH. 

of  these  gentlemen,  but  in  1816,  that  I  went  to  Geneva.     Mr. 
Drummond  and  I  did  not  labour  there  together,  as  it  would 
appear  by  their  accounts.     Mr.  Drummond  did  not  arrive  at 
Geneva  till  two  days  before  I  left  the  place.     I  was  not  '  armed 
with  religious  tracts  and  addresses/  as  Mr.  Burgess  affirms,  but 
with  the  Word  of  God.     The  distribution  of  tracts  is  in  general 
highly  to  be  commended  j  but  in  the  circumstances  in  which  I 
was  placed  at  that  period  in  Geneva,  I  should  have  considered 
such  weapons  but  ill-iitted  to  assault  the  strongholds  of  Satan. 
Far  from  finding  '  but  few  voices  to  respond  to  my  appeal,'  as 
Mr.  Burgess  and  Mr.  Meston  both  intimate,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  I  found  many.     And  instead  of  not  appearing  '  to  have  met 
with  success,'  during  my  stay,  according  to  Mr.  Meston,  the 
success  with  which  the  Lord  was  graciously  pleased  to  accom- 
pany the  testimony  borne  to  his  truth  was  very  remarkable; 
and  perhaps  the  more  so,  because  it  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  the 
first,  after  the  termination  of  the  war,  systematically  and  pubUcly 
borne  on  the  Continent,  by  any  one  from  Britain,  to  the  grand 
distinctive  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.     Dr.  Malan  ^  raised  his  voice 
in  behalf  of  the  truth,'  not,  as  they  assert,  '  after,'  but  before  I 
left  Geneva.     The  following  brief  narrative  of  my  proceedings  on 
the  Continent  may  illustrate  the  gracious  providence  of  God, 
and  prove  an  encoinragement  to  others  to  speak  out  boldly  and 
fully,  as  they  may  have  opportunity  of  declaring  the  whole  counsel 
of  God. 

"  For  many  years  I  had  cherished  the  idea  of  going  to  France, 
with  the  view  of  doing  something  to  promote  the  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel  in  a  country  in  which  I  had  been  three  times  before 
as  a  traveller.  Accordingly,  when  the  return  of  peace  rendered 
my  design  practicable,  I  went  to  the  Continent.  Being,  however, 
unacquainted  with  a  single  individual  there,  and  therefore  imable 
to  arrange  any  particular  plan  of  action,  I  feared  that  my  object 
might  prove  abortive ;  and,  in  consequence,  when  asked,  before 
I  left  Scotland,  how  long  I  expected  to  be  absent,  I  replied, 
'  Possibly  only  six  weeks.'  The  Lord,  however,  was  pleased  to 
open  a  wide  and  effectual  door,  leading  me  in  a  way  that  I  knew 
not,  and  my  residence  abroad  continued  about  three  years. 


LETTER  TO    REV.  E.  BICKERSTETH.  413 

'^  On  arriving  at  Paris,  involved,  as  it  appeared,  in  Egyptian 
darkness,  I  soon  perceived  that  I  had  no  means  of  furthering  the 
object  of  my  journey  in  that  great  metropolis.  Unexpectedly, 
however,  I  met  with  Mr.  Hillhouse,  a  gentleman  from  America, 
of  whom  I  had  not  before  heard.  He  had  landed  at  Boiirdeaux, 
and  travelling  through  the  south  of  France,  had  gone  to  Geneva, 
and  thence  to  Paris.  Having  passed  through  Montauban,  where 
the  French  Theological  Protestant  Faculty  was  founded  by 
Napoleon,  he  had  there,  and  in  other  places,  inquired  respecting 
the  Protestant  ministers,  and  he  communicated  to  me  all  his 
information  on  the  subject.  He  told  me  that  at  Geneva  there 
were  only  two  individuals  to  whom  I  could  have  access,  the  one 
a  pastor,  in  advanced  years,  the  other  not  a  pastor,  but  what  is 
termed  a  minister,  and  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  other  pastors 
were  Arians  or  Socinians.^^ 

Thus  far  the  letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth.  It  was  on  the  9th  of 
October,  1816,  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haldane  left  Edinburgh, 
travelling  by  way  of  London,  Dover,  and  Calais.  At  Paris  he 
received  from  Mr.  Hillhouse,  a  gentleman  attached  to  the 
American  Embassy,  a  very  melancholy  account  of  the  state  of 
religion,  both  in  France  and  Switzerland,  but  he  supplied  a  list 
of  Protestant  pastors  and  laymen,  which  had  been  originally 
furnished  to  him,  for  the  purposes  of  his  tour,  by  M.  Martin, 
President  of  the  Consistory  at  Bourdeaux.  The  solitary  pastor 
mentioned,  as  an  exception  to  the  general  apostacy  at  Geneva, 
was  the  late  M.  Moulinie,  who  is  described,  by  M.  Gaussen, 
as  a  pious  man,  but  reserved  in  his  manners,  an  Arminian,  and 
a  mystic.  The  minister  was  M.  Galland,  who  was  at  that  time 
an  inquirer,  but  still  far  from  enjoying  the  Gospel  light.  With 
these  explanations,  Mr.  Haldane's  letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth  will 
now  be  continued  : — 

"  Finding  no  opening  at  Paris,  I  immediately  set  out  for 
Geneva,  hoping  that  something  might  be  done  through  the 
two  individuals  referred  to  by  Mr.  Hillhouse.  On  my  arrival 
I  called  on  the  pastor  alluded  to,  the  late  M.  Moulinie,  and 
conversed  with  him  on  the  Gospel.     He  was  very  kind,  but 


414  LETTER   TO    REV.  E.  BICKER8TETH. 

appearing  to  acquiesce  in  all  that  I  advanced,  discussion  on 
any  point  was  out  of  the  question,  and  no  progress  was  made. 
Being,  therefore,  unable  to  discover  means  of  usefulness  at 
Greneva,  and  finding  on  inquiry  that  the  young  man  also  spoken 
of  by  Mr.  Hillhouse,  had  some  time  before  removed  to  Beme, 
I  repaired  to  that  city,  where  I  found  he  had  been  ordained  a 
pastor.  He  was  not  an  Arian  or  Socinian,  but  although  very 
ignorant  respecting  the  Gospel,  he  was  willing  to  inquire  and 
hear  concerning  the  great  truths  which  it  reveals.  I  remained 
in  Berne  about  eight  days,  during  which  he  came  to  me  every 
morning  at  ten  o^clock,  and  continued  till  ten  at  night — ^in  fact, 
as  late  as  it  was  possible  for  him,  the  gates  of  the  city,  beyond 
which  he  lodged,  being  shut  at  that  hour.  During  the  whole 
day  I  endeavoured  to  set  before  him,  as  far  as  I  was  enabled, 
everything  relating  to  the  Gospel,  and  have  good  reason  to 
believe  that  the  word  spoken  was  accompanied  with  the  blessing 
of  the  Lord.  I  was  afterwards  informed,  that  subsequently  to 
my  departxire  he  conversed  with  his  colleague,  the  other  pastor 
of  the  Church,  on  the  subject  of  our  discussions,  and  that  in 
considering  what  had  been  advanced,  they  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  it  must  be  the  true  doctrine  of  salvation. 

'^  I  hesitated  whether  I  should  return  to  Geneva,  but  at  last 
resolved  to  do  so,  having  heard  of  two  Prussian  clei'gymen,*  who 
had  recently  been  in  England,  and  were  passing  through  that 
town,  with  whom  it  was  supposed  I  might  have  an  opportunity 
of  conversing  on  the  Gospel, — and  also  of  a  pastor  at  a  little 
distance  in  the  country,  who,  my  new  acquaintance  at  Berne 
informed  me,  would  listen  to  my  statements,  but  would  '  draw 
himself  up,  and  not  answer  a  word.'  To  Geneva  I  accordingly 
returned.  With  the  Prussian  clergymen  I  found  no  satisfaction 
in  conversing,  and,  although  I  subsequently  did  not  experience 
the  reserve  I  anticipated  in  the  pastor  just  referred  to,  yet  I  had 
not  the  gratification  of  meeting  him  till  after  the  lapse  of  some 
time. 

"  I,  however,  again  visited  M.  Moulini^,  with  whom  I  had 
before  conversed,  who,  as  formerly,  was  very  kind,  but  with 

*  Professor  Sack  and  his  brother. 


LETTER   TO   EEV.  E.  BICKERSTETH.  415 

whom  I  could  make  no  progress.  From  all  I  could  learn  from 
him^  Greneva  was  involved  in  the  most  deplorable  darkness.  It 
was^  as  Mr.  Burgess  observes^  '  an  unbroken  field  of  labour/ 
with  a  ^fallen  Church/  Calvin^  once  its  chiefest  boast  and 
ornament^  with  his  doctrines  and  works^  had  been  set  aside  and 
forgotten,  while  the  pastors  and  professors  were  in  general 
Arians  or  Socinians.  Some  exceptions  among  them  there  were, 
including  M.  Moulinie,  who  held  the  divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus, 
and,  I  believe,  loved  and  served  him  according  to  their  light; 
but  that  light  was  so  obscure — they  were  on  the  whole  so 
ignorant,  so  incapable  of  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth, 
that  their  preaching  was  without  fruit.  They  preached  neither 
law  nor  Grospel  fully,  and  their  doctrine  did  not  seem  to  affect 
the  consciences  of  their  hearers.  A  small  prayer-meeting  had 
for  some  time  been  held,  in  consequence,  I  believe,  of  a  visit 
of  Madame  Krudener  to  Geneva ;  and  by  one  belonging  to  it,  I 
was  told,  that,  sensible  of  their  want  of  knowledge,  they  had 
prayed  that  an  instructor  should  be  sent  to  them,  and  that  their 
prayer,  they  now  believed,  was  answered. 

"  Being  unable  to  meet  with  any  other  person  with  whom 
I  might  converse  on  the  Grospel,  I  resolved  to  quit  Geneva 
without  delay,  and  proceed  to  Montauban.  The  Lord,  however, 
is  often  pleased  to  overrule  our  purposes,  by  occurrences  which, 
in  themselves,  appear  trifling,  and  thus  to  bring  about  resulty 
that  could  not  have  been  anticipated.  M.  Moulinie  had 
politely  offered  to  conduct  Mrs.  Haldane  to  see  the  model 
of  the  mountains,  a  little  way  out  of  town,  and  with  this 
object  he  promised  to  call  on  us  the  day  following.  In  the 
morning,  however,  we  received  a  note  from  him,  saying,  that, 
having  suffered  from  a  severe  headache  during  the  night,  he 
was  himself  unable  to  come,  but  had  sent  a  young  man,  a 
student  of  divinity,  who  would  be  our  conductor.  On  this 
providential  circumstance  depended  my  continuance  at  Geneva, 
which  I  had  been  on  the  point  of  leaving.  With  this  student 
I  immediately  entered  into  conversation  respecting  the  Gospel, 
of  which  I  found  him  profoundly  ignorant,  although  in  a  state 
of  mind  that  showed  he  was  willing  to  receive  information. 


416  MR.  HALDANE's    visit   to    SWITZERLAND. 

He  returned  ^dth  me  to  the  inn^  and  remained  till  late  at  night. 
Next  morning  he  came  with  another  student^  equally  in  darkness 
with  himself.  I  questioned  them  respecting  their  personal  hope 
of  salvation^  and  the  foundation  of  that  hope.  Had  they  been 
trained  in  the  schools  of  Socrates  or  Plato,  and  enjoyed  no  other 
means  of  instruction,  they  could  scarcely  have  been  more  ignorant 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  They  had,  in  fact,  learned  much 
more  of  the  opinions  of  the  heathen  philosophers,  than  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Saviour  and  his  Apostles.  To  the  Bible  and 
its  contents  their  studies  had  never  been  directed.  After  some 
conversation,  they  became  convinced  of  their  ignorance  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  way  of  salvation,  and  exceedingly  desirous 
of  information.  I  therefore  postponed  my  intended  departure 
from  Geneva.^' 

During  the  short  interval  that  elapsed  between  Mr.  Haldane^s 
first  visit  to  Geneva  and  his  return  to  that  city,  as  noticed  in  the 
letter,  he  traversed  a  great  part  of  Switzerland.  At  Lausanne 
he  met  a  pious  and  zealous  English  lady  (Miss  Greaves),  who 
was  subsequently  very  instrumental  in  persuading  him  to  return 
to  Geneva.  The  eloquent,  excellent  M.  Galland  was  the  young 
pastor,  with  whom  he  had  so  much  interesting  discussion  at 
Berne,  and  who  was  then  led  to  embrace  the  truth.  Thence  Mr. 
Haldane  proceeded  to  Basle,  where  he  met  M.  Empeytaz,  in 
the  household  of  the  celebrated  Baroness  Krudcner,  the  friend 
of  the  Emperor  Alexander.  "  With  that  lady,^'  says  M.  Gaussen^ 
"Mr.  Haldane  had  a  long  conversation.  He  foimd  in  her,  as 
he  said,  much  of  the  spirit  of  charity,  but  very  Uttle  knowledge.'^ 
After  considerable  hesitation,  he  was  induced  to  abandon  his 
intention  of  leaving  Switzerland  and  to  return  to  Geneva, 
partly  in  the  hope  of  conversing  with  Professor  Sack  on  the 
reUgious  state  and  prospects  of  Germany,  to  which  country, 
despairing  of  Switzerland,  he  was  also  turning  his  attention, 
but  chiefly  with  the  view  of  seeing  M.  Gaussen,  whom  M. 
Galland  has  described  as  a  young  minister,  living  six  miles 
from  Geneva,  "  who  would  listen  to  his  statements,  draw  himself 
up,  but  not  answer  a  word."  Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Geneva 
the  second  time,  Mr.  Haldane  inquired  for  M.  Gaussen,  who 


GENEVA    IN    ITS    GLORY.  417 

had  been  licensed^  in  1815^  as  a  minister^  and  ordained  on 
Grood  Friday^  in  1816^  as  the  pastor  of  Satigny^  a  delightful 
little  village,  five  or  six  miles  beyond  the  walls  of  Geneva.  '*  I 
had  already/^  says  M.  Gaussen,  '^submitted  my  faith  to  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Word  of  Grod,  but  the  gravity  of  Mr. 
Haldane,  the  authority  with  which  he  always  appealed  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  his  profound  acquaintance  with  them,  made  an 
impression  on  me  never  to  be  effaced,  and  that  just  before  the 
time  when  the  Lord,  by  a  sudden  stroke,  took  from  me  all  the 
joys  of  this  world.  When  I  paid  him  my  first  visit,  it  was 
on  the  invitation  of  Charles  Rieu,  and  when  he  said  to  me^ 
in  the  middle  of  our  conversation,  that  he  had  returned  to 
Geneva  purposely  to  see  me,  I  looked  at  him  with  astonish- 
ment, and  his  countenance  became  so  red.  I  love  to  recal  these 
little  details,  because  all  the  souvenirs  of  that  excellent  man, 
and  of  the  good  which  he  did  amongst  us,  are  dear  and 
precious.  His  visit  to  Berne  was  blessed  to  M.  Galland,  and 
his  visit  to  Geneva  was  blessed  to  us  all.^^  "  I  visited  him,'* 
adds  M.  Gaussen,  ^^only  occasionally,  but  I  make  bold  to 
number  myself  with  those  who  cherish  his  memory  with  the 
fondest  and  most  affectionate  gratitude.^'  Such  were  the  pro- 
vidential circumstances  under  which,  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1816,  Robert  Haldane  took  up  his  abode  in  the  city  of  Calvin, 
of  Farel,  and  of  Beza. 

Geneva  is  one  of  those  names  which  symbolizes  something 
far  more  glorious  than  the  little  town,  whose  ancient  battle- 
ments were  at  once  the  monuments  of  the  defensive  skill  of 
Yauban,  and  of  the  persecuting  tyranny  of  the  house  of 
Savoy.  Greneva  has  been  for  ages  a  term  antagonistic  to  Rome. 
Placed  at  the  extremity  of  its  own  placid  and  beautiful  lake, 
where  the  blue  waters  of  ''the  arrowy  Rhone"  rush  onwards 
to  the  ocean,  this  free  city,  as  if  designed  to  be  a  witness  for 
God  against  Popery,  whether  Ultra-montane  or  GalUcan,  stood 
between  the  Jura  and  the  Alps,  themselves  the  types  of  beauty 
and  sublimity.  Within  its  hospitable  gates  were  received  several 
of  the  distinguished  Italian  families,  proscribed  for  favouring 
the  Reformation.      It  was  the  city  where  Knox,  with  other 

B    B 


418  GENEVA    IN    ITS    QLORT. 

exiles  from  Scotland^  found  an  asylum^  and  whence  he  imported 
into  his  own  favoured  land  that  form  of  Church  govemmeiitj 
to  which  Scotland  has  so  fondly  and  firmly  adhered.  At  a 
later  period  it  welcomed  many  of  the  French^  who  fled  froai 
the  persecution  which  followed  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.  Geneva  was,  indeed,  the  glory  of  the  Refonnatioiiy 
the  battle-field  of  light  and  darkness,  the  Thermopyke  of  Pro- 
testantism,  from  whose  Alpine  heights  the  light  of  Gospel  truth 
once  streamed  forth  with  brilliant  lustre,  athwart  the  blackness 
of  Papal  superstition.  But  Geneva  fell  firom  its  ancestral  faith, 
and  proved  how  vain  are  historic  names,  orthodox  creeda, 
and  scriptural  formularies,  where  the  spirit  ceases  to  animate 
the  lifeless  frame.  The  younger  Turretine,  the  degenerate  scm 
of  an  illustrious  sire,  is  said,  more  than  a  century  ago,  quietly 
to  have  laid  aside  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  when  he  was 
Professor  of  Theology.  In  1777,  Professor  Vinet  allowed  Arian 
theses  to  be  maintained  before  him  by  the  students  of  the 
university.  And  it  may  be  added,  as  a  crowning  evidence  of 
their  apostacy,  that  twenty  years  before  that  period,  the  Infidel 
D'Alembert  complimented  the  Venerable  Company,*  in  the  French 
Encyclopaedia,  in  an  article,  in  which  he  observes,  "  To  say  all 
in  one  word,  many  of  the  pastors  of  Geneva  have  no  other 
religion  but  a  perfect  Socinianism,  rejecting  all  that  they  call 
mysteries/'  The  answer  of  the  pastors  was  unsatisfactory  and 
equivocal,  and  the  questions  afterwards  put  to  them  received 
no  expUcit  reply.  Their  apostacy  was  indeed  clandestine  rather 
than  avowed,  and  D^Alembert  remarked,  with  bitter  sarcasm, 
"I  should  be  extremely  concerned  to  be  suspected  of  having 
betrayed  their  secret.'^ 

But  in  the  writings  of  the  "  self-torturing  sophist,'*  Jean 

*  In  the  national  Church  of  Geneva  there  are  about  twenty-five  pastorSf 
who  serve  the  five  churches  of  the  city,  according  to  a  system  of  rotation. 
These,  with  the  country  pastors  of  the  canton,  constitute  the  Venerable 
Company,  and  with  the  addition  of  some  lay  elders  and  government 
officers,  constitute  the  connstory.  Before  a  student  can  become  tLpastor^ 
he  must  be  licensed  as  a  minister.  These  distinctions  require  to  be  kept 
m  view  in  speaking  of  the  Genevese  Church. 


ROUSSEAU,    VOLTAIEE,    AND    GIBBON.  419 

Jaques  Rousseau,  there  is  a  still  more  melancholy  picture  of  the 
lapsed  conditioD  of  Geneva.  In  one  of  his  "  Letters  from  the 
Mountains/'  he  thus  writes : — 

"  It  is  asked  of  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  if  Jesus  Christ 
he  God  ?  They  dare  not  answer.  It  is  asked,  if  he  was  a  mere  man. 
They  are  emharrassed,  and  will  not  say  they  think  so.  A  philosopher, 
with  a  glance  of  the  eye,  penetrates  their  character.  He  sees  them  to  he 
Arians,  Socinians,  Deists;  he  proclaims  it,  and  thinks  he  does  them 
honour.  They  are  alarmed,  terrified;  they  come  together,  they  discuss, 
they  are  in  agitation,  they  know  not  to  which  of  the  saints  they  should 
turn,  and,  after  earnest  consultations,  deliherations,  conferences,  all 
vanishes  in  amphigore :  and  they  neither  say,  yes  nor  no.  Oh !  Genevans, 
these  gentlemen,  your  ministers,  in  truth  are  very  singular  people !  They 
do  not  know  what  they  helieve,  or  what  they  do  not  helieve.  They  do 
not  even  know  what  they  would  wish  to  appear  to  helieve-  Their  only 
manner  of  estahlishing  their  faith  is,  to  attack  the  faith  of  others." 

The  citizens  of  Geneva  have  done  homage  to  Rousseau^  and, 
amidst  the  modem  improvements  of  their  city^  have  placed  his 
statue  hy  the  side  of  the  bridge,  which  spans  the  Rhone  at  the 
spot  where  that  river  rushes  from  the  lake. 

The  presence  of  Voltaire  for  two  years  at  Femey,  within  a 
pleasant  walk  from  the  gates,  was  not  likely  to  improve  either 
the  theology  or  the  morals  of  the  Consistory.  Lausanne  is  little 
more  than  twenty  miles  further  up  the  lake,  and  the  fact  that 
Gibbon  selected  that  place  for  his  residence,  may  probably  deepen 
the  shadows  of  this  picture  of  surrounding  infidelity.  Gibbon 
announced  to  his  friends,  that  the  first  stroke  of  a  rebel  drum 
would  be  the  signal  of  his  departure  from  the  Canton  de  Vaud. 
He  himself  had  been  sounding  the  tocsin  of  rebellion  against 
the  King  of  kings,  and  was  as  intolerant  of  a  true  Christian  as 
he  was  of  a  revolutionary  leveller. 

During  the  reign  of  Napoleon,  Geneva  was  incorporated  with 
France,  but  the  Emperor  permitted  the  Consistory  to  resume 
its  functions,  and  maintain  its  lifeless  form  of  Protestantism. 
At  the  close  of  the  war^  it  was  annexed  to  the  Helvetic  Con- 
federation,  but  with  French  intercourse,  French  manners  had 
crept  in.  The  theatres  were  opened  on  the  Sunday  evenings, 
and  even  the  pastors,  on  certain  solemn  festivals,  dismissed  their 

E  B  2 


420  GENEVA    IN    1816. 

congregations  earlier^  in  order  that  they  might  themselves 
participate  in  the  festivities  of  the  Lord's-day,  which  was  closed 
with  fireworks  on  the  lake. 

It  was  at  this  period  of  its  history  that  Robert  Haldane 
entered  Geneva^  and^  as  he  passed  its  ancient  gates^  observed 
to  one  who  travelled  in  his  carriage^  that  he  had  been  pondering 
on  the  divisions  which  would  infallibly  ensue,  if  the  Lord  should 
see  good  to  make  the  Gospel  of  his  grace  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation.  But  by  whatever  means  the  Lord  is  pleased 
to  work,  it  is  important  to  observe,  how  all  the  glory  exclusively 
belongs  to  Him,  who  is  the  Wonderful,  the  Counsellor,  the 
Mighty  God. 

For  several  years  before  Mr.  Haldane  was  so  unexpectedly 
conducted  to  that  famous  city,  through  no  wisdom  or  foresight  of 
his  own,  some  smoking  embers  had  been  collected,  and  some 
sparks  of  light  already  kindled  amidst  the  darkness  of  its 
spiritual  apostacy.  Even  so  early  as  1810,  MM.  Empeytaz, 
Bost,  and  a  few  other  youthful  but  earnest  inquirers  after  truth, 
had  become  impatient  of  the  wretched  food  supplied  by  their 
spiritual  pastors,  and  instituted  a  reimion,  called  "  La  SocidtS 
des  Amis."  "  They  knew,''  says  M.  Guers,  "  the  way  of  salva- 
tion very  imperfectly,''  but  it  is  impossible  to  read  the  close  of 
their  First  Annual  Report,  written  by  M.  Empeytaz,  without 
seeing  that  he,  at  least,  had  even  then  been  led  to  soar  far  above 
the  chilling  mists  of  Socinianism,  and  to  feel  somewhat  of  the 
same  adoring  love,  which  burned  in  the  heart  of  the  convinced 
Thomas,  when  he  fell  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  exclaiming,  ^'  My 
Lord,  and  my  Grod  !  "  But  this  little  Society  was  frowned  upon 
by  the  Arian  clergy,  and  had,  in  1814,  even  ceased  to  exist. 
Its  more  seriously-disposed  members,  in  quest  of  spiritual 
nourishment,  joined  themselves  to  a  little  Moravian  flock^ 
possessing  exacter  notions  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
"  Still,"  continues  M.  Guers,  in  his  interesting  Life  of  Henri 
Pyt,  "the  time  of  the  pure  light  had  not  arrived,  either  for 
him  or  many  of  his  friends.  It  was  only  for  them  the 
twilight  of  the  Gospel  day."  In  1813,  Madame  Krudener 
had  induced  M.  Empeytaz  to  enter  her  household  as  chaplain. 


GENEVA    IN    1816.  421 

but  her  own  views  of  Divine  truth  were  very  indistinct^  and, 
in  some  respects^  visionary.  At  the  beginning  of  1816  a  pious 
English  or  Welsh  mechanic  (industriel) ,  of  the  Calvinistic- 
Methodist  persuasion^  estabUshed  himself  on  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  convent  of  Rive,  where,  for  the  first  time,  the  Reforma- 
tion had  been  proclaimed^  in  1534,  by  William  Farel.  There  a 
few  of  the  defunct  Soci4t6  des  Amis  met  this  good  man,  whose 
name  was  Richard  Wilcox,  and  conversed  with  him  about  the 
deep  things  of  God,  but,  according  to  M .  Guers,  Wilcox  seems 
to  have  insisted  chiefly  on  the  eternal  love  of  the  Father,  and  on 
the  certainty  of  the  salvation  of  the  elect,  "  elevating  the  build- 
ing, without  taking  sufficient  care  to  lay  the  foimdation.*' 
In  short,  he  appears  to  have  unwisely  directed  his  preaching 
exclusively  to  the  elect,  instead  of  adopting  the  scriptural  pro- 
clamation of  the  Grospel,  which,  leaving  secret  things  to  (rod,  is 
like  the  fan  in  the  hand  of  the  husbandman,  separating  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff,  revealing  pardon  only  to  faith,  which  is  the  gift  of 
God,  but  declaring  even  to  the  vilest  of  sinners,  "  Whosoever  will, 
let  him  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely/'  M.  Guers  adds,  "  whilst 
he  strengthened  those  who  knew  the  Grospel  a  little  better  than 
their  brethren,  he  did  not  open  to  others  the  gate  of  salvation/' 

These  earnest  inquirers  were,  however,  feeling  after  truth, 
and  for  some  time  used  to  hold  in  concert  a  sort  of  agape,  or 
love-feast,  after  the  manner  of  the  early  Christians,  which  was 
termed  Le  Repas  des  douzes  (the  repast  of  the  twelve),  on 
account  of  the  number  who  gathered  round  the  board,  and 
conversed  about  the  things  that  belonged  to  their  eternal  peace. 

Thus  it  was,  that  by  all  these  means  the  Lord  was  opening 
the  way  for  another  of  his  servants,  a  deeply  experienced  and 
established  Christian — one  who  was  strong  in  faith,  mighty  in 
the  Scriptures,  full  of  zeal  for  Christ,  well  instructed  in  the 
relative  proportions  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  able  rightly 
to  divide  the  Word  of  truth.  Mr.  Haldane  was  conducted  to 
the  place  at  the  right  time.  M.  EnSpeytaz,  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  little  band,  had  quitted  the  field  of  his  unequal  combat, 
with  a  consistory  determined  to  crush  him.  His  colleague;, 
M.  Bost,  had  assumed  the  post  of  Suffragan  Pastor  at  Moutiers 


422  M.  HENRI    EMPBYTAZ. 

Grand  Vdl,  in  the  Canton  of  Berne,  bo  that  his  geniaa  and  piety 
no  longer  "electrified''  his  young  friends  by  "his  noble  aspira- 
tions after  God  and  holiness/'  Wilcox,  the  humble  artisan, 
was  himself  leaving  Geneva,  no  more  to  encourage  these  inquirers 
by  raising  them  to  the  contemplation  of  the  eternal  love  of  the 
Father.  But  the  prayers  of  those  who  were  hungering  and 
thirsting  after  righteousness  were  graciously  answered,  and  the 
instructor  for  whom  they  were  anxiously  supplicating  the  throne 
of  grace,  had  been  actually  brought,  "  by  a  way  which  he  knew 
not,"  to  prove  to  them  a  messenger  of  everlasting  peaee^  and  not 
only  to  them,  but  to  many  others  in  Greneva. 

Nearly  contemporaneous  with  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Haldan^ 
was  the  publication  of  "  Considerations  on  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  by  Henri  Empeytaz,  a  pamphlet  which  appeared  aboat 
the  middle  of  November,  1816.*  Falling  amongst  the  stadents 
of  theology,  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  it  produced  great  excite- 
ment, and  "  an  impression  difficult  to  describe."  The  stadents|y 
siding  with  the  pastors,  assembled  in  the  grand  hall  of  the 
consistory,  and  choosing  for  their  president  one  of  their  own 
number, — himself  destined  to  receive  the  Gospel  finom  Mr. 
Haldane,  and  to  become  an  illustrious  champion  of  the  fedth^ — 
addressed  to  the  Venerable  Company  a  letter,  in  which  they 
solemnly  protested  against  what,  in  their  ignorance,  they  termed 
the  "odious  aggression"  of  the  "calumnious"  pamphlet  of 
M.  Empeytaz.  The  state  of  the  students  may  be  judged  of 
from  two  facts — first,  that  M.  Henri  Pjrt  and  M.  Guers  were 
the  only  individuals  amongst  them  who  refused  to  sign  this 
anti-christian  protest;  and,  next,  that  their  chosen  president 
was  no  other  than  M .  Merle  D' Aubign^. 

The  arrival  of  Mr.  Haldane  has  been  already  mentioned  in 
his  own  simple  narrative.  The  following  are  the  more  glowing 
terms  in  which  it  is  described  by  the  pious  biographer  of 
Henri  Pyt : — 

"The  English  friend  mentioned  above,  departed  in  January,  1817, 
leaving  his  brethren  hungering  after  a  better  acquaintance  with  the 

*  "  Histoire  Veritable  des  Momiers  de  Geneve,''  anonymous,  but  written 
by  M.  Empeytaz,  1824. 


TESTIMONY    TO    MR.  HALDANE.  423 

counsels  of  God.    But  at  that  very  moment,  the  Lord,  touched  by  their 
prayers,  sent  them  one  of  his  most  eminent  servants.    Richard  Wilcox 
had  not  quitted  our  walls,  before  Robert  Haldane  was  within  our  gates. 
The  chosen  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  to  confirm  the  faith  of  Pyt 
and  his  friends,  he  was  destined  to  become  the  source  of  blessings 
to  many  others.    In  a  very  short  time,  a  striking  revival,  effected  by 
his  means,  was  manifested  in  the  school  (rauditoire)  of  theology.  Around 
the  venerable  Haldane,  their  true  professor,  there  gathered  habitually 
more  than  twenty  pupils  of  that  auditory,  converted  (alter§s)  by  the 
instructions  of  that  blessed  Word,  which  they  began  immediately  to 
distribute  at  Geneva,  or,  at  a  later  period,  to  carry  to  neighbouring 
countries, — and  amongst  the  latter  may  be  named  Henri  P3rt,  Jean 
Guillaume  Gonthier,  Charles  Rieu,  who  died  pastor  at  Frederica,  in 
Denmark.  It  was  on  Thursday,  the  6th  February,  1817,  that  Mr.  Haldan« 
undertook  to  read  and  explain  to  them  the  Epistle  of  St  Paul  to  the 
Romans.*    '  He  knew  the  Scriptures,'  says  Pyt,  '  like  a  Christian  who 
has  had  for  his  Master  the  same  Holy  Spirit  by  whom  they  were  dictated.' 
He  spoke  in  English ;  first  M.  Rieu,  then  M.'  Fred.  Monod,  of  Paris, 
or  M.  James,  of  Breda,  interpreted.     Never,  we  venture  to  say,  since 
the  days  of  Francis  Turretine,  and  Benedict  Piotet,  of  holy  and  happy 
memory, — ^never  had  any  doctor  expounded  the  whole  counsel  of  God 
with  such  purity,  force,  and  fulness — never  had  so  bright  a  luminary 
shone  in  the  city  of  Calvin.^ 

The  student  of  theology  who  came  to  Mr.  Haldane's  hotel, 
and  was  the  unconscious  means  of  detaining  him  at  Geneva, 
little  thought  how  he  was  then  employed  as  the  messenger 
of  grace,  both  for  himself  and  others.  It  was  M.  James, 
now  French  pastor  of  Breda.  The  other  whom  he  brought 
with  him  was  M.  Charles  Rieu,  whose  brief  but  brilliant 
career,  and  triumphant  death-bed,  are  associated  with  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  The  letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth 
proceeds : — 

^'  The  two  students  with  whom  I  first  conversed  brought  six 
others  in  the  same  state  of  mind  with  themselves,  with  whom 
I  had  many  and  long  conversations.  Their  visits  became  so 
frequent,  and  at  such  different  hours,  that  I  proposed  they 
should  come  all  together,  and  it  was  arranged  that  they  should 

*  It  is  presumed  that  this  date  refers  to  the  time  when  Mr.  Haldane 
recommenced  his  expositions  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  had  not  begun 
to  attend  with  the  eight  original  students. 


424  MR.  HALDANE    AT    GENEVA. 

do  80  three  times  a  week,  from  six  to  eight  o^clock  in  the 
evening.  This  gave  me  time  to  converse  with  others,  who, 
from  the  report  of  the  students,  began  to  visit  me,  as  well 
as  leisure  to  prepare  what  might  be  profitable  for  their  instruc- 
tion. I  took  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  as  my  subject;  and 
this  portion  of  Scripture  I  continued  to  expound  to  them  during 
the  winter,  and  to  dilate  on  the  great  doctrines  which  it  unfolds. 

"After  having  proceeded  in  this  manner  about  a  fortnight 
with  these  eight  students,  I  was  earnestly  solicited,  in  the  name 
of  the  other  students,  to  begin  anew,  in  which  case  I  was 
assured  that  the  rest  of  them  would  attend.  I  accordingly 
complied  with  this  request,  and  during  the  whole  of  the  winter 
of  1816—17,  and  until  the  termination  of  their  studies  in  the 
following  summer,  almost  all  the  students  in  theology  regularly 
attended.  And  God  .was  graciously  pleased  to  accompany  his 
own  Word  with  power.  In  addition  to  the  general  knowledge 
which  all  of  them  acquired,  a  goodly  number  soon  appeared 
to  be  turned  to  the  Lord.  Some  of  them  have  now  finished 
their  course  with  joy,  and,  like  MM.  Rieu,  Gonthier,  and 
Henri  Pyt,  have  left  behind  them  the  blessed  assurance  that 
they  are  now  in  the  presence  of  God  and  the  Lamb;  while 
others  have,  in  like  manner,  evidenced  the  reaUty  of  the  work  of 
grace  by  the  stedfastness  of  their  faith,  and  the  abundance  of 
their  ministrations. 

"Besides  those  who  attended  regularly,  some  who  did  not 
wish  to  appear  with  the  students  came  at  difierent  hours, 
and  in  conversing  with  them  at  those  times,  or  after  finishing 
the  public  course  at  eight  o'clock,  I  was  often  engaged  till 
near  midnight.  Others  of  the  inhabitants  of  Geneva,  uncon- 
nected with  the  schools  of  learning,  and  of  both  sexes,  occasion- 
ally visited  me  in  the  afternoon  to  receive  instructions  respecting 
the  Gospel. 

"  The  impression  produced  at  Geneva  was,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  so  great,  that  discussions  became  frequent  on  the  grand 
truths  connected  with  salvation.  The  pastors  and  professors 
in  the  Faculty  heard  of  the  doctrines  I  was  inculcating,  and  the 
manner  in  which  I  spoke  of  their  false  doctrine.    They  began  to 


MR.  HALDANE   AT    GENEVA.  425 

preach  openly  against  what  I  taught^  and  I  as  plainly  controverted 
what  they  taught^  collecting  their  arguments^  setting  them  before 
the  students  and  others  to  whom  I  had  access^  comparing  them 
with  Scripture,  and  labouring  to  refute  their  destructive  heresies. 
They  insisted  that  men  were  bom  pure,  and  spoke  of  the  Saviour 
as  the  first  of  created  beings,  and  I  opposed  and  refuted  such 
errors  and  blasphemies.  They  taught  that  the  Gospel  was 
useful,  but  not  indispensable,  to  salvation,  and  adduced  the 
case  of  Cornelius,  as  an  example  of  a  man  accepted  of  God 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  I  proved  that  this  was 
an  egregious  misrepresentation  of  the  fact,  and  that  the  history 
of  Cornelius  formed  no  exception  to  the  uniform  doctrine  of 
Scripture,  that  there  is  no  other  way  of  salvation  but  by 
faith  in  the  Saviour.^  It  was  not,  then,  by  avoiding  con- 
troverted subjects,  and  simply  dwelling  on  truths  common 
to  the  professing  Christians,  as  some  good  men  have  recom- 
mended as  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued  on  the  Continent, 
that  I  laboured  to  raise  up  the  fallen  standard  of  the  Gospel  at 
Geneva.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  by  not  shunning  to  declare 
the  whole  counsel  of  God,  so  far  as  I  was  enabled  to  do  so— 
it  was  by  dwelling  on  every  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  whether 
it  was  controverted  or  not,  or  however  repulsive  to  the  carnal 
mind,  and  by  confronting  and  bringing  to  the  test  of  Scripture 
every  argument  levelled  at  my  instructions  both  by  pastors  and 
professors. 

''  In  this  manner  matters  proceeded  at  Geneva  till  the  middle 
of  the  summer  of  1817,  the  period  which  terminated  the  studies 
of  the  theological  students.  The  pastors  attempted  to  instigate 
the  Government  to  banish  me  from  their  canton;  and  when 
this  proved  unsuccessful,  it  was  proposed  in  the  'Venerable 
Company'  that  I  should  be  cited  to  appear  before  them,  to 
answer  for  the  doctrines  I  was  inculcating  on  the  students.  On 
this  it  was  observed  by  one  of  them,  'Vous  ne  gagnerez  pas 

•  See  the  case  of  Cornelius  fully  discussed  in  vol.  iii.,  pp.  344 — 389, 
of  "  Exposition  of  the  Romans/*  in  the  chapter  on  the  "  State  of  the 
HeaUien  destitute  of  the  Gospel.''  See  also  *'  Remarks  on  Mr.  Scott's 
View  of  Cornelius,"  voL  L,  third  edition  of  *'  Exposition,"  pp.  355—369. 


420  MB.  HALDANE   AT   GENEVA. 

grande  choBe  par  celal'  (You  will  not  gain  much  by  that!) 
And  the  matter  dropped.  At  the  same  time  they  did  all 
in  their  power  to  prevent  the  attendance  of  the  students. 
I  hiivo  since  that  period  conversed  in  this  country  with 
M.  GauBBcn^  and  in  answer  to  my  inquiry^  How  it  was 
that  the  pastors  failed  in  this  attempt,  he  replied^  That  this 
was  the  first  blow  that  had  seriously  affected  them^  and  although 
they  wert^  anxious  to  adopt  every  means  in  their  power  to 
prevent  the  students  from  coming  to  me^  yet  they  found  it 
impossible^  because  if  strong  measures  had  been  resorted  to 
aa  the  penalty  of  disobeying  the  prohibition,  the  students 
had  revived  to  leave  their  professors.  The  pastors,  however, 
did  not  cease  to  labour  to  counteract  the  effects  of  the  change 
that  had  taken  place  in  the  minds  of  so  many  of  the  students, 
and  particularly  by  framing  the  '  Reglemens'  of  May  3,  1817, 
consisting  of  certain  articles  which  every  student  was  ordered  to 
sign  before  he  should  be  '  consecrated,'  and  which  were  intended 
to  exclude  from  the  pulpits  of  Geneva  the  doctrines  which  they 
■0  violently  opposed,  and  particularly  the  doctrines  of  the  God- 
head of  the  Saviour — of  original  sin — of  grace  and  effectual 
Galling — and  of  predestination.  In  spite  of  all  their  endeavours, 
the  light  was  diffused  to  a  very  remarkable  degree  in  Geneva, 
which,  through  the  ministration  of  these  Socinian^  Arian,  and 
Arminian  teachers,  had  fallen  from  the  glory  which  once 
belonged  to  it,  and  instead  of  being  the  centre  of  illumination 
to  Protestant  Europe,  had  become  a  synagogue  of  Satan  and 
a  citadel  of  ignorance  and  darkness. 

"  In  my  '  Letter  to  M.  Cheneviere,  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Geneva,'  which  I  published  both  in  English  and  in  French, 
in  the  year  1824,  which  he  never  attempted  to  answer,  you  will 
find  other  details  connected  with  the  foregoing  subjects." 

Professor  Cheneviere,  a  few  years  later,  in  his  ^'  Summary 
of  the  Theological  Controversies  which  have  of  late  years 
agitated  Geneva,"  pointedly  attacked  Mr.  Haldane  as  one  of 
the  chief  authors  of  all  the  agitation.  He  described  him  as  a 
rigid  Calvinist,  who  invited  a  number  of  ministers  and  students 
to  his  house,  where  he  occupied  their  minds  with  the  mysterious 


DR.  PYE  smith's  VINDICATION  OF  MR.  HALDANE.     427 

points  in  the  Christian  religion^  "  inoculated  them  with  his  own 
intolerant  spirit/'  taught  them  "  to  despise  reason/'  and  to 
"  trample  on  good  works.'* 

To  this  attack  of  the  Genevan  professor  an  able  reply  was 
written  by  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  and  published  both  in  the  ^'  Monthly 
Repository/'  a  Socinian  magazine,  and  also  in  a  separate  form. 
With  reference  to  the  attack  on  Mr.  Haldane,  Dr.  Pye  Smith 
writes : — 

<'Mr.  Haldane  is  a  man  of  family,  fortune,  and  talents,  who  hat 
for  many  years  devoted  himself,  with  a  generosity  rarely  equalled,  to 
the  most  benevolent  purposes  that  can  be  entertained  by  a  human  mind. 
There  are  few  persons  who  are  more  addicted  to  cool  reasoning,  or 
who  have  more  correct  views  or  more  consistent  practice  on  the  subject, 
I  will  not  say  of  toleration,  but  of  the  entire  rights  of  religioue  liberfy. 
Abundant  proof  that  he  does  not  contemn  reason,  but  employs  the 
processes  of  induction  and  argument  in  a  manner  highly  judicious, 
scrupulous,  and  logical,  will  appear  to  any  one  who  will  read  his  work 
on  '  The  Evidence  and  Authority  of  Divine  Revelation,'  2  vols.,  Svo. 
On  the  first  opening  of  this  work,  my  eye  has  been  caught  by  a  passage, 
which  I  transcribe,  because  it  furnishes  a  fair  indication  of  the  author's 
mental  habits.  He  has  been  speaking  of  the  unhappy  prevalence  of 
unexamined  assumptions  and  conclusions  drawn  without  sufficient  evi- 
dence in  matters  of  religion."  (Dr.  Smith  then  transcribes  a  striking 
paragraph  from  the  introduction,  and  proceeds :)  "  This  passage  affords  a 
fair  insight  into  Mr.  H.'s  intellectual  character.  I  had  never  the  happi- 
ness of  knowing  a  more  dispassionate  or  car^ftd  reasoner,  or  one  whose 
habits  of  mind  were  more  distinguished  by  the  demand  and  scrutiny 
of  sufficient  evidence  upon  every  subject.  A  grosser  error  could  not 
be  committed,  than  to  impute  to  such  a  man  the  sentiment,  that  '  in  the 
affairs  of  religion,  reason  ought  to  be  trampled  under  foot' "  (P.  22.) 

Mr.  Haldane^s  letter  in  reply  to  M.  Cheneviere  is  in  itself  a 
memorial  of  solid  and  practical  divinity.  He  meets  his  opponent 
point  by  point,  giving  him  an  epitome  of  his  exposition  of  the 
Romansj  and  touching  with  a  master's  hand  almost  every  con« 
troverted  topic  subsisting  between  the  enemies  of  the  truth  and 
its  supporters.  With  regard  to  the  Professor  himself,  Mr. 
Haldane  plainly  avowed : — 

"  I  am  free  to  declare,  that  never  in  my  life  did  I  hear  the  word  of  God 
so  directly  contradicted  from  the  pulpit    In  your  exclamation,  <  Ah !  are 


428  LETTER   TO    M.  CHENEVIERE. 

we  not  bom  pure?'  profound  ig^norance  of  the  Word  of  God  was  mani- 
fested, and  the  whole  train  of  your  reasoning  proceeded  on  this  assumed 
principle — a  principle  not  more  contrary  to  the  express  declarations  of 
Scripture,  the  conduct  of  Providence,  and  the  whole  plan  of  redemption, 
than  to  the  universal  experience  of  mankind.  And  yet.  Sir,  you  are 
Theological  Professor  at  Geneva.'* 

The  venerable  Daniel  Wilson,  now  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta^ 
describes  M.  Cheneviere  as  "  a  harsh,  violent,  impracticable  man^ 
confessedly  a  Socinian  in  principle.  He  really  frightened  me 
by  his  fierce  attack  on  spiritual  religion/' 

It  may  be  edifying  to  dwell  for  a  short  time  on  Mr.  Haldane's 
mode  of  teaching,  and  especially  to  follow  him  in  his  calm  and 
dignified  exposure  of  the  Genevese  heresies,  as  he  contrasts  them 
with  the  truths  contained  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
Beginning  with  an  account  of  his  meetings  with  the  students^  he 
proceeds : — 

"  The  attention  which  these  interesting  young  men  very  soon  manifested 
to  the  Word  of  God  was  more  than  I  anticipated.  The  truth  is,  that  any- 
thing like  Biblical  instruction  was  altogether  new  to  them.  The  study  of 
the  Word  of  God  had  formed  no  part  of  their  preparation  for  the  ministry. 
.  .  .  As  far  as  I  was  enabled,  I  endeavoured  to  lay  open  to  them  the 
rich  stores  of  religious  instruction  contained  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
a  portion  of  the  Word  of  God  which,  on  the  Continent,  was  very  generally 
considered  unintelligible. 

**  In  studying  this  Epistle,  I  turned  their  attention  to  the  great  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel,  so  successfully  revived  at  the  Reformation  by  Luther  and 
his  associates,  as  well  as  by  Calvin,  with  whose  writings,  though  the 
founder  of  their  Church,  they  had  no  acquaintance,  and  whose  theological 
sentiments  they  had  been  taught  to  regard  as  altogether  antiquated.  In 
discarding  the  instructions  of  these  Reformers,  they  had  been  led  to  under- 
stand that  they  were  following  the  superior  illumination  of  the  present 
age.  I  did  not  attempt,  however,  to  make  them  disciples  of  Calvin  or  of 
any  other  man, — to  say,  *  I  am  of  Paul,  and  I  of  Apollos,' — but  to  bring 
them  to  be  followers  of  Christ,  to  sit  at  the  foot  of  His  cross,  and  to  learn 
of  Him  'who  spake  as  never  man  spake.'  I  therefore  appealed  to  no 
authority,  either  ancient  or  modem,  but  solely  to  the  law  and  to  the 
testimony,  always  reminding  them  that,  *  if  they  spake  not  according  to 
this  word,  it  was  because  there  was  no  light  in  them.'    (Isaiah  viii.  20.) 

"  With  doctrinal  instruction  I  connected  attention  to  practical  godli- 
ness, and  constantly  inculcated  the  necessity  of  their  paying  regard,  in  the 
first  place,  to  their  own  salvation.    I  showed  them  that  they  must  have  a 


MR.  HALDANE'b   teaching   AT   GENEVA.  429 

right  view  of  God  as  revealed  in  Scripture,  subsisting  in  three  distinct 
persons, — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, — infinite,  eternal, 
unchangeable.  I  drew  their  attention  to  the  character  of  God  as  holy, 
just,  good,  and  merciful, — perfections  which,  in  their  combination,  are  all 
of  them  gloriously  displayed  in  the  Gospel.  I  warned  them  against  the 
loose  and  erroneous  notions  so  generally  entertained  concerning  the  way 
in  which  mercy  is  exercised.  God  is  indeed  'merciful  and  gracious;' 
<He  delighteth  in  mercy;'  but  while  justice  is  an  essential  attribute, 
mercy  is  solely  vouchsafed  as  He  sees  good.  Accordingly,  to  fallen  angels 
God  has  displayed  only  his  justice ;  while  to  fallen  man  He  has  declared 
himself  merciful.  (Psalm  ciii.  17.)  This  mercy,  however,  is  never  exercised 
but  in  strict  conformity  to  justice,  and  mercy  is  only  to  be  found  where 
justice  has  received  full  satisfaction.  Here  we  were  led  to  consider  the 
state  of  fallen  man,  and  his  personal  character  as  a  sinner,  as  well  as  to 
examine  the  holy  law  of  God,  both  in  its  perfect  precepts  and  awful 
sanctions,  and  to  see  that  it  is  only  in  Christ  we  can  be  redeemed 
from  its  curse  and  eternal  condemnation,  or  bom  again,  in  order  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  blessings  of  His  redemption.  In  introducing  and  dwelling 
on  these  subjects,  we  followed  the  course  traced  out  in  the  Epistle." 

Having  exhibited  the  ruined  state  of  man,  and  proved  that  no 
human  suffering,  nor  the  sufferings  of  all  creatures,  could  "  finish 
transgression/'  or  "  make  an  end  of  sin/'  Mr.  Haldane  showed 
that  Christ  fulfilled  the  law,  both  in  its  precept  and  its  penalty. 
"None  but  He  who  suffered  on  the  cross  could  say,  'It  is 
finished.'  In  one  word,  the  righteousness  provided  for  man^ 
which  will  place  those  invested  vrith  it  nearest  the  throne,  and 
first  in  the  song  of  praise,  is  the  riohteousness  of  God.'' 

With  reference  to  this  righteousness,  which  is  provided  solely 
by  grace,  and  received  solely  by  faith,  Mr.  Haldane  quotes  the 
following  words  of  Luther :  "  He  who  affirms  the  justification  of 
all  men  who  arc  justified  to  be  perfectly  free  and  gratuitous, 
leaves  no  place  for  works,  merits,  or  preparations  of  any  kind ; 
no  place  for  works,  either  of  condignity  or  congruity ;  and  thus 
at  one  blow  Paul  demolishes  both  the  Pelagians  with  their  com- 
plete merits,  and  our  sophists  (the  Arminians  of  Luther's  day) 
vrith  their  petty  performances." 

The  epitome  of  each  chapter,  as  given  in  the  letter  to  the 
Genevese  Professor,  is  striking  and  comprehensive.  Of  the  ninth 
chapter  he  says:  "The  doctrine  of  God's  sovereignty  is  here 
fully  treated  of,  and  that  very  objection  which  is  daily  made, 


430  THE   80VEREI0NTT    OP   GOD. 

'Why  doth  he  yet  find  fault ?^  is  stated  and  silenced.  Instead 
of  national  election,  the  great  subject  is  national  rejection^  and 
the  personal  election  of  a  small  remnant^  without  which  the 
whole  nation  would  have  perished.  So  void  of  reason  is  the 
objection  usually  made  to  the  doctrine  of  election  as  being  a 
cruel  doctrine.^^ 

Of  the  eleventh  chapter  Mr.  Haldane  says : — 

''  There  was  nothing  brought  under  the  consideration  of  the  students 
which  appeared  to  contribute  so  effectually  to  overthrow  their  false  system 
of  religion,  founded  on  philosophy  and  vain  deceit,  as  the  sublime  view  of 
the  majesty  of  God,  which  is  presented  in  these  concluding  verses  of  this 
part  of  the  Epistle.  '  Of  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  to  Him,  are  all 
things/  Here  God  is  described  as  His  own  last  end  in  everything  that 
He  does.  Judging  of  God  as  such  an  one  as  themselves,  they  were  at  first 
startled  at  the  idea  that  He  must  love  himself  supremely,  infinitely  more 
than  the  whole  universe,  and  consequently  must  prefer  His  own  glory  to 
everything  besides.  But  when  they  were  reminded  that  God,  in  reality, 
is  infinitely  more  amiable  and  more  valuable  than  the  whole  creation,  and 
that  consequently  if  He  views  things  as  they  really  are.  He  must  regard 
himself  as  infinitely  worthy  of  being  most  valued  and  loved,  they  said  that 
thb  truth  was  incontrovertible.  Their  attention  was  at  the  same  time 
turned  to  numerous  passages  of  Scripture,  which  assert  that  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  glory  of  God  is  the  great  end  of  creation ;  that  He  has 
himself  chiefly  in  view  in  all  His  works  and  dispensations ;  and  that  it  is 
a  purpose  in  which  He  requires  that  all  His  intelligent  creatures  should 
acquiesce,  and  seek  to  promote  as  their  first  and  paramount  duty." 

The  charge  of  undervaluing  reason  and  human  intellect  is  met 
with  equal  force  and  precision,  and  the  refutation  is  masterly.  In 
winding  up  this  part  of  the  argument,  he  turns  upon  the  Pro- 
fessor, and  with  his  usual  logical  skill  involves  M.  Cheneviere  in 
the  entanglement  of  self-refutation.  He  exposes  the  folly  of  the 
Arian  scheme,  in  professing  to  believe  that  a  creature  was  in  the 
beginning  with  God  and  was  God,  that  without  him  nothing  was 
made  that  was  made,  and  consequently  that  he  made  himself. 

"  I  did  not,"  he  adds,  '<  instruct  them  to  acknowledge  the  Bible  to  be  a 
revelation  from  God,  and  at  the  same  time  to  consider  themselves  at  liberty 
to  sit  in  judgment  on  its  contents.  But  I  showed  them  the  folly  and 
daring  impiety  of  summoning  their  Creator  to  the  bar  of  their  reason,  and 
of  receiving  or  rejecting  the  different  parts  of  His  Word,  according  to  its 
proved  decisions.    I  taught  them  that  being  convinced  that  *  all  Scripture 


MYSTERIES   OF   REVELATION.  431 

is  given  by  inspiration  of  God/  (2  Tim.  iii.  16,)  they  ought  to  search  it 
with  diligence,  to  study  it  with  prayer,  that  God  would  open  their  eyes  to 
behold  the  wondrous  things  which  it  contains,  and  to  use  them  as  rules  of 
obedience,  and  as  motives  and  encouragements  in  the  exercise  of  it;  and 
in  things  evidently  mysterious,  to  bow  in  humble  submission  to  the  Divine 
teaching,  and  to  receive  with  adoring  faith  and  love  what  they  could  not 
comprehend.  In  one  word,  I  reminded  them  of  the  declaration  of  the 
apostle,  which  it  would  be  well  for  you  to  ponder :  *  The  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds ;  casting  down  rea$aning$,  and  every  high  thing  that  exalteth 
itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  bringing  into  captivity  every 
thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.'   (2  Cor.  x.  4.'') 

Having  thus  informed  the  Professor  of  the  doctrine  which  he 
taught^  Mr.  Haldane^  referring  to  the  charge  of  having  occupied 
the  minds  of  the  students  "with  the  mysterious  points''  of 
Christianity^  thus  proceeds : — 

"  Turning  the  attention  of  the  ministers  and  students  in  the  above 
manner  to  this  instructive  part  of  the  Word  of  God,  I  occupied  their 
minds,  as  you  assert,  with  'the  mysterious  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
religion.'  I  did  this  in  the  full  conviction  that  they  are  conducive,  in  the 
highest  degree,  to  the  interests  of  holiness,  and  that  in  no  respect  do  they 
interfere  with  the  responsibility  of  man.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  Divine 
revelation,  rather  than  its  precepts,  which  furnishes  the  chief  means  of 
advancing  holiness.  Love  to  God  is  not  so  much  excited  by  the  precept, 
<  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,'  as  by  the  discoveries  of  the  excel- 
lences of  His  character,  and  of  the  abundance  of  His  grace. 

**  When  the  apostle  Paul  had,  in  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  this  Epistle, 
dwelt  at  such  length  on  the  glorious  and  mysterious  doctrines  of  Divine 
revelation,  he  looked  back  on  the  whole  with  mingled  astonishment  and 
delight  Under  the  impression  of  these  feelings,  he  exclaims,  '  O  the 
depth,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God,  how  unsearchable  are 
his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  finding  out'  Far  from  judging  as  you 
do,  that  Christians  have  nothing  to  do  with  *  the  mysteries,'  he  delighted 
to  expatiate  on  them ;  he  designates  them  <  the  mercies  of  God ;'  and  all 
his  exhortations  to  practical  duty  are  constantly  founded  on  them.  The 
distinguishing  character  which  he  assumes  to  himself  and  his  fellow- 
labourers,  is  that  of  *  ministers  of  Christ f  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God:    (1  Cor.  iv.  1.) " 

Another  charge  advanced  by  M.  Cheneviere  was^  that  Mr. 
Haldane  had  inculcated  them  with  his  own  exclusive^  intolerant 
spirit.     On  this  point  he  replies : — 


432         CHARGE   OF   BIGOTRY    AND   INTOLSRANCE. 

"  I  shall  deal  with  you  as  firankly  as  I  have  done  in  regard  to  the 
mysterious  doctrines  of  religion.  On  the  subject  of  what  you  caU  aa 
€xcluiive  spirit,  I  hold  a  very  decided  opinion.  While  errors  in  religion 
are  endless,  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  but  one  exduaiye  syatem  of 
Divine  truth,  but  one  foundation  which  God  has  laid  in  Zion,  but  one 
name  under  heaven  given  among  men  by  which  we  can  be  saved, — ^the 
name  of  Jesus,  the  great  Mediator.  Hence  a  mistake  concerning  hit 
person  as  God  and  man  will,  if  persisted  in,  prove  fatal.  This  I  inculcated 
on  the  students'  to  the  utmost  of  my  power.  But  I  am  also  aware  that  the 
apostle  Paul,  in  the  very  place  where  he  affirms  that  other  foundation 
can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  has  also  declared  that  on  this  foundation 
different  materials  may  be  built,  so  that  many  errors  may  exist  in  the 
mind  of  one  who  holds  the  fundamental  saving  truth.  You  will  accord- 
ingly  find  this  sentiment  fully  expressed  in  my  (French)  Commentary, 
vol.  i.,  p.  18,  where  it  is  denied  that  Arians  and  Trinitarians  can  both  of 
them  be  Christians. 

"  Besides  an  exclusive  spirit,  you  impute  to  me  an  intolerant  tpirit.  As 
to  toleration  respecting  differences  of  opinion  among  Christians  in  articles 
not  fundamental,  I  taught  a  system  the  very  opposite  to  intolerant.  To 
this  I  was  directly  led  by  the  consideration  of  the  fourteenth  and  part  of 
the  fifteenth  chapters  of  the  Romans.  You  will  find  a  long  article  in  my 
Commentary,  which  carries  forbearance  towards  all  Christians,  as  far  as 
the  Christian  character  can  be  discerned.  The  whole  of  that  discussion  is 
summed  up  in  the  following  rules: — 1.  To  do  nothing  to  preserve  com- 
munion with  our  brethren  which  would  mar  conmiunion  with  God.  2.  To 
maintain  communion  with  our  brethren  as  far  as  we  can  do  it  without 
marring  communion  with  God." 

These  sentiments  indicate  what  were^  and  continued  with 
increasing  force  to  be,  Mr.  Haldane's  opinions  as  to  the  only 
legitimate  terms  of  Christian  communion.  With  reference  to 
the  charge  of  trampling  on  good  works^  he  again  appeals  to  his 
exposition  of  the  twelfth  chapter,  in  which  those  who  are 
addressed  arc  besought,  ^^by  the  mercies  of  God/'  to  present 
themselves  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  to  God.  He 
then  proceeds : — 

"  A  most  beautiful  delineation  of  Christian  duty  follows.  Humility,  that 
distinguished  grace,  takes  the  lead  here,  as  in  the  Lord's  sermon  on  the 
mount  'i'hen  follow  exhortations  to  diligence  in  the  employment  of 
diversified  talents,— to  love,  fervency  of  spirit,  joyful  hope  of  eternal  life, 
patience,  prayer ;  and  the  whole  is  summed  up  in  an  earnest  recommenda- 
tion of  particular  duties  to  brethren,  to  friends,  to  enemies.    Produce  to 


SABBATH    DESECRATION.  433 

me,  if  you  can,  anything  in  the  writings  of  all  Pagan  antiquity  that  is 
comparable,  in  the  most  distant  degree,  to  this  portion  of  the  Word  of 
God,  either  in  the  practice  which  it  enjoins,  or  the  motives  which  it 
suggests  to  enforce  that  practice." 

Obedience  to  civil  government  was  enforced  in  expounding 
the  thirteenth  chapter.  In  regard  to  civil  liberty,  he  held  it  to  be 
a  great  blessing,  so  far  as  it  was  the  companion  and  support  of 
religion,  without  which  he  was  wont  to  speak  of  it  as  little 
better  than  a  dangerous  plaything.  In  connexion  with  the 
fourteenth  chapter,  he  took  occasion  to  prove  the  obUgation  of 
the  Lord'S'day.  On  the  awful  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  at 
Geneva,  he  pointedly  remarks, — "  A  desecration  countenanced 
by  pastors,  who,  instead  of  spending  the  evening  of  the  day  in 
retirement,  were  not  afraid  to  pass  the  time  at  balls,  in  soirees, 
or  frivolous  amusements,  and  at  cards.  It  could  not,''  he  said, 
"  be  added,  that  family  worship  was  thus  precluded,  for  family 
worship  on  any  day  was  a  thing  then  imknown,  both  amongst 
pastors  and  people  of  Geneva.'' 

If  the  limits  of  these  Memoirs  had  permitted  the  insertion  of 

larger  extracts  from  the  letter  to  M.  Cheneviere,  they  would 

have   furnished  a  complete   epitome   of  most   of  the  leading 

doctrines  of  the  Gospel,   expressed  in  forcible  language,  and 

placed  in  a  striking  light.     Even  these  detached  notices  might 

appear  tedious,  were  it  not  important  to  exhibit  in  his  own 

words  the  doctrinal  views  of  Robert  Haldane,  and  the  method  of 

his  successful  teaching.     His  sentiments  were,  with  scarcely  a 

shade  of  difference,  the  same  which  for  more  than  fifty  years 

were  held  and  taught  by  his  brother.     With  reference  to  good 

works,  there  is  an  important  remark  which  ought  not  to  be 

overlooked.    Mr.  Haldane,  having  disproved  the  accusation,  and 

asked  the  Professor  where  was  his  warrant  for  the  charge  of 

warring  against  good  works,  thus  proceeds : — 

"  The  whole  of  my  writings  speak  a  language  directly  the  reverse. 
The  Scriptures  declare  that  men  are  not  chosen  (Rom.  xi.  6),  are  not 
justified  (Rom.  iv.  2,  6),  are  not  saved  (Ephes.  ii.  9),  by  their  works ; 
that  they  are  not  saved  according  to  their  works  (2  Tim.  L  9),  but  they 
uniformly  declare  that  men  shall  be  judged  according  to  their  works."— 
P.  68. 

F   F 


434  IMPORTANCE   OF    GOOD   WORKS. 

But  as  a  striking  instance  that  good  worlu  did  flow  from  the 
reception  of  the  doctrines  he  taught  at  Geneva,  he  says :  "  1\ 
pleased  the  Lord,  in  his  infinite  goodness,  to  bless  his  own 
Word  to  the  conversion  of  a  goodly  number  of  young  men,  who 
are  now  preaching  the  Gospel  in  di£ferent  parts  of  the  Ck>ntinent 
where  the  French  language  is  spoken.  On  this  subject  I  han 
t  received  from   several  of  them  the  most  pleasing   accounts, 

accompanied  with  every  expression  of  gratitude  for  having  had 
their  minds  thus  directed  to  the  words  of  eternal  life.  I  maj 
mention  one,  as  his  spirit  is  returned  to  Him  that  gave  it, 
who  is  now,  I  trust,  before  the  throne,  beholding  Him,  whom 
having  not  seen  he  loved ;  in  whom,  although  he  saw  Him  not^ 
yet  believing,  he  rejoiced  with  joy  unspeakable,  and  full  d 
glory.  I  have  a  letter  from  M.  Charles  Rieu,  late  Pastor  d 
Frederica,  in  Denmark,  dated  July  7th,  1819.'^ 
Of  that  letter  the  following  are  only  extracts : — 


\ 


"  Sib,  and  much  honoured  Fatheb  in  Jesus  Christ, —  .  .  . 
I  have  at  all  times  deeply  engraven  in  my  heart  the  instructions  which  the 
Lord  vouchsafed  to  me  the  grace  to  receive  from  you,  Sir,  and  which 
opened  my  eyes  to  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  OospeL  Now  that 
I  am  called  by  a  benediction,  for  which  I  cannot  enough  praise  the  Lord, 
to  teach  them,  as  well  as  to  feed  on  them  continually  myself,  I  feel  every 
day  more  and  more  the  incalculable  importance  and  the  absolute  necesaity 
of  founding  upon  these  truths  all  other  instructions  and  exhortatiooB,  if 
we  wish  that  they  should  penetrate  into  the  heart.     .    .    . 

"  To  lead  a  parish  of  labouring  people  to  Christ  is  the  work  that  the 
Lord  has  confided  to  me  at  this  time.  Not  having  heard  the  truth 
preached  to  them  for  many  years,  I  found  them  in  that  state  of  luke- 
warmness  and  alienation  which  naturally  follows  the  neglect  of  the 
Gospel.  ...  I  seek  to  dispense  to  them  the  mystery  of  godliness 
with  the  greatest  fidelity  possible. 

"  K  your  engagements  permit  you  to  send  me  a  word  of  friendship, 
will  you  impart  to  me  all  the  counsels,  exhortations,  and  directions,  that 
you  believe  proper  to  fortify  me  in  faith  and  piety  in  Jesus  Christ  In 
my  situation,  insulated  from  all  my  brethren,  I  have  greater  need  than 
others  to  be  roused  by  salutary  advices.  I  desire,  above  all,  to  make 
rapid  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  since  these  are 
our  only  powerful  arms,  to  convince,  to  overturn,  and  to  build  up.  Fol- 
lowing your  counsel,  I  have  resumed  the  reading  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  I  have  there  found  what  I  did  not  before  know  was  there,  when  X 


LETTER   OF   M.  CHARLES    RIEU.  435 

was  less  Instructed  in  Divine  truth,  and  when,  in  many  respects,  the  veil 
remained  upon  my  eyes,  that  Christ  is  everywhere  in  it,  from  one  end  of 
it  to  the  other. 

**  All  render  testimony  to  Him.  The  prophecies,  in  particular,  were 
never  presented  to  me  with  so  much  grandeur  and  so  much  beauty. 
Oh !  how  admirable  is  this !  What  perfection !  what  agreement !  How 
is  this  work  raised  above  all  the  impious  attacks  of  men !    .    .     . 

**  I  recommend  myself  always  to  the  continuance  of  your  kind  regards 
and  to  your  prayers.  It  is  with  a  very  lively  sentiment  of  gratitude  that 
I  shall  ever  remain.  Sir,  and  much  honoured  father  in  Jesus  Christ, 

*'  Your  very  affectionate  and  devoted  servant, 

"  C.  RiEU.*' 

Mr.  Haldane^  after  noticing  the  way  in  which  M.  Rieu 
expressed  himself  respecting  the  mysterious  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion,  asks  M.  Cheneviere, — 

"  Will  you  affirm  that  he  neglected  good  works  ?  Read  the 
account  of  his  faithful  and  laborious  discharge  of  the  trust 
committed  to  him,  by  which  he  made  '  full  proof  of  his  ministry/ 
and  of  his  happy  departure  from  this  world.  In  his  death  he 
has  furnished  an  example  of  the  triumph  of  faith,  which  nothing 
in  modem  times  can  be  found  to  exceed.  A  young  man  in  the 
vigour  of  life,  in  the  very  midst  of  his  usefulness,  in  the  service 
of  his  beloved  Master,  when  his  last  iUness  commences,  can 
with  difficulty  bring  himself  to  believe  that  so  great  a  grace 
should  be  vouchsafed  to  him,  when  he  had  but  just  entered 
on  his  work,  that  the  Lord  should  remove  him,  and  call  him 
away  by  death.^' 

M.  Rieu  closed  his  short  but  brilliant  career  within  two  years 
from  the  date  of  the  above  letter.  He  was  seized  with  an 
epidemic  fever,  and  addressed  a  solemn  charge  to  his  parishioners, 
telling  them  that  the  vaulted  roof  of  their  church  would  bear 
witness  that  he  had  preached  to  them  Jesus  Christ,  and  declaring 
to  them  the  counsel  of  God,  although  with  too  much  weakness 
and  fear  of  men,  assuring  them  that  even  to  his  latest  breath  he 
would  pray  for  them,  and  calling  down  on  them  the  blessings  of 
the  Almighty.  His  Journal,  which  he  kept  almost  to  the  moment 
when  he  became  delirious,  was  intended  for  his  family,  and  indi- 
cates what  he  calls  the  "  unutterable  peace  and  joy  ^'  of  his  soul. 

F  F  2 


486  DEATH    OF   M.  CHARLES    RIEU. 

"  I  know,"  he  says,  **  in  whom  I  have  believed.    I  advance,  with  a  }€j 
not  to  be  described,  into  the  dark  valley,  for  I  advance  towards  Jeena, 
towards  my  God,  towards  Christ  who  has  conquered  for  us.     All  his 
promises  converge  in  one  point  to  overflow  my  soul  with  a  joy  it  never 
felt  before.    No,  he  has  not  deceived  us.    Happy  those  who  have  believed 
without  having  seen.    I  go  to  see  him  as  he  is.     I  see  him  already. 
I  feel  his  hand  supporting  every  part  of  my  soul ;  in  proportion  as  this 
clay  falls,  the  inward  man  is  renewed.    I  go  to  be  changed  into  his 
image,  to  be  like  unto  him.    There,  where  there  is  no  mourning!     How 
could  I  wish  to  make  this  joy  pass  into  your  souls !    But  it  is  there  where 
you  will  enjoy  it,  and  it  is  he  who  will  now  console  you ;  for  I  am  not 
separated  from  you ;  the  moment  when  I  fall  asleep  here,  I  see  with  you 
Christ  coming  in  the  clouds.     May  you  all  sleep  in  Him !    .    .    .    Resur- 
rection and  life — Eternity — Eternity  with  Jesus.** 

But  whilst  contemplating  the  departure  of  Charles  Rieu^  as 
he  appeared  to  ascend  in  a  blaze  of  glory  to  the  Master  whom 
he  loved;  we  must  not  forget  the  warfare  at  Geneva^  in  which  he 
bore  his  part  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1817.  Day  by  day, 
without  intermission^  for  many  months  did  Mr.  Haldane,  in 
"his  own  hired  house'^  on  the  St.  Antoine,  receive  all  who 
chose  to  come  to  him^  and.  converse  about  the  things  that 
belonged  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  Discussion  respecting  the 
Gospel  became  frequent^  but  there  was  no  public  coUision  with 
the  pastors  or  professors.  He  heard  their  sermons  levelled 
against  himself,  or  received  the  report  of  them  from  others,  and 
so  took  occasion^  with  as  little  of  personaUty  as  was  possible,  to 
expose  their  ignorance^  rebuke  their  errors,  and  refute  their 
sophistry.  "  As  in  the  presence  of  God/^  he  says,  "  I  spoke 
and  acted,  resolving  to  know  no  man  after  the  flesh,  and  to  give 
place  to  no  one  by  subjection,  no,  not  for  an  hour.  These 
duties  appear  to  me  not  to  be  peculiar  to  prophets  and  apostles, 
but  in  such  circumstances  to  be  incumbent  upon  all  who  know 
the  Lord,  and  seek  to  serve  him  with  such  talents  as  He  has 
committed  to  them.  Accordingly  I  laboured  to  introduce  the 
knowledge  of  salvation  among  that  benighted  people.'^ 

But  the  flame  was  not  long  destined  to  smoulder  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Venerable  Company.  It  suddenly  burst  out 
with  violence  against  a  young  minister.  Regent  in  the  College 
of  (Geneva,  whose  genius  and  accompUshments  had  promised  to 


DR.  malan's  conversion.  437 

conduct  him  both  to  emolument  and  renown.  It  was  to  Caesar 
Malan  that  the  grace  and  the  glory  were  given  to  be  the  first  to 
raise  from  the  ground  the  tarnished  banner  of  the  Church  of 
Geneva,  and  from  the  pulpit  of  Calvin  boldly  to  proclaim, 
without  reserve  and  without  compromise,  that  Gospel  whose 
echoes  scarcely  lingered  within  his  temple.  He,  too,  althou^ 
not  one  of  the  Soci(t6  des  Amis,  was  amongst  those  who,  before 
the  coming  of  Mr.  Haldane,  had  been  roused  from  a  state  of 
death  to  some  sense  of  spiritual  destitution.  But  to  use  his 
own  words,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth, — 

**  At  the  time  I  was  awakened  to  life  everlasting,  I  was  still  in 
darkness  and  great  feebleness  in  almost  all  points,  and  I  know  how 
useful,  how  efikacious,  under  God's  blessing,  to  my  mind,  to  my  soul,  to 
my  humbled  heart,  were  the  teaching  and  fatherly  g^dance  of  Mr.  Hal- 
dane, whom,  in  the  bonds  of  love,  I  honour  as  a  father  sent  to  me  by 
God,  and  who,  before  he  left  Geneva,  had  seen,  not  only  in  myself  but  in 
numerous  other  instances,  that  the  word  of  truth,  and  not  '  tracts  or 
addresses,'  had  been  blessed— yes.  Sir,  wonderfully  blessed  from  above — 
ibr  the  present  and  the  eternal  happiness  of  many  souls.  The  glory  be 
to  the  Lord,  but  the  joy  to  that  servant  of  Jesus  and  his  spiritual  children 
and  brethren  in  our  precious  faith." 

M.  Malan  had  been  induced  to  visit  Mr.  Haldane  at  the 
instance  of  M.  Gaussen.  Being  himself  a  minister,  he  could 
not  with  propriety  attend  at  the  meetings  appropriated  to  the 
students,  and  he  was  somewhat  prejudiced  against  what  he 
heard  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrines  inculcated.  But  after  spend- 
ing an  evening  with  the  missionary  visitor,  at  his  apartments  in 
the  hotel  called  La  Balance,  he  went  away  more  favourably 
impressed.  His  satisfaction  was  increased  by  an  incident  which 
occurred  on  the  evening  of  the  31st  of  December,  1816. 
M.  Malan  was  then  the  manager  of  a  charitable  Society,  in 
which  he  was  deeply  interested,  and  which  was  much  in  need  of 
support  Its  claims  had  been  mentioned  to  Mr.  Haldane,  and 
when  he  accompanied  M.  Malan  to  the  door  of  his  apartments, 
and  took  leave  of  his  guest,  without  solicitation  he  placed  in  his 
friend's  hand  some  gold  pieces  as  a  contribution  to  the  charity. 
As  soon  as  the  door  was  closed,  M.  Malan,  by  the  light  of  the 
nearest  lamp  on  the  staircase^  counted  the  twelve  Napoleons  he 


438  DR.  malan's  own  narrative. 

had  received^  and  found  tliat  they  amounted  to  the  very  som, 
240  francs^  which  was  next  day  required  to  pay  the  baker's  bill^ 
and  the  want  of  which  was^  on  that  very  evenings  a  source  of 
depressing  anxiety.  This  interposition  of  Providence  contri- 
buted^ as  might  be  expected^  to  increase  M.  Malan's  interest  in 
the  remarkable  stranger^  and  from  that  night  his  visits  were 
repeated^  his  inquiries  became  more  searching^  and  their  con- 
versations more  earnest.  The  residt  is  told  in  the  words  abready 
quoted^  and  was  previously  announced  by  Dr.  Malan  in  one 
of  those  delightful  tracts  which^  published  in  the  form  ci  a 
dialogue^  present  the  truth  with  a  vivacity  and  point  so  well 
adapted  to  the  taste  of  the  French.  In  his  ^^  Conventicule  de 
RoUe/'  written  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue^  in  answer  to  the 
question,  "Were  you  then  (in  1816)  entirely  converted?''  he 
answers,  in  the  character  of  a  Genevese  minister, — 

"  The  Genevese  minister, — No ;  not  yet.  I  had  been  in  error.  I  had 
then  become,  as  far  as  I  remember,  orthodox,  but  my  soul  had  not  yet 
been  awakened.  I  had  not  seized  upon  my  salvation,  such  as  it  is  in  our 
Saviour. 

"  Third  inquirer, — And  who  was  it  that  led  you  to  peace  ? 

**  The  Genevese  minister, — It  was  the  honoured  Robert  Haldane, 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  This  man,  grave,  and 
profoundly  skilled  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  came  to  pass 
some  months  at  Geneva  at  the  same  time  that  the  friends  of  whom  I 
have  just  spoken  were  there.  I  saw  him  at  the  house  of  one  of  them, 
and  I  paid  him  the  first  visit,  for  he  was  a  retiring  man,  and  unostenta- 
tious, who  neither  sought  to  make  himself  known  or  listened  to.  You 
cannot  form  too  high  {belle)  an  idea  of  the  wonderful  sweetness,  the  staid 
prudence,  which  accompanied  all  the  words  and  actions  of  this  venerated 
man.  His  countenance  was  peaceful  and  serene.  There  was,  in  his 
expression,  a  charity  so  profound,  that  it  was  impossible,  in  his  presence, 
to  condemn  or  judge  harshly  of  any  one.  Never  did  he  allow  me  to 
do  so.  I  was  young  and  animated  by  first  zeal,  which  is  almost  alwa3rB 
imprudent  and  bitter.  I  spoke,  with  some  warmth,  of  persons  opposed  to 
the  Gospel.  *  Leave  persons,  my  friend,'  said  my  father  in  the  faith, 
*  they  are  all  under  God's  judgment,  and  in  no  way  under  your's.  Speak 
to  me  only  of  their  errors  in  order  to  avoid  them,  both  on  your  own 
account  and  that  of  others.'  How  many  times  have  I  seen  him  moved 
with  sorrow  at  the  sight  of  the  enmity  which  already  declared  itself 
against  the  Word  of  God.  He  said  to  me,  as  had  also  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Mason,  of  New  York, — '  Oh !  if  it  was  necessary  to  give  my  blood  to 


DR.  malan's  own  narrative.  '  439 

bring  over  those  who  raise  themselves  against  the  Gospel,  I  would  shed 
it.'  But,  added  he,  '  It  is  not  the  blood  of  man  which  is  necessary,  it  is 
that  of  God,  shed  upon  the  cross.* 

"  The  first — By  what  method  did  he  t«ach  you  the  truth  ?  how  did  he 
make  you  receive  it  ? 

"  The  Genevese  minister, — ^You  know,  dear  brother,  that  it  was  the 
Spirit  of  God  who  implanted  it  in  my  heart;  but  it  was  thus  that  the 
wise  Haldane  taught  me.  In  general  he  waited  till  I  put  a  question  to 
him,  and  I  only  went  to  his  house  to  hear  his  answers.  He  often  made 
me  repeat  the  question,  in  order  to  assure  himself  that  he  had  entirely 
understood  me.  '  What  do  you  think  on  that  subject?*  he  would  say  to 
me.  I  gave  him  my  opinion.  Then  he  would  ask  me  to  support  it  by 
Scripture.  It  was  thus  that  he  convinced  me  of  ignorance  or  weakness. 
And  when  he  saw  me  perplexed  by  my  want  of  acquaintance  with  the 
Bible,  he  would  begin  to  establish  the  truth  in  question  by  passages 
so  clear,  so  explicit,  that  it  was  impossible  but  that  I  should  yield  to  the 
evidence.  If  one  of  these  passages  did  not  appear  to  me  conclusive,  or  if 
I  gave  it  a  false  interpretation,  he  would  produce  immediately  four  or  five 
others  which  supported  or  explained  the  other,  and  put  the  true  sense 
beyond  a  doubt.  In  all  this  discussion  he  would  only  say  a  few  words. 
It  was  his  index  which  spake ;  for,  exactly  as  his  Bible,  literally  worn  out 
from  having  been  read  and  re-read,  opened  of  itself  here  or  there,  his 
finger  rested  upon  the  passage,  and,  while  I  read  it,  his  piercing  eye  looked 
me  through,  as  if  he  wished  to  discern  the  impression  which  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit  made  upon  my  soul. 

'*  The  third, — But  was  he  not  a  Separatist,  as  is  said  ? 

'<  The  Genevese  minister. — ^Never  did  he  produce  a  single  opinion  which 
could  have  made  me  suppose  so.  He  manifested,  and  with  justice,  a 
great  horror  of  heresy,  but  I  never  saw  in  him  anything  which  betokened 
narrow  or  particular  ideas.  Moreover,  we  do  not  meet  with  such  in  the 
two  works  which  we  have  of  his, — the  one  a  treatise  upon  the  *  Evidences 
of  the  Divine  Authority  of  Christianity,'  the  other,  at  which  he  laboured 
while  at  Geneva,  a  '  Commentary  upon  the  Epistle  to  the  Homans.*  The 
last  work  is  an  admirable  course  of  the  purest  theology.  One  finds  there, 
united  with  the  candour  of  a  soul  devoted  to  Jesus,  all  the  depth  of  the 
science  of  salvation,  and  the  judgment,  the  common  sense,  and  exquisite 
tact  of  a  veteran,  prudent  and  accustomed  to  the  wiles  of  the  human 
heart  and  to  the  lies  in  which  it  envelops  itself.  I  invite  you  strongly, 
my  friends,  to  make  a  serious  study  of  this  commentary.  I  consider  that 
every  minister  who  shall  read  il  before  God,  and  verify,  by  the  Bible,  all 
the  quotations  which  it  contains,  will  have  made  the  most  ample  provision 
of  knowledge  and  of  strength  against  the  errors  of  our'  day, — against  that 
religion  of  words  and  beautifid  phrases  with  which  so  many  people  amuse 
themselves  or  nourish  others." 


440  DR.  malan's  sermon  before  the  coksistort. 

In  the  Conventicle  of  Rolle  Dr.  Malan  distingnishea  between 
his  spiritual  state^  as  convinced  of  orthodoxy^  and  the  awakening 
of  his  soul.  Before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Haldane^  he  had  written^ 
and^  as  it  appears^  actually  preached  a  sermon  that  was  doc- 
trinally  true^  without  exciting  much  attention;  and  his  heart 
had  been  warmed  by  the  exhortations  of  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Mason,  of  New  York,  who  was,  for  a  short  period,  at  Geneva  at 
the  same  time  as  Mr.  Haldane,  along  with  a  young  American 
minister,  the  late  Rev.  Mathias  Bruen.  But  whether  it  was 
that  Dr.  Malan^s  change  of  doctrine  was  not  perceived  by  the 
audience  whom  he  addressed,  or  that  the  coldness  of  his  manner 
betrayed  the  truth  that  his  soul  was  not  yet  fully  awakened, 
his  orthodox  sentiments  glided  over  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
without  disturbing  the  stillness  of  spiritual  death,  or  appearing 
to  awaken  irritation.  But  when  he  was  indeed  aroused^  and 
the  same  sentiments  came  to  be  uttered,  before  the  Arian  and 
Socinian  company,  by  lips  touched  with  evangehc  fire,  from 
a  heart  burning  with  love  to  Christ,  all  the  enmity  of  the 
natural  man  rose  up  in  arms  against  the  faithful  witness  for  a 
dishonoured  Saviour.  His  eloquent  words  dropped  on  the 
leaden  slumbers  of  his  audience,  like  bolts  of  fire  shot  from 
heaven.  Pastors,  professors,  syndics,  and  private  citizens,  were 
cut  to  the  heart,  and  almost  gnashed  on  him  with  their  teeth^ 
as  Dr.  Malan  descended  fi*om  the  pulpit  and  passed  through 
their  opening  ranks  unrecognized,  an  avoided  and  rejected  man. 
It  was  not  in  his  loving  heart  and  tender  sensibilities  to  dis- 
regard the  insult  and  derision  to  which  he  was  thus  publicly 
exposed.  His  own  relatives  turned  away  from  him  with  mingled 
emotions  of  disappointment,  vexation,  and  shame.  His  attached 
wife,  not  then,  as  now,  a  partaker  of  the  same  glorious  faith^ 
beheld  him  with  a  grieved  and  wounded  heart,  and,  by  her 
looks,  reproached  him  with  the  shipwreck  of  all  the  cherished 
dreams  of  their  yoiing  ambition.  He  walked  in  his  robes  from 
the  ancient  temple  of  Calvin  to  his  own  house,  dejected  and 
overwhelmed,  ^bout  to  hide  himself  in  his  secret  chamber. 
But,  on  entering  his  door,  the  manly  form  and  benignant  coun- 
tenance of  Robert  Haldane  met  his  eye,  and  his  sinking  spirits 


EFFECT   OP   DR.  MALAN's    SERMON.  441 

were  revived^  as  by  a  cordial^  when  his  hand  was  grasped  and 
the  words  were  heard^  '^  Thank  God  I  The  Gospel  has  been 
once  more  preached  in  Geneva  I '' 

Mr.  Haldane  has  himself  left  on  record  the  impression  pro- 
duced by  that  celebrated  sermon^  which  forms  so  memorable  an 
era  in  the  history  of  Geneva.  Addressing  M.  Cheneviere^  he 
says: — 

''  But  this  doctrine  of  salvation,  possessed  of  such  incomparable  energy, 
and,  when  carried  home  to  the  heart  by  Divine  influence,  accompanied 
with  such  signal  effects;  this  doctrine,  which  had  for  so  long  a  period 
been  unknown  in  the  pulpits  of  Geneva,  and  which  formed  such  a  contrast 
to  what  was  then  held  forth  in  its  Arian,  Semi-Axian,  Pelagian,  Arminian, 
insipid  nothingness,  could  not  be  borne  among  you.  When  it  unexpect- 
edly burst  on  you  in  one  of  your  temples,  '  to  the  amazement  of  the 
hearers,'  it  was  like  a  clap  of  thunder.  I  shall  not  soon  forget  the 
astonished,  chagrined,  irritated,  indignant  countenances  of  some  who 
were  present.  Many  seemed  to  say,  as  the  Athenians  did,  when  Paul 
preached  to  them,  *  Thou  bringest  strange  things  to  our  ears.*  But  far 
were  those,  who  *  seemed  to  be  pillars,'  from  adding,  '  We  would  know, 
therefore,  what  these  things  mean,  and  we  will  hear  thee  again  of  this 
matter.'  An  interdict  against  appearing  in  the  pulpit  was  soon  after  laid 
on  the  preacher,  who,  on  account  of  his  perseverance  in  well-doing,  has 
been  since  divested  of  all  his  offices,  and  driven  as  far  as  the  apostate 
Church  of  Geneva  has  been  able  to  pursue  him.  Its  language  to  him, 
from  that  day  to  the  present,  has  been  similar  to  that  directed  to  the 
prophet  of  old, — *  O  thou  seer,  go,  flee  away  into  the  land  of  Judah,  and 
there  eat  bread,  and  prophesy  there :  But  prophesy  not  again  any  more 
at  Beth-el :  for  it  is  the  king's  chapel,  and  it  is  the  king's  court'  (Amos 
vii.  12,  13.)" 

But  Dr.  Malan  was  not  the  only  preacher  who  was  now 
enabled  to  ^^  bring  strange  things "  to  the  ears  of  the  people. 
M.  Gaussen,  who  had  been^  in  some  sense^  the  occasion  of 
inducing  Mr.  Haldane  to  return  the  second  time  to  Geneva^  had 
also  been  strengthened  in  knowledge^  experience^  and  courage. 
He  was^  indeed^  without  the  walls  of  the  city^  but  still  his 
learnings  his  talents^  and  influence^  were  now  all  consecrated  to 
that  glorious  Saviour^  whose  Divine  character  and  Royal  priest- 
hood were  denied  by  the  Company  of  Pastors.  Others  were 
crowding  into  the  ministry  imbued  with  those  doctrines  which 
M.  Cheneviere  so  loudly  denounced.    Two  of  the  students,  M. 


i  442  CONPLICT   AT    GENEVA. 


I 


Henri  Pyt  and  M.  Guers^  had  been  already  ordered  to  send  in  a 
confession  of  their  faith.  With  the  simplicity  of  the  dove  they 
avowed  their  faith^  but,  with  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  they 
clothed  it  in  the  language  of  a  confession,  venerable  from  the 
fact,  that  it  had  been  sealed  with  the  blood  of  some  of  the 
*  noblest  martyrs  of  the  French  Church.     The  professor  declared 

that  such  sentiments  were  enough  to  make  men  "  brigands ;  *' 
and  although  the  youthful  confessors  were  not  at  the  moment 
excommunicated,  yet,  in  a  very  short  time,  they  were  denied 
ordination,  and  compelled  to  preach  the  Gospel  without  its 
bounds.  Happily  there  were  several  who,  like  M.  Frederick 
Monod,  obtained  ordination  in  Fi-ance.  But  the  Word  had 
gone  with  power  to  the  hearts  of  many.  The  great  body  of  the 
pastors  looked  on  with  rage  and  consternation,  whilst  those  who 
in  any  degree  held  the  truth,  seemed  overwhelmed  by  the  oppo- 
sition which  they  had  not  the  courage  to  stem,  and  did  not 
even,  like  Obadiah,  in  the  house  of  Ahab,  secretly  supply  a 
hiding-place  for  the  prophets  of  the  Lord.  Once  ihore  let  us 
hear  Mr.  Haldane : — 

"  Towards  the  end  of  the  session,  and  when  the  time  arrived  that  the 
students  were  to  be  ordained,  it  became  sufficiently  apparent  that  they 
knew  something  else  besides  the  morality  recommended  by  Heathen 
philosophers  and  nominal  Christians. 

"  You  found  they  could  do  more  than  deliver  a  smooth  harangue, 
inculcating  the  observance  of  a  scanty  morality,  accompanied  by  the 
studied  attitude  of  a  comedian,  to  give  it  stage  effect.  They  had  begun 
to  take  him  for  their  model,  whose  speech  and  preaching  were  not  with 
enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
power.  They  could  address  their  hearers  in  a  style  different  from  the 
smooth  language  of  the  Geneva  pulpit,  as  if  all  were  Christians — all  very 
good  sort  of  people,  who  needed  only  to  be  reminded  to  go  on  as  they 
were  doing  in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  or  who,  at  most,  required 
some  little  reformation.  They  could  tell  them  they  were  guilty  sinners, 
lying  in  the  ruins  of  the  fall,  and  as  being  one  with  the  first  Adam, 
involved  in  his  condemnation.  But,  at  the  same  time,  they  could  direct 
them  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  They 
could  declare  to  them,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  hath  eternal  life. 
They  could  point  out  to  them  the  necessity  of  being  bom  again — of  being 
washed  in  that  fountain  which  is  '  opened  to  the  house  of  David  and  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  for  sin  and  for  uncleanness.' " 


CONSTERNATION    OF   THE    ARIAN    PASTORS.        443 

To  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  times^  the  pastors,  who  had 
rejected  ancient  creeds  and  formularies,  resolved  to  put  down 
all  controversy,  and  under  the  pretence  of  charity,  peace, 
concord,  and  a  good  spirit,  to  banish  all  discussions  on  four 
topics,  which  to  them  were  peculiarly  hateful.  The  first  was  on 
the  divinity  of  our  Lord;  the  second,  on  original  sin;  the  thirds 
on  the  operation  of  grace,  or  effectual  calling ;  and  the  fourth, 
on  predestination.  By  a  Reglement,  dated  3d  May,  1817,  these 
articles  of  a  treacherous  peace  were  agreed  upon  by  the  Com- 
pany, and  were  ordered  to  be  signed  by  every  minister  before  he 
should  be  allowed  ^'  to  exercise  the  pastoral  functions,^^  and  by 
every  student  before  he  should  be  ''set  apart  for  the  Gospel 
ministry  in  the  canton  of  Greneva/'  There  was  a  further 
engagement  added,  which  prevented  public  opposition  to  the 
sentiments  of  any  pastor,  and  pledged  the  subscriber  not  to 
expatiate  on  the  topics  contained  in  the  four  articles,  if  they 
should,  by  the  words  of  Scripture,  or  otherwise,  be  led  to 
mention  them.  It  is  instructive  to  remark,  that  M.  Cheneviere, 
whose  ''  fierce  attack  on  spiritual  religion ''  so  shocked  Bishop 
Wilson,  actually  pleaded  for  these  restrictions,  as  a  tribute 
to  what  was  called  a  good  spirit,  as  a  lover  of  peace,  and  as  an 
enemy  to  controversy. 

''  The  homage  of  the  heart,^'  he  exclaims,  "  charity,  the  love 
of  peace — these  are  the  key-stone  of  the  arch  to  the  Christian.*' 
The  words  of  Madame  Roland  on  her  way  to  the  scaffold,  may 
here  be  parodied,  and  what  she  said  of  hberty  might  be  appUed 
to  charity:  ''0  Charity!  what  crimes  have  been  committed  in 
thy  name  I''  In  M.  Cheneviere  and  his  fellow- Socinians,  it  was 
made  the  apology  for  denuding  M.  Malan  of  his  ministerial  and 
academical  offices — for  driving  MM.  Guers,  Pyt,  Gonthier,  Bost, 
Empeytaz,  Porchat,  and  rHuillier,  and  others,  into  secession — 
for  sending  M.  Merle  D'Aubign^  away  from  his  native  city 
to  finish  his  studies  at  Berlin,  whence  he  was  called  to  Brussels 
to  be  the  chaplain  of  the  King,  and  to  acquire  renown  as  ''  The 
light  of  the  Netherlands." 

It  may  well  be  supposed,  that  the  persecution  begun  by  the 
regulations  of  the  3d  May,  1817,  produced  great  excitement. 


444  PERSECUTION    AT   GENEVA. 

M.  Cheneviere  himself  admits  that  they  were  regarded  as  ^^  an 
instrument  of  tyranny/'  whilst  ''the  clergy  of  Geneva  were 
reproached  with  it  as  a  demonstration  of  their  heresy/'  Many 
of  the  young  ministers  were  reduced  to  great  straits  by  the 
destruction  of  their  prospects.  Some  were  at  first  obliged  to 
seek  a  precarious  support  by  teachings  and  others  by  book- 
selling. Their  suflferings  would  have  been  still  greater  had 
it  not  been  for  another  providential  circumstance^  which  will 
next  be  mentioned^  and  in  which  the  finger  of  God  was  again 
visible. 

The  academic  session  was  concluded.  At  Geneva  there  was 
now  a  goodly  number  instructed  in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel^ 
and  able  to  communicate  them  to  others.  The  names  of  Gaussen 
and  Malan  were  of  themselves  a  tower  of  strength^  and  they  still 
for  a  time  clung  to  the  ancient  Churchy  although  by  their  own 
doctrine  protesting  against  its  apostacy.  MM.  Guers^  Pyt^ 
Gonthier^  and  others^  held  reunions  in  the  place  where  the 
young  Reformer  Froment  had  in  ancient  days  opened  a  gratuit- 
ous school^  and  been  the  first  to  re-light  the  lamp  of  pure 
Christianity  in  the  city^  to  which  Calvin  afterwards  imparted  the 
lustre  of  his  name. 

"  Disciplea,"  says  M.  Guers,  "  on  the  Monday  and  Thursday  "  (adding^ 
with  affectionate  recollection,  Joura  Haldane)^  <*they  were  themselves 
teachers  on  the  other  week-days.  Pyt  and  his  friends  expounded  the 
Word  with  unction.  The  joy  of  the  Holy  Spirit  more  and  more  filled 
their  hearts  in  proportion  as  the  plan  of  redemption  was  unrolled  before 
them ;  watered  themselves,  as  well  as  watering  others,  they  grew  in  grace 
and  knowledge  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  their  assemblies  were  more 
and  more  frequented.** 

Mr.  Haldane  considered  his  own  work  accomphshed  at 
Geneva,  and  the  same  impulse  which  had  conducted  him  to 
Geneva  was  about  to  lead  him  to  Montauban.  But  there  were 
several  reasons,  more  or  less  acknowledged,  which  probably 
influenced  his  departure.  Many  years  afterwards,  in  a  letter 
addressed  in  January,  1840,  to  the  ''  Scottish  Guardian,'^  he 
thus  writes : — 

'^  During  the  whole  time  I  was  abroad,  both  at  Geneva  and 
Montauban,  I  confined  myself  exclusively  in  all  my  intercourse 


MR.  HALDANE's    parting   ADVICE.  445 

with  others  to  the  (xospel  itself,  avoiding^  on  all  occasions, 
saying  anything  whatever  of  its  institutions^  or  concerning  dif- 
ferent denominations  of  Christians.  In  my  peculiar  circum- 
stances^ I  considered  this  to  be  my  duty,  and  I  acted  uniformly 
according  to  the  declaration  of  the  apostle,  who  says,  ^Christ 
sent  me  not  to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the  Gospel.' "  But  although 
this  was  the  rule  which  Mr.  Haldane  had  laid  down  for  the 
regulation  of  his  own  conduct — although  he  was  silent  in  regard 
to  all  the  questions  which  had  agitated  and  divided  the  Churches 
in  Scotland,  he  could  not  have  maintained  this  reserve  had 
he  continued  much  longer  at  Geneva.  Into  such  discussions  he 
did  not  wish  to  plunge.  His  object  was  to  replace  the  great 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  in  the  French  Churches, 
without  reference  to  rites  or  ceremonies.  We  shall  cite  once 
more  the  words  of  the  biographer  of  Pyt,  who  seems  to  have 
preserved  the  memory  of  dates  and  days  connected  with  Robert 
Haldane  with  a  pious  care,  which  indicates  something  of  the 
same  feeling  which  led  M.  Gaussen  to  hail  him  as  "  the  second 
father  of  the  Geneva  Church.^' 

'^Mr.  Haldane  took  leave  of  Pyt  and  his  friends  on  the 
20th  June,  1817,  to  present  himself  at  Montauban,  conjuring 
them,  with  adieus  the  most  fraternal,  in  all  things  to  take  the 
Word  of  God  as  their  rule,  and  never  to  apply  that  rule  except 
with  prayer  and  mature  consultations, — recommending  them, 
withal,  to  shun  noise  (iclatjy  not  to  expose  .themselves  to 
needless  persecution,  to  be  modest,  exemplary,  in  all  respects, 
but  also  to  march  forward,  animated  with  a  holy  courage,  and 
fully  assured  of  succour  from  above.  The  dealings  of  the  Lord 
towards  Pyt  and  his  friends  had  something  in  them  that  was 
remarkable  and  paternal.  The  Sodeti  des  Amis,  then  the  Mor- 
avian flock,  then  the  Christian  Methodist,  had  brought  them 
to  the  door  of  the  Sanctuary.  But  Haldane's  was  the  hand  of 
the  Lord  to  open  it  to  them.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who, 
by  their  faith,  their  reverence  for  the  Bible,  and  their  devotion 
to  the  Lord,  have  most  plainly  stamped  upon  their  character 
the  image  of  the  true  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ.^' 

Thus  Robert  Haldane  finished  his  work  at  Geneva.     Of  him^ 


446  ARRIVAL   OF    MR.  HENRY   DRtJMMOND. 

M.  Cheneviere  writes :  "  Scarcely  had  this  champion  left  the 
field,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  another,  not  so  profoundly 
skilful  in  his  art,  but  much  more  impetuous/'  Mr.  Haldane 
was  preparing  for  his  journey,  and  actually  counting  the  money 
sent  to  him  from  the  bankers,  when  a  young  Englishman, 
scarcely  thirty  years  of  age,  was  announced  as  a  visitor.  His 
pleasing  manners  and  aristocratic  bearing,  his  finely-chiselled 
features  and  intellectual  forehead,  bespoke  his  breeding  and 
intelligence,  whilst  in  his  acute  and  penetrating  glance,  wit, 
sarcasm,  and  the  love  of  drollery,  seemed  to  contend  with 
earnestness,  benevolence,  and  an  ever-restless  Athenian  craving 
after  novelty.  The  stranger  introduced  himself  as  a  Scotch 
connexion  of  Mr.  Haldane's,  but  they  had  not  before  met  since 
the  time  when  Mr.  Henry  Drummond,  then  a  little  boy,  Uving 
at  Dunira  with  his  grandfather,  the  first  Lord  Melville,  used  to 
make  his  appearance  after  dinner.  The  interview  was  mutually 
i^reeable,  and  Mr.  Haldane  heard  with  delight  of  the  interest 
with  which  Mr.  Drummond  was  then  inquiring  into  the  deep 
things  of  God,  and  his  eagerness,  at  the  same  time,  to  put  forth 
his  active  and  energetic  eflforts  for  the  support  of  the  (xospel. 
The  occasion  of  Mr.  Drummond^s  arrival  at  Geneva  had  in 
it  also  something  providential.  Early  satiated  with  the  empty 
frivolities  of  the  fashionable  world,  and  pressed  by  the  address 
of  our  Lord  to  the  rich  young  man,  he  had  at  first  broken 
up  his  hunting  establishment,  and  finally  sold  his  magnificent 
house  and  beautiful  estate  of  the  Grange,  in  Hampshire.  His 
plans  of  usefulness  were,  however,  indistinct,  and  he  was  going 
with  Lady  Harriet  to  visit  the  Holy  Land.  As  the  nephew 
of  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  he  had  been  accommodated 
with  a  passage  on  board  the  frigate  of  the  present  gallant 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  Mediterranean  fleet.  Admiral  Deans 
Dundas,  whose  pious  mother,  a  sister  of  the  late  Lord  Amesbury, 
was  a  frequent  hearer  of  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  and  a  member  of 
Dr.  Innes^s  Church,  in  Edinburgh. 

Standing  on  deck  beside  the  Captain,  just  as  they  were  going 
to  dinner,  Mr.  Drummond's  quick  eye  perceived  at  a  distance 
a  ripple  on  the  waters.     He  remarked  it  to  Captain  Dundas^ 


MR.  H.  DRUMMOND    SUCCOURS   THE   PERSECUTED.    447 

when  in  an  instant  orders  were  given  to  take  in  sail^  and  trim 
the  ship.  The  ripple  indicated  the  approach  of  one  of  those 
sudden  storms  for  which  the  Mediterranean  has  been  famed, 
from  the  day  when  the  Apostle  Paul  was  caught  up  in  the 
Euroclydon.  In  this  instance,  it  was  the  means  of  sending  Mr. 
Henry  Drummond  to  Geneva.  The  ship  took  refuge  in  the  port 
of  Genoa  before  nightfall,  and  Lady  Harriet  begged  with  tears 
that  they  might  land.  At  Genoa,  Mr.  Drummond  accidentally 
heard  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  doings,  and  of  the  commotion  at  Geneva. 
His  resolution  was  taken.  He  came  to  Geneva,  and  introduced 
himself  to  Mr.  Haldane  two  days  before  he  left  th^  city.  The 
biographer  of  Henry  Pyt  thus  speaks : —  / 

"  After  him  (Robert  Haldane),  M.  Henri  Drummond  came  to  add 
new  benedictions  to  those  we  already  possessed.  He  hadl  for  the  blessed 
Pyt  a  particular  affection,  which  he  himself  reciprocated.  In  his  con- 
versations M.  Drummond  chiefly  insisted  on  the  mystical  u&ion  of  Christ 
and  the  Church,  and  its  glorious  results.  He  spoke  little  of  sanctifica- . 
tion,  although  his  example  was  sufficient.  He  was  indefatigable  in  his 
zeal  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  Labours,  watchings,  fatigues,  cost 
him  nothing.  His  simplicity,  his  brotherly  goodness,  and  bis  affability 
won  all  hearts.  He  had  not  then  the  peciUiar  opinions  which  he  has 
since  exhibited.*' 

• 

M.  Guers  might  have  added,  that  Mr.  Drummond's  great 
wealth  and  boimdless  liberaUty  made  him  to  the  persecuted 
ministers,  a  wall  of  defence  against  the  bigoted  zeal  of  the  Con- 
sistory. Taking  up  his  abode  at  the  beautiful  hotel  of  SScheron, 
beyond  the  walls  of  the  town,  his  apartments  were  open  to  all 
who  were  interested  in  the  Gospel,  and  chose  to  visit  him.  The 
Company  had  hoped  that,  in  getting  rid  of  Mr.  Haldane,  they 
were  going  to  enjoy  an  easy  victory,  but  the  zeal,  the  energy, 
the  liberality,  the  chivalrous  generosity  of  Mr.  Drummond  filled 
them  with  despair.  They  appointed  a  deputation  to  go  to 
SScheron,  and  remonstrate  with  Mr.  Drummond.  In  a  recent 
letter  of  M.  Gaussen,  he  thus  writes : — 

'*  I  was  the  occasion,  without  intending  of  it,  of  that  visit  to  M.  Drum- 
mond. Your  uncle  was  on  the  point  of  departing,  when,  at  a  sitting  of 
the  Venerable  Company,  they  were  loudly  inveighing  against  him  in 
very  injurious  language.    'Sirs,'  said  I,  <Mr.  Haldane  is  not  only  a 


448  M.  oaussen's  account  op  the  deputation. 

man  profoundly  versed  in  the  Scriptures,  he  is  also  a  gentleman.  Send 
to  him  a  deputation.  State  your  complaints,  and  he  will  reply  to  yoo. 
He  never  speaks  against  you  personally  to  the  students ;  he  only  instructs 
them  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  the  language  which  is  here  tolerated 
against  him  is  beneath  the  dignity  of  this  assembly.'  It  was  this  that 
occasioned  the  deputation  to  go  to  Mr.  Drummond,  who  arrived  the  same 
week  in  which  your  uncle  left,  and  seemed  to  have  been  expressly  sent  to 
replace  him.  The  Consistory  had  intended  M.  Ferriere,  late  pastor  in 
London,  to  be  of  the  deputation,  but,  without  authority,  he  caused  M. 
Cheneviere  to  go  as  his  substitute.  Your  uncle,  during  his  visit,  was 
chiefly  occupied  with  the  students.  His  apartment  was  filled  with  them, 
and  the  lectures  of  the  professors  were  deserted.    Inde  ira,** 

The  deputation  thus  despatched^  consisting  of  MM.  Pict^ 
and  Cheneviere,  found  Mr.  Drummond  in  the  garden  of  the 
hotel  at  SScheron,  in  conversation  with  a  friend.  M.  Cheneviere, 
with  a  manner  more  resembling  that  of  a  dancing-master  than  a 
professor  of  divinity,  pompously  demanded  if  he  were  going  to 
teach  the  same  doctrines  as  Mr.  Haldane,  and  Mr.  Drummond^ 
with  consummate  address,  baffled  the  impertinent  inquirer^  by 
requesting  an  exposition  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  doctrines.  In  the 
sequel,  the  deputation  returned  in  a  rage.  A  violent  letter  of 
remonstrance  was  met  by  a  reply  which  added  fuel  to  the  flame. 
In  a  Genevese  newspaper,  of  the  5th  of  September,  1817,  it  is 
described  as  a  letter  in  which  Mr.  Drummond  dared  to  treat 
the  Venerable  Company  as  heretics  and  blasphemers  of  the  name 
of  Christ.  Mr.  Drummond  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
Council  of  State,  and  after  an  interview,  which  was  intended  to 
intimidate,  and  in  which  he  was  required  to  suppress  his  letter, 
he  removed  his  quarters  from  Secheron  into  the  French  territory 
at  Femey  Voltaire,  where,  at  a  villa,  called  Campagne  Pictet,  in 
sight  of  the  irate  Company  and  their  supporters,  he  remained 
at  a  time  when  his  countenance  and  support  were  of  the  greatest 
consequence  to  the  Christians  suffering  under  their  Arian  per- 
secutors. Mr.  Drummond  published  his  Letter,  addressed  to 
the  Pastors.  "  It  was,"  says  M.  Gaussen,  "  very  well  done,'* 
and  displayed  the  same  brilliant  talent  and  manly  courage  which 
he  has  since  evinced  in  his  exposure  of  Cardinal  Wiseman  and 
the  Jesuits,  qualities  which  only  deepen'  our  regret,  that  they 


MR.  DRUMMOND's    Z£AL.  449 

have  not  always  been  guided  by  equal  stability  of  purpose, 
consistency  of  scriptural  doctrine,  and  right  judgment  touching 
the  things  that  pertain  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  One  of  Mr. 
Drummond^s  first  eflforts  was  to  restore  Martin's  ancient  version 
of  the  Bible^  instead  of  that  which  the  Arian  clergy  had 
corrupted  by  false  translations.  The  Genevese  Consistory  were 
filled  with  alarm,  and  spread  the  report  that  the  new  sect  were 
about  to  publish  a  translation  favourable  to  their  own  peculiar 
notions.  This  misrepresentation  Mr.  Drummond  repelled  in  the 
newspaper  where  it  appeared.  After  intimating  how  easily  he 
could  expose  the  Arianism  of  the  Consistory,  and  prove  that  those 
who  deny  the  Deity  of  our  Lord  are  blasphemers,  he  goes  on  to  say, 
that  the  assertion  that  he  was  about  to  publish  a  new  translation 
of  the  Bible,  was  ^'a  calumnious  intrigue  of  those  who  feared 
that  in  a  Uttle  time  the  pretended  Bible  of  Geneva  would  be 
consigned  to  its  proper  place,  amongst  the  heretical  books.'' 
''I  fear,"  he  adds,  *'all  new  versions,  where  there  have  been 
others  long  received,  and  I  abhor  that  of  the  Arians  of  Geneva 
as  well  as  that  of  the  Socinians  of  England."  ^^  In  proportion 
as  the  Bible  is  known,  the  Church  is  sound,  and  the  people 
moral.  In  proportion  as  the  Bible  is  concealed,  the  Church  is 
corrupt,  and  its  members  perverted." 

If  Robert  Haldane,  after  his  experience  in  Scotland,  shrunk 
from  new  discussions  on  Church  polity  at  Geneva,  the  sanguine 
temperament  of  Henry  Drummond  made  up  for  his  backward- 
ness. He  encouraged  the  rejected  ministers  to  form  themselves 
into  a  Church,  and  seeing  that  M.  Malan  was  not  likely  long  to 
hold  his  place,  he  was  intreated  at  once  and  finally  to  break 
with  the  Arian  Consistory,  and  take  the  oversight  of  the  flock, 
who  were  ready  to  gather  round  him.  At  the  same  time,  the 
oflfer  of  an  annuity,  which  would  have  secured  the  independ- 
ence of  M.  Malan  and  his  wife,  was  oflfered  and  declined. 
The  offer  was  as  creditable  to  the  generosity  of  those  who  made 
it,  as  the  refusal  to  the  disinterested  integrity  of  Dr.  Malan« 
He  assigned  as  the  reason,  that  he  desired  to  be  dependant 
on  none  but  God,  and  to  this  determination  he  has  adhered. 
MM.  Mejanel,  Oonthier,  and  Pyt,  finally  accepted  the  joint 

G  o 


450  MR.  drummond's  zeal. 

office^   '^and  the   Gospel   made  new   converts   firom   week   to 

week.'' 

On  the  21st  of  September,  1817,  just  three  months  after  the 

departure  of  Mr.  Haldane,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered 

for  the  first  time  out  of  the  Arian  Church  of.  Geneva : — 

"  It  was  at  the  hoiwe  of  Mr.  Drummond,**  says  M.  Ouers,  "  and  it  was 
Dr.  Malan  who  officiated.  It  was  a  meeting  of  ten,  of  whom,  at  least, 
seven  bear  distinguished  names.  Besides  the  two  just  mentioned 
may  be  named,  Pyt,  Mejanel,  Gonthier,  Guers,  and  Christopher  Burch- 
hardt,  the  missionary,  who,  in  1818,  died  at  Aleppo,  in  the  bloom  of 
youth,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness.  It  reminded  us,"  says  M. 
Guers,  "  of  another  supper,  that  which,  in  the  year  1536,  another  disciple 
of  Jesus,  M.  Jean  Guerin,  distributed  to  some  pious  souls,  assembled 
in  the  garden  of  Stephen  Dadaz,  at  Pr§  TEveque,  and  which  was  the  first 
communion  of  the  Protestants  of  Geneva." 

About  the  same  time  another  of  Mr.  Haldane's  converts,  the 
excellent  M.  Du  Vivier,  preached  a  sermon  in  the  oratory  of 
Carouge,  in  which  he  asserted  the  divinity  of  our  Lord,  the 
total  corruption  of  human  nature,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  atone* 
ment.  The  discourse  was  denounced  as  "scandalous"  by  the 
Company,  and  to  prevent  a  "similar  disorder,"  they  decided 
that  no  student  should  be  allowed  to  preach,  imless  his  discourse 
had  been  submitted  to  three  professors,  one  of  whom  was  to  be 
the  lynx-eyed  and  violent  M.  Cheneviere. 

Shortly  afterwards  M.  Mejanel  was  banished  as  a  French- 
man, but  M.  Empeytaz,  about  the  same  time,  returned  from 
Germany.  It  would  be  out  of  place  to  pursue  the  history  of 
the  progress  of  the  revival  of  true  Christianity  at  Geneva,  down 
to  the  period  when  the  last  ornament  of  this  once  glorious 
Church  was  removed,  and  M.  Gaussen  being  deposed  in  1831, 
became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Evangelical  School  of  Theology, 
along  with  Merle  D^Aubign^  and  Galland.  Soon  after.  Dr. 
Malan  obtained  a  new  chapel,  although  it  was,  unfortunately, 
without  the  walls,  and  not  favourably  situated  for  a  permanent 
congregation.  The  cost  of  the  building  was  about  850/.,  of 
which  a  considerable  proportion  was  provided  out  of  the  money 
obtained  by  M.  Malan  for  his  writings  and  his  pupils.*     After- 

*  There  ware  those  who  grieved  to  think  that  their  persecution  had  not 


ME.  haldane's  prudence.       451 

wards  the  oratory  was  provided  for  the  Church,  in  connexion 
with  the  Evangelical  School  and  the  Evangelical  Society  of 
Geneva,  an  institution  which  boasts  of  ministers  and  professors, 
whose  abilities  and  faithfulness  it  will  be  difficidt  to  overrate. 
But  these  matters  belong  to  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  not 
to  the  lives  of  individuals.  It  was,  however,  necessary,  to 
prevent  the  repetition  of  mistakes  that  have  been  made,  to  show 
that  Mr.  Haldane^s  career  was  very  diflFerent  from  Mr.  Drum- 
mond^s;  and  that,  whilst  Mr.  Drummond^s  services  in  a  time 
of  need  deserve  to  be  holden  in  perpetual  remembrance,  Mr. 
Haldane^s  mission  was  restricted  to  the  preaching  of  the  (xospel, 
without  reference  to  ecclesiastical  polity  or  rites  and  ceremonies. 

On  this  matter  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  add  the  conclusive 
evidence  of  M.  Gaussen,  who  thus  writes : — "  His  wisdom  at 
Geneva  was  indicated  by  the  sobriety  of  his  language,  and  by 
the  pre-eminence  he  assigned  to  all  that  was  essential.  He 
was  himself  a  Baptist,  but  never  did  I  hear  him  utter  a  word  on 
the  subject.  I  have  been  told  that  our  brother,  M.  Guers,  after 
he  too  had  become  a  Baptist,  wrote  to  him,  '  We  have  baptized 
two  persons,'  and  that  your  uncle  replied,  ^  I  should  have  been 
much  better  pleased  had  you  written  that  you  had  converted  two 
persons.*  *' 

In  speaking  of  the  revival  of  religion  at  Geneva,  a  well-known 

American,  Dr.  Cheever,*  after  describing  the  proceedings  of  Mr. 

Haldane,  thus  writes  : — 

"  This  was  a  most  remarkable  movement  of  Divine  Providence,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  to  be  found  on  record.     What  renders  it  more 


crushed  Dr.  Malan,  under  the  weight  of  poverty,  and  M.  Cheneviere 
maliciously  circulated  the  report,  that  the  gates  of  fortune  had  been 
opened  to  him  by  his  Methodism.  This  report,  notwithstanding  its  origin, 
at  one  time  obtained  belief  amongst  Christian  travellers  passing  through 
Geneva.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  "  M. 
Malan*s  spotless  character,  rare  talents,  distinguished  attainments,  and 
amiable  manners,  were  such  as  to  hold  out  the  promise  of  advancement,  in 
whatever  situation  he  might  be  placed,  and  it  might  be  allowable  to  express 
the  wish,  that  the  report  had  been  as  true  as  it  is  notoriously  the  reverse." 
•  "  Wanderings  of  a  Pilgrim  in  the  Shadow  of  Mont  Blanc.''  By 
George  B.  Cheever,  D.D.    1845. 

G  O  2 


452  DK.  cheevee's  account  op  m.  meble  d'aubigne. 

astonishing,  is  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Haldane,  at  first,  was  obliged  to  converse 
with  these  students  through  an  interpreter,  in  part  at  least,  so  that  he 
could  not  then  have  conveyed  to  them  the  full  fervour  of  his  feelings,  nor 
the  fire  of  the  truth,  as  it  was  burning  in  his  own  soul.  Nevertheless,  these 
singular  labours,  under  circumstances  so  unpromising,  were  so  blessed  by 
the  Divine  Spirit,  that  sixteen  out  of  eighteen  young  men,  who  had 
enjoyed  Mr.  Haldane's  instructions,  are  said,  by  Dr.  Heugh,  to  have 
become  subjects  of  Divine  grace.  And  among  the  students  thus  brought 
beneath  the  power  of  the  Word  of  God,  was  the  future  historian  of  the 

Beformation,  young  Merle  D*Aubign6 At  this  juncture  it  was 

that  D'Aubign§  heard  of  the  visit  of  Mr.  Haldane.  He  heard  of  him  as 
the  English  or  Scotch  gentleman  who  spoke  so  much  about  the  Bihle,  a 
thing  which  seemed  very  strange  to  him  and  the  other  students,  to  whom 
the  Bible  was  a  shut  book.  He  afterwards  met  Mr.  Haldane  at  a  private 
house,  along  with  some  other  friends,  and  heard  him  read  from  an  English 
Bible,  a  chapter  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  concerning  the  natural 
corruption  of  man,  a  doctrine  in  regard  to  which  he  had  never  before 
received  any  instruction.  He  was  astonished  to  hear  of  men  being  corrupt 
by  nature,  but  clearly  convinced  by  the  passages  read  to  him,  he  said  to 
Mr.  Haldane,  *  JJ'ow  I  do  indeed  see  this  doctrine  in  the  Bible.'  *  Yes,* 
replied  the  good  man,  *  but  do  you  see  it  in  your  heart  f  *  It  was  but  a 
simple  question ;  but  it  came  home  to  his  conscience.  It  was  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit ;  and  from  that  time  he  saw  and  felt  that  his  heart  was  indeed 
corrupted,  and  knew  from  the  Word  of  God,  that  he  could  be  saved  by 
grace  alone,  in  Christ  Jesus.  Felix  Nefif,  that  Alpine  missionary  of 
apostolic  zeal  and  fervour,  was  another  of  these  young  converts.  Never 
was  the  seed  of  the  Gospel  sown  to  better  effect  than  in  these  hearts* 
Such  an  incursion  of  Divine  grace  into  the  very  citadel  of  error,  was 
anything  but  acceptable  to  its  guardians ;  but  how  could  they  resist 
it?  Who  knows  how  to  shut  the  heart  when  God  opens  it?  What 
Venerable  Company  of  pastors  can  stand  before  the  door,  and  keep  out  the 
Divine  Spirit,  when  He  chooses  to  enter  ?    The  strong  man  armed  must 

give  up  his  house,  when  a  greater  than  he  comes  upon  him It 

was  of  God,  that  Mr.  Haldane  should  visit  Geneva  at  that  time." 

Dr.  Cheever  mentions  Felix  NeflF  as  one  of  those  who  received 
the  Gospel  from  Mr.  Haldane^s  lips.  This,  however,  was  not 
exactly  the  case.  Neff  was,  like  many  others,  what  has  been 
termed  his  grandson,  rather  than  his  son  in  the  faith.  The 
Gospel  sounded  out  from  Geneva,  and  its  echoes  reverberated 
through  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Switzerland,  till  they 
passed  the  Jura,  and  were  heard  in  France,  in  Belgium,  and  in 
Germany.    Mr.  Haldane  seemed  to  have  on  his  mind  a  becoming^ 


M.  gaussen's  account  op  the  revival.      453 

awe  in  regard  to  the  work  in  which  he  had  been  only  an  instru- 
ment in  the  Lord's  hand.  He  seldom  spoke  of  these  conver- 
sions^ and  never,  but  under  a  solemnized  impression,  and  for 
some  good  end. 

It  does  not  appear  from  what  source  of  information  the  late 
able  and  excellent  Dr.  Heugh,  of  Glasgow,  got  the  statement, 
repeated  by  Dr.  Cheever,  that  sixteen  out  of  eighteen  students 
were  brought  to  Christ  during  Mr.  Haldane's  residence  at 
Geneva,  The  number  of  the  students  who  attended  was  not, 
however,  eighteen,  but  "  about  twenty-five  in  all,*'  according  to 
M.  Guers.  MM.  Merle  D'Aubigne,  F.  Monod,  C.  Rieu,Gonthier, 
H.  Pyt,  Vivien,  Bonifas  (de  Grenoble),  Du  Pasquier,  Du  Vivier 
(d' Angers),  and  James,  were  amongst  the  number.  But  respect- 
ing all  who  listened  to  his  expositions  of  the  Romans,  during 
three  evenings  of  the  week,  and  conversed  with  him  in  private, 
M.  Gaussen  thus  writes : — 

"During  the  time  of  your  uncle's  sojouni,  almost  all  the 
students  in  theology  attended  (suivirent  ses  explications).  Of 
the  whole  of  them  there  was  but  one  who  did  not  appear  to 
have  been  touched,  but  there  were  some  of  them  who  did  not 
afterwards  appear  to  have  been  savingly  profited.  Still  it  is 
certain  that  the  greater  part  (la  plupartj  of  those  who  attended 
him,  have  become  men  eminent  in  the  service  of  God.  The 
Evangelical  work  at  Geneva  was  the  child  (fillej  of  Haldane; 
the  work  of  grace  of  Vaud  the  daughter  of  that  at  Geneva;  and, 
still  later,  the  work  in  France,  to  a  great  extent,  the  child 
of  that  of  Geneva  and  of  Vaud.  To  Robert  Haldane  was  given 
the  grace  to  accomplish  a  work,  of  which  the  revelation  of  the 
last  day  will  only  show  the  extent.  May  a  benediction  from 
above  rest  on  all  his  family !  " 

It  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  results  of  his  visit  to  the 
Continent,  that  the  extent  of  the  good  that  was  then  done  was 
but  little  known  for  many  years.  The  magnitude  of  the  work  has 
become  more  visible  as  years  have  rolled  on,  and  whilst  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  is  seen  directing,  controlling,  overruling  all,  it 
becomes  more  and  more  evident,  in  the  words  already  cited,  that 
"  it  was  of  God  that  Robert  Haldane  should  visit  Geneva  at  that 
time." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

MR.  HALDANE  PASSES  THROUGH  LYONS  TO  MONTAUBAll— 
FRENCH  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  ROMANS— LETTER  TO 
MR.  BICKERSTETH— MONTAUBAN— M.  EWCONTRE,  SSOOND 
MATHEMATICIAN  IN  FRANCE— M.  BONNARD— LOW  STATE 
OF  PROTESTANTISM  IN  FRANCE— M.  GAOHON— MB.  HAL- 
DANE'S  LABOURS— PROFESSOR  PRADEL— ANECDOTE  OP 
M.  DE  VILLELE  AND  LORD  STUART  DE  ROTHSAY— CON- 
TINENTAL SOCIETY  — HENRI  PYT  —  CONVERSION  OF  A 
PELAGIAN  PASTOR— MR.  HALDANE  QUITS  MONTAUBAN— 
M.  BONNARD  ACCOMPANIES  HIM  TO  PARIS  — JOSEPH 
WOLFF— LETTERS  OF  M.  MARZIALS— TESTIMONIES  OP  DB. 
MERLE  D'AUBIGNE  AND  M.  F.  MONOD  —  RETURNS  TO 
SCOTLAND— CONTINENTAL  SOCIETY  —  VISITS  IBKLAND— 
MR.  J.  E.  GORDON— ACCOUNT  OF  PETER  HE  A  MAN,  EXE- 
CUTED  FOR  PIRACY— MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE'S  OCCUPATIONS 
—TESTIMONIES  TO  HIS  USEFULNESS  —  HIS  WRITINC^S— 
SCRIPTURE  MAGAZINE— REVELATION  OF  GOD'S  BIGHTE- 
OUSNESS— STRICTURES  ON  MR.  WALKER,  OF  DUBLIN— 
DUEL  BETWEEN  SIR  ALEX.  BOSWELL  AND  MR.  STUABT, 
OF   DUNEARN— LETTER  OF   REV.  ROWLAND  HILL. 

[1817—1823.] 

It  was  at  the  end  of  June^  1817^  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haldane 
left  Geneva,  on  their  route  to  Montauban.  They  travelled  by 
way  of  Lyons,  where  they  spent  the  Lord^s-day,  and  attended 
the  French  Protestant  worship.  There,  however,  they  "  heard 
not  a  word  of  the  Grospel.^'  Mr.  Haldane  sought  an  interview 
with  the  pastor,  but  found,  as  he  writes,  that  ^'  he  had  not  time 
to  converse  with  me  on  the  subject  of  religion,  being  folly  coca- 
pied  with  the  fashionable  amusements  in  which  those  who  are 


LYONS.  455 

there  designated  Christians  spend  the  evening  of  that  day/' 
More  than  thirty  years  bad  elapsed  since  Mr.  Haldane  bad 
visited  Lyons,  and  admired  the  magnificent  site  of  that  illustrious 
city,  where  the  relics  of  the  palace  of  the  Ceesars,  and  the 
tombs  of  the  early  Christian  martyrs,  alike  remind  us  of  the 
fading  glories  of  this  world,  and  the  immortal  trophies  of  the 
victory  of  faith.  But  Mr.  Haldane  had  now  but  one  object  in 
view ;  and  in  quitting  Geneva  he  did  not  seek  either  for  relaxa-* 
tion  or  amusement.  There  were  few  who  more  enjoyed  the 
beauties  of  nature,  or  viewed  with  deeper  interest  the  ancient 
monuments  of  Roman  grandeur.  At  Greneva,  he  enjoyed  the 
magnificent  scenery  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  yet  he  steadily 
declined  joining  in  any  exciu*sions  which  might  take  him  away 
from  the  important  work  to  which  he  was  at  this  time  dedicated. 
For  the  most  part,  it  was  only  in  the  afternoon  that  he  walked 
out  on  the  Promenade  St.  Antoine,  with  Mrs.  Haldane.  ''  With 
her,^'  says  M.  Gaussen,  *'  I  knew  that  he  had  much  secret 
prayer  for  a  blessing  on  his  labours.''  But  whilst  he  stuck  to 
his  missionary  work  with  such  intense  earnestness,  his  frequent 
allusions  to  the  mountains  round  Geneva,  and  to  the  rich  and 
well-watered  landscape,  told  how  greatly  he  admired  those 
glorious  sunsets,  whose  varying  hues  lighted  up  the  stem  and 
icy  sublimities  of  Mont  Blanc,  or  gilded  with  a  softened  efful- 
gence the  milder  beauties  of  the  wooded  Jura. 

At  Montauban,  where  they  arrived  in  July,  1817,  Mrs. 
Haldane  having  become  more  familiar  with  the  language,  had 
greater  means  of  social  enjoyment.  She  translated  into  English 
some  of  the  works  of  Drelincourt,  and  other  French  Protestant 
writers,  and  she  employed  herself  in  copying  for  her  husband, 
more  especially  when  he  had  to  superintend  the  publication  of 
his  Evidences  of  Christianity,  and  his  Commentary  on  the 
Romans  in  French.  The  latter  was,  in  fact,  the  fruit  of  his 
expositions  at  Geneva,  and  may  be  considered  as  the  first 
edition  of  that  elaborate  work,  on  which  he  continued,  from  time 
to  time,  to  bestow  his  thoughts  and  meditations,  until  it  was 
published  in  English  in  1834.  The  French  Commentary  was 
intended  for  the  Continent^  and  is  much  more  discuruye  than 


456  L£TT£R   TO   MR.  BICKEESTETH. 

the  English.  It  was^  however^  in  some  respects^  better  calculated 
for  popular  reading ;  and  many  persons  who  had  admired  the 
richness  and  fulness  of  the  French  Commentary^  with  its 
numerous  episodes^  have  complained  of  a  want  of  interest  in 
the  more  exact  and  critical  English  Exposition.  The  French 
Commentary,  which  appeared  in  two  octavo  volumes,  was  of 
itself  a  great  undertaking,  and  more  especially  as  the  author  had 
but  little  access  to  books.  It  was  therefore  more  exclusively 
elaborated  by  his  own  hands,  excepting  a  small  portion  of  it^ 
in  which  he  acknowledges  his  obUgations  to  the  Sermons  of 
Claude.  It  has  not  the  advantage  of  being  in  elegant  French, 
a  circumstance  not  wholly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  fault  of  the 
translator,  but  partly  to  the  fact,  that  he,  being  an  unbeliever, 
was  so  closely  watched  by  Mr.  Haldane,  lest  he  should  corrupt 
the  meaning,  that  it  is  much  too  literal  as  a  translation,  and  is 
full  of  English  idioms.  A  large  edition  of  the  work  was 
published,  and  many  copies  distributed  all  over  France  and 
Switzerland.  Even  to  this  day  a  copy  is  given,  out  of  a  store 
left  for  the  purpose,  to  each  student  of  divinity  at  M ontauban 
when  he  quits  the  College,  and  instances  of  the  good  it  has 
done  are  continually  occurring. 

The  conclusion  of  Mr.  Haldane's  letter  to  Mr.  Bickersteth 
contains  a  brief  but  interesting  sketch  of  his  visit  to  Mont- 
auban : — 

**  But  before  I  conclude,  I  may  notice  the  course  I  was  led  to  adopt  at 
the  close  of  the  academical   session  at  Geneva  in   1817.      After  the 
departure  of  the  students,  at  the  termination  of  their  course,  I  resumed 
my  design  of  going  to  Montauban,  in  the  south  of  France,  where  the 
Faculty  for  the  education  of  French  Protestants  is  established,  and  which 
is  considered  the  centre  of  all  the  French  Protestant  Churches.    Through 
the  kindness  of  the  late  excellent  M.  Bonnard,  then  Professor  of  Hebrew, 
but  afterwards  Dean,  or  Principal  of  the  Faculty,  I  was  introduced  to  such 
of  the  French  pastors  as  occasionally  visited  Montauban,  and  by  his 
means,  and  in  consequence  of  the  extensive  correspondence  he  maintained 
with  all  the  pastors  in  France,  I  was  enabled  to  obtain  much  valuable 
information,  as  well  as  general  circulation  for  the  books  I  published  there, 
in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.     From  my  valued  Mend,  the  present 
President  of  the  Consistory,  M.  Marzials,  to  whom  I  was  also  under 
peculiar  obligations  for  the  assistance  he  afforded  me  among  the  students 


MONTAUBAN.  457 

and  others,  I  some  time  ago  received  a  letter,  in  which  he  says :  *  Many  of 
our  pastors  are  now  proclaiming  the  Gospel,  who,  but  for  your  abode 
among  us,  would  have  been  preaching  Neology/  By  another  letter  from 
him,  recently  received,  dated  July  13,  1839,  I  am  informed  that  every 
student,  on  finishing  his  studies,  and  leaving  Montauban,  is  furnished 
with  a  copy  of  my  *  Evidences,'  which  were  translated  into  French,  and  of 
the  French  '  Commentary  on  the  Komans,'  which  I  prepared  and  published 
at  that  place. 

**  The  late  M.  Pictet,  of  Geneva,  whose  name  is  so  well  known  among 
the  savans  of  Europe,  and  who  had  been  appointed  by  Bonaparte  one  of 
the  Inspectors  of  the  Protestant  Churches, — who  has  asserted  in  one  of  his 
publications  that  <  the  Methodism,'  meaning  the  Christianity, '  of  England 
threatens  to  conduct  the  world  back  to  barbarism,' — officially  visited 
Montauban  some  years  after  I  left  it.  On  that  occasion  M.  Pradel,  then 
Dean  of  the  Faculty,  and  a  man  equally  opposed  to  the  Gospel  as  M. 
Pictet,  told  him,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  '  since  the  appearance  at 
Montauban  of  that  disastrous  meteor  fmStSore  desastreux),  Mr.  Haldane, 
all  had  been  poisoned  with  his  doctrine.'  M.  Pradel  publicly  used  the 
same  expressions  on  another  occasion  in  addressing  the  students,  and  thus 
unintentionally  bore  witness  to  the  blessing  with  which  the  Lord  was 
pleased  to  accompany  the  declaration  of  his  Gospel. 

*'  I  state  these  things,  my  dear  Sir,  because,  as  I  have  already  intimated, 
the  account  which  has  appeared  under  the  sanction  of  your  name  would, 
if  uncontradicted,  be  henceforth  considered  authentic,  and  because  it  may 
advance  the  objects  which  both  of  us  have  at  heart  for  the  good  of  the 
Continent  to  publish  this  short  record.  Placed  before  the  world  as  Mr. 
Burgess's  narrative  now  is,  it  requires  to  be  rectified ;  and  I  also  trust 
that  a  memorial  of  the  Lord's  goodness  in  prospering  an  attempt  to  revive 
the  knowledge  of  his  truth  in  Continental  Europe,  may  stimulate  the  zeal 
of  others,  and  redound  to  the  glory  of  God,  whom  you  serve  in  the  Gospel 
of  his  Son,  and  to  whom,  in  whatever  capacity  we  are  placed,  it  is  our 
bounden  duty  to  consecrate  every  talent  with  which  we  are  intrusted. 

**  I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours,  &c., 

"RoBEBT  Haldane." 

Montauban  was  the  centre  of  education  for  the  Protestants  of 
the  Reformed  Church  in  France,  as  Strasburg  in  the  north  was 
for  the  Lutherans.  It  is  situated  in  a  magnificent  plain  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tarn,  before  it  joins  the  Garronne,  and  in  clear 
weather  commands  a  distant  prospect  of  the  lofty  and  majestic 
range  of  the  Pyrennees.  When  Mr.  Haldane  arrived  at  Mont- 
auban, there  was  but  a  feeble  light  glimmering  amidst  the 
sepulchral  darkness  of  Arianism  and  unbelief.     M.  Bonnard  is 


468  MONTAUBAN. 

now  gone  to  his  rest^  but  M.  Marzials  still  remains  one  of  the 
oldest  and  firmest  friends  to  the  Gospel  in  France.  There  was 
also  M.  Chabrand,  pastor  and  professor  at  Toulouse^  and  M. 
Lissignol,  of  Montpelier,  with  whom  he  enjoyed  much  useful 
intercourse.  Besides  these^  there  was  M.  De  Rapin^  a  private 
gentleman  of  fortune^  who  still  survives^  residing  at  his  ch&teau 
at  La  Garde,  five  or  six  miles  from  Montauban,  between  whom 
and  Mr.  Haldane  there  grew  up  a  mutual  friendship.  He  had 
been  a  faithful  confessor  of  Christ,  even  in  revolutionary  times, 
when  it  was  a  crime  to  possess  a  Bible,  and  people  sometimes 
buried  it  in  their  garden  in  order  to  escape  the  guillotine. 
Avoiding  interference  in  politics,  M.  De  Rapin  steered  his  steady, 
quiet,  uncompromising  course  through  the  storms  which  over- 
whelmed many  others,  whose  only  crime  was  their  religion. 

In  the  town  of  Montauban  there  were  from  6,000  to  7,000 
Protestants,  and  in  the  Faculty,  or  College,  there  were  sixty- 
four  students.  This  Institution  had  been  founded  by  Napoleon, 
in  compliment  to  the  Protestants,  who  had  always  been  steady 
friends  to  his  Government,  remembering,  no  doubt,  the  bitter 
persecutions  they  had  endured  from  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. 
down  to  that  of  Louis  XVI.,  during  the  early  part  of  whose 
reign  the  Dragonnades  were  continued,  through  the  influence  of 
an  ungodly  priesthood,  who  hunted  down  assemblies  meeting  in 
woods  or  in  caves,  and  put  to  death  their  ministers.  The  Dean 
of  the  Faculty  at  Montauban  was  the  distinguished  and  learned 
M.  Encontre,  also  professor  of  dogmatical  theology,  who  had 
previously  held  the  office  of  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Sciences  at 
Toulouse,  but  had  been  promoted  to  the  head  of  the  Montauban 
College,  when  his  predecessor,  M.  Frossard,  professor  of  sacred 
eloquence,  was  deposed  for  his  Napoleonist  demonstration  during 
the  himdred  days.  M.  Encontre  held  a  high  place  as  a  man  of 
science,  and,  next  to  La  Place,  was  then  considered  the  most 
distinguished  mathematician  in  France.  In  theology,  Mr.  Hal- 
dane found  him  to  be  a  strong  Arminian,  and  very  indistinct  in 
his  religious  views;  but  the  philosopher  soon  learned  to  regard  the 
talents,  as  well  as  the  piety  of  his  new  acquaintance  with  pio- 
foimd  respect.     Confident  in  his  own  powers  and  great  attain- 


M.  ENCONTRE.  459 

ments,  he  was  usually  somewhat  dogmatic  in  his  assertion  of 
his  philosophic  views;  and  it  was  remarked^  by  a  surviving 
pastor^  who  knew  him  well,  that  the  only  person  before  whom 
he  ever  seemed  disposed  to  bow  was  Robert  Haldane.  They 
had  many  earnest  conversations  together  on  the  way  of  salva- 
tion ;  and  when  he  finally  took  leave  of  Mr.  Haldane,  to  go  for 
change  of  air  in  quest  of  health,  M.  Encontre,  who  was  then  in 
a  feeble  and,  as  it  proved,  a  dying  state,  grasped  his  hand  and 
said,  with  emotion,  ^^  Je  suis  un  grand  pecheur,  mais  j'ai  un 
grand  Bepondant/'  (I  am  a  great  sinner,  but  I  have  a  great 
Surety.)  This  confession  alone,  made  as  it  was  by  an  admired 
philosopher,  who  had  himself  experienced  so  much  of  the  pride 
of  science  and  of  intellect,  was  evidence  enough  that  his  lofty 
spirit  had  been  humbled,  that  his  heart  had  been  renewed,  and 
that  he  had  become  as  a  little  child,  in  order  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  He  had  stooped  from  the  heights  of  dark 
and  vain  speculation,  in  order  that  he  might  learn  those  two  simple 
truths  which  he  so  emphatically  expressed ;  and,  approaching  as 
a  great  sinner  to  a  great  Redeemer,  there  is  every  reason  to 
conclude  that  he  obtained  entrance  through  that  narrow  gate 
from  which  the  rich  in  their  own  esteem  are  sent  empty  away. 
The  strong  testimony  which  he  publicly  bore  to  Mr.  Haldane 
and  the  value  he  set  on  his  writings,  was  another  token  that 
their  intercourse  had  not  been  without  fruit.  After  recom- 
mending to  the  students  of  theology  Dr.  Bogue^s  "  Essay  on  the 
Authority  of  the  New  Testament,'^  which  had  been  translated 
into  French,  and  is  said  to  have  been  read  by  Napoleon  at 
St.  Helena,  and  reconmiending  Paley,  he  said,  '^  Read  also,  as 
soon  as  possible,  that  admirable  work  which  the  learned  Robert 
Haldane,  of  Edinburgh,  now  residing  at  Montauban,  is  about  to 
publish, — a  man  who  seems  to  have  consecrated  his  whole  time 
and  labour  and  watchings,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  all  his 
property  to  the  Church  of  the  Lord.'*  * 

*  The  lecture  was  in  Latin,  and  the  words  were  as  follows : — **  Legite 
etiam  quam  primum  poteritis,  praestantissimum  opus  quod  moz  edituruf 
est  in  lucem,  Robert  Haldane,  doctus  Edinburgensis,  nunc  Montalbani 


460  M.  BONNARD. 

This  testimony  of  one  so  distinguished  in  the  walks  of  science 
and  philosophy  as  M.  Encontre^  was  calculated  to  make  a  deep 
impression  amongst  the  students  in  Mr.  Haldane's  favour.  This 
impression  must  have  been  increased  when,  on  his  death,  M. 
Bonnard  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  of  the  College.  But  there 
is  melancholy  evidence  of  the  actual  state  of  spiritual  death 
which  at  that  period  reigned  in  the  Protestant  Churches  of 
France,  whether  we  appeal  to  the  testimony  of  such  good  men 
as  Bonnard,  Marzials,  and  Rapin,  or  to  that  of  the  enemies  of 
the  Gospel.  In  a  letter  published  in  a  Socinian  magazine,  in 
London,  by  a  Mr.  Goodier,  whom  Mr.  Haldane  himself  met  at 
Montauban,  this  enemy  of  the  Gospel  observes : — 

''  I  am  collecting  all  the  information  in  my  power  on  the  state  of  the 
French  Protestants,  who,  in  general,  are  very  far  from  being  Calvlnists. 
I  have  never  yet  heard  a  doctrinal  sermon ;  and,  in  general,  I  do  not  even 
hear  an  orthodox  expression  in  the  public  services,  if  I  except  some  vague 
language  on  the  merits  of  Christ.  At  Bordeaux  there  are  several  demi- 
Unitarians,  and  their  most  popular  minister  would  be  condenmed  at  once, 
by  our  English  Calvinists,  as  a  Socinian.  *  Believing  that  secret  things 
belong  unto  God,'  the  Protestant  ministers  in  France  seldom  preach  upon 
the  mysteries  of  the  Gospel,  as  they  are  termed.  Election,  predestination, 
justification,  and  the  operation  of  Divine  grace,  are  subjects  almost 
exploded.  If  there  remain  any  orthodox  doctrine  in  the  pulpit,  it  is  that 
of  satisfaction.'' 

But,  even  before  Mr.  Haldane  arrived  at  Montauban,  there 
had  been  a  kind  of  preparation,  something  like  that  which  so 
beautifully  marked  the  footsteps  of  the  Lord,  at  Geneva.  A 
pious  Moravian  missionary,  M.  Gachon,  had,  in  the  south  of 
France,  been  proclaiming  the  simple  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and, 
under  the  softening  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  several  had 
been  awakened  to  discern  their  need  of  an  Almighty  Saviour. 
The  spark  was,  indeed,  but  feeble,  and  M.  Bonnard,  although 
in  correspondence  with  all  the  French  Reformed  Churches,  could 
scarcely  point  out  more  than  four  or  five  ministers  of  whom  it 
could  be  said,   with  any  good  hope,   that  they  preached  the 

degens,  qui  totum  tempus  suum,  et  operam  et  vigilias,  et  omnia  bona 
videtur  quodam  modo  sacravisse  ecclcsis  Domini." 


MR.  HALDANE    AT   MONTAUBAN.  461 

Gospel.  It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Mr.  Haldane 
began  his  labours.  In  a  pubUcation  of  his^  in  1829^  he 
says : — 

**  At  Montauban,  where  I  resided  more  than  two  years,  I  proceeded  in 
the  same  manner  as  I  had  done  at  Geneva,  in  what  appears  to  me  to  be 
the  spirit  which  the  Scriptures  both  inculcate  and  exemplify.  I  spoke 
plainly  to  the  students,  and  to  all  with  whom  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
conversing.  With  pastors  who  came  from  a  different  part  of  France  I 
entered  into  such  close  conversation  as  led  us  at  once  to  discover  the 
points  on  which  we  differed,  and  then  discussed  them  fully.  I  endea- 
voured to  expose  everything  false  in  doctrine  that  I  had  heard  from  the 
pulpit,  and  to  point  out  to  all  to  whom  I  had  access  whatever  appeared  to 
be  erroneous. 

"  The  pastor  who,  at  that  time,  was  President  of  the  Consistory,  and  a 
Member  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  who  has  since  left  Montauban,  was  one 
of  the  ablest  speakers  in  France.  He  had  a  very  superficial  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  opposed  the  Arian  and  certain  other  heresies  held  by 
so  many  of  the  French  pastors,  but,  after  all,  he  did  not  preach  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Of  this  I  had  great  difficulty  to  convince  some  whom  I 
particularly  wished  to  convince,  and  to  show  them  that,  after  all,  he  was  a 
false  teacher ;  nor  was  I  able  to  do  so  till  he  preached  from  Luke  z. 
25 — 28,  when,  on  talking  over  his  discourse,  they  clearly  perceived  that 
if  he  had  understood  the  Lord's  answer  as  well  as  the  lawyer  did  to 
whom  it  was  addressed,  which  is  proved  by  the  reply  of  the  latter, 
*  he  willing  to  justify  himself,*  he  would  have  preached  a  very  different 
sermon. 

**  He  afterwards  showed  himself  to  be  completely  destitute  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  At  the  election  of  a  professor  to  fill  the  divinity 
chair,  at  Montauban,  he  gave  his  casting  vote  against  a  servant  of  God, 
in  favour  of  an  Arian,  who  had  been  educated  at  Geneva. 

'*  The  Lord  was  graciously  pleased  to  give  testimony  to  the  word  of 
grace,  which  I  was  enabled  to  declare  at  Montauban,  both  among  the 
students  and  others. 

**  This  I  have  no  reason  to  believe  would  have  been  the  case,  had  '  I 
avoided  all  controversy,'  and  dwelt  only  on  '  truths  common  to  all 
Churches,  and  interesting  to  every  soul  of  man,'  and  acted  in  any  way  to 
conceal  or  to  keep  back  any  part  of  the  truth  respecting  the  great  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Gospel ;  or  had  I  flattered  its  enemies,  saying, 
'  Peace,  peace,'  when  I  was  persuaded  there  was  no  peace.  A  general 
attention  to  the  Scriptures  was  soon  excited,  and  much  discussion  took 
place. 

**  Some  were  turned  to  the  Lord,  and  the  hearts  of  his  servants  were 
encouraged  and  their  hands  strengthened.    In  the  letter  addressed  to  me, 


462  ANECDOTE   OF   M.  DE    VILLELE. 

of  December,  1827,  by  the  present  President  of  the  Consistory  there  (M. 
Bonnard),  he  writes : — *  Believe  it,  that  your  abode  in  the  midst  of  as  has 
been  blessed  to  many,  and  the  word  of  truth  is  announced  this  day  in 
many  churches,  when  they  would  not,  perhaps,  have  yet  heard  anjrtlung 
but  the  teaching  of  a  fatal  Rationalism,  if  we  had  not  had  the  advantage 
of  knowing  you.'  ** 

Testimonies  to  the  same  eflFect  are  borne  in  all  the  letters  of  the 
venerable  Bonnard,  of  MM.  Marzials  Pere^  Chabrand,  Adolpbe 
Monod,  John  Courtois,  and  others ;  and  it  was  not  the  fault  of 
the  Arians  that  Mr.  Haldane^s  labours  at  Montauban  were  not 
put  down  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  Government.     Happily  they 
were  not  successful ;  partly  because  they  were  not  themselves  in 
favour  with  the  ruling  powers,   being  generally  tainted  with 
Republican  or  Napoleonist  principles;  and  partly  because  the 
(jovemment   considered  any  form  of  religion  as   better  than 
none.      At   the   time   when    Professor  Pradel    regarded    him 
as   "a  disastrous   meteor/^   Mr.  Haldane   was   denounced    to 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior  as  a  fire-brand,  who  was  teaching 
Calvinism.     In  consequence  of  these  representations,    M.  De 
Villele,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  French  Cabinet,  judged 
it  right  to  make   some   inquiries  of  the   British  Ambassador 
respecting  this  remarkable  foreigner.     Sir  Charles  Stuart,  after- 
wards Lord  Stuart  de  Rothsay,  who  was  then  at  Paris,  took  an 
opportimity  of  appealing  for  information  to  two  of  his  guests 
who  were  dining  with  his  Excellency  at  the  Embassy.    Whether 
from  accident  or  design,  he  pitched  upon  one  who  was   the 
cousin  of  Mr.  Haldane,  and  another  who  was  the  brother  of  his 
vrife.    Being  told  of  the  excitement  their  friend  was  occasioning, 
taking,  perhaps,  an  exaggerated  view  of  its  consequences,  and 
believing  that  any  private  remonstrances  of  theirs  would  be 
useless,  they  both  judged  it  most  convenient  to  ignore  acquaint- 
ance  with   Mr.  Haldane's   objects,   and  to   leave  the   French 
Minister  to  adopt  the  course  he  judged  best,  whether  in  expel- 
ling their  relative,  or  addressing  to  him  such  a  remonstrance  as 
the  Ambassador  suggested  might  be  made  by  them  with  a  view 
to  his  personal  safety.     But,  in  truth,  Mr.  Haldane  was  in  no 
danger;   and  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note,  that  M.  De  Villele, 


CONTINENTAL    SOCIETY.  468 

after  full  inquiry^  declared  that  it  mattered  not  to  him  whether 
Mr.  Haldane  taught  Calvinism  or  any  other  ism,  provided  it 
was  not  Deism. 

During  the  period  Mr.  Haldane  remained  at  Montauban^ 
besides  his  labours  amongst  the  students  and  others  connected 
with  the  Protestant  Seminary,  and  the  publication  of  his  French 
commentary,  and  the  translation  of  his  '^  Evidences/^  he  was 
also  much  occupied  in  correspondence  with  his  old  pupils  and 
friends  at  Geneva,  and  with  preparations  for  the  establishment 
of  the  Continental  Society,  whose  operations  were  attended  with 
a  signal  blessing. 

Mr.  Haldane^s  papers  show  the  trouble  he  had  taken  to 
obtain  information  from  different  quarters  as  to  the  best  means 
of  instituting  a  Society,  which  was,  in  fact,  formed  on  the  model 
of  his  own  original  association  in  Scotland,  for  propagating  the 
Gospel  at  home.  But  to  Mr.  Henry  Drummond  belongs  the 
merit  of  having  actually  set  the  plan  in  motion.  The  conduct 
of  the  Venerable  Company  at  Geneva,  in  reftising  ordination  to 
those  who  would  not  come  under  fetters  as  to  preaching  the 
divinity  of  Christ  and  the  doctrines  of  grace,  furnished  a  supply 
of  well-educated,  able  preachers,  full  of  zeal  and  of  heavenly 
unction.  Satan  may  be  said  in  this,  as  on  other  occasions, 
to  have  been  taken  in  his  own  snares.  Whilst  consultations 
and  correspondence  were  going  forward  as  to  the  constitution  of 
a  new  Society,  Mr.  Drummond,  finding  himself  surrounded 
with  rejected  ministers,  resolved,  with  characteristic  energy, 
at  his  own  charges,  to  despatch  M.  Bost  on  a  mission  to 
Alsace, — a  mission  which  was  followed  by  striking  results.  It 
was  not,  however,  till  1819  that  the  Continental  Society  was^ 
properly  speaking,  fully  organized.  But  in  consequence  of  the 
bigoted  measures  first  adopted  at  Geneva,  and  then  followed  up 
at  Berne  and  in  Lausanne,  the  preachers,  like  the  early 
Christians  when  scattered  by  the  first  persecution,  '^  went  every- 
where preaching  the  Word,'^  and  it  may  be  truly  added,  ^'  the 
Lord  was  with  them." 

Amongst  the  first  of  the  Continental  missionaries  was  M. 
Mejanel,   himself  one  of  Mr.  Haldane's  converts,   who  was 


464  HENRI    PYT. 

expelled  from  Geneva  at  the  instigation  of  the  Company^  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1818.  His  labours  at  Paris^  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  L'Aisne  le  Somme^  Le  Pas  de  Calais,  and  the  Norths 
were  greatly  blessed.  Another,  and  perhaps  the  most  eminent 
of  the  Continental  missionaries,  and  one  who  remained  with 
the  Society  till  his  death,  was  the  judicious  and  heavenly-minded 
Henri  Pyt,  who  was  first  employed  in  the  Department  of  Arriege, 
at  Saverdun,  as  a  Suffragan  Pastor.  Some  passages  in  his  early 
history  at  Geneva  have  been  already  related. 

"  Towards  the  end  of  1818,"  says  his  biographer,  **  Pyt  repaired  to 
Mr.  Haldane's  residence  at  Montauban,  where  he  resided  after  he  left 
Geneva.  The  question  on  which  they  consulted  concerned  the  best 
means  of  propagating  the  truth  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Saverdun. 
The  conversations  of  the  blessed  Pyt  with  his  venerable  friends  at 
Toulouse  and  Montauban,  but  chiefly  his  conferences  with  Mr.  Haldane, 
exercised  a  strong  influence  on  his  future  career.  From  that  time 
he  understood  better  that  his  position  there  was  not  tenable,  and  that 
the  only  one  which  became  him  henceforth,  was  that  of  a  simple 
evangelist,  unfettered  by  any  ecclesiastical  engagement,  and  preaching 
free  salvation  from  place  to  place.  It  was  the  only  position  in  which 
he  did  not  run  the  risk  of  compromising  his  friends  of  the  National 
Church,  and  the  only  one  which  entirely  satisfied  his  own  conscience. 
From  that  time  he  turned  towards  the  Continental  Society,  which, 
as  a  mark  of  their  confidence,  left  him  the  choice  of  the  places  to  which 
he  would  be  the  messenger  of  peace.  '  What  joy,'  he  writes  to  his 
friend  Gonthier,  *  to  see  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  advance  with  such 
rapidity !  Is  it  possible  to  remain  idle  in  the  midst  of  that  devouring 
zeal  which  bums  for  the  cause  of  Jesus  in  so  many  thousands  of  our 
brethren?'" 

In  another  place  his  biographer  testifies  to  the  strong  manner 

in   which    Mr.    Haldane    guarded  those  over  whom  he   had 

influence   against   preaching  baptism^   or  any  other  disputed 

tenet^  not  affecting  the  foundation  of  the  Gospel.     From  the 

time   when   Pyt  visited   Montauban^   that  devoted  missionary 

was  convinced   '^that  he  ought  only  to  preach   Jesus  Christ 

and  him  crucified^  and  risen  for  us.''     In  this  respect^  says 

his  biographer— 

"  His  views  harmonized  with  those  of  the  venerable  Haldane,  who  had, 
however,  been  misinformed  by  a  false  report  to  the  contrary,  and  thus 
wrote  to  Pyt :  '  In  always  speaking  of  baptism,  preachers  forget  their  own 


HENRI    PYT.  465 

spiritual  misery  and  the  love  of  the  SaviouFi  and,  in  fact,  are  seeking 
to  advance  their  own  peculiar  opinions,  rather  than  the  edification  of  the 
Church  of  God.'  ** 

For  many  years  Henri  Pyt  was  to  the  Pyrennees  and  the 
Beame,  what  another  Continental  missionary^  Felix  Neff^  was 
to  the  Alps  and  amongst  the  Vaudois.  Neff,  as  has  been  noticed^ 
was  one  of  those  called  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  at  the  time 
of  the  awakening  at  Geneva^  yet  not  through  the  direct  instru- 
mentality of  Mr.  Haldane^  but  indirectly,  through  Gonthier  and 
Francois  Olivier,  of  Lausanne,  who  were  his  instructors  in  the 
faith.  MM.  Guers,  Porchat,  L'Huilier,  Ladam,  Caulier,  Cal- 
deron,  and  others  of  the  same  school,  were  amongst  the  first 
labourers  of  the  Continental  Society.  Seldom  has  there  been 
an  institution  which  could  boast  of  such  missionaries,  still 
seldomer  has  there  been  one  so  signally  owned  of  God,  and  so 
little  valued  by  men.  • 

Amongst  the  many  instances  which  might  be  related  of  the 
benediction  which  followed  Mr.  Haldane's  labours  at  Montauban, 
there  is  one  which  he  has  himself  recorded.  It  concerned  a 
pastor  in  the  South  of  France,  who  came  to  visit  his  brother  at 
La  Garde,  who  had  received  the  truth  spoken  by  M.  Gachon. 
His  father,  too,  an  old  man  of  ninety  years  of  age,  had  listened 
'with  joy  to  the  Gospel,  as  preached  by  Henri  Pyt.  He  himself 
was  opposed  to  what  he  reckoned  the  fanaticism  of  the  new 
doctrines,  and  he  had  even  succeeded  in  shaking  the  faith  of  his 
aged  parent.  During  his  visit  to  his  brother,  he  was  grieved  to 
hear  that  brother  now  speak  of  salvation  by  faith  without  works, 
but  on  attempting  to  enter  into  controversy,  was  told,  that  if  he 
wished  to  argue  on  the  subject,  he  had  a  fine  opportunity  of 
doing  so  with  Mr.  Robert  Haldane.  Confident  in  himself,  the 
indignant  pastor  obtained  an  introduction,  called  on  Mr.  Haldane, 
entered  into  discussion  with  him,  and  finally  was  himself  enlight- 
ened in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  story  is  told  in 
Mr.  Haldane's  own  words.  It  is  only  needful  to  observe,  that 
before  the  conversation,  which  was  blessed  to  this  pastor,  another 
had  arisen,  out  of  the  inquiry,  what  was  to  be  his  text  on  the 
next   LordVday,   and  in  what  manner  he  was  to  treat  his 

H  H 


466  CONVERSION    OP   A   FRENCH   PASTOR. 

subject.  The  pastor  relates^  that  Mr.  Haldane  asked  him  how 
he  could  reconcile  his  religious  sentiments  with  a  text  which 
he  pointed  out  with  his  finger.  "I  replied,"  says  the  pastor, 
'Hhat  this  was  an  isolated  and  extraordinary  text."  Mr. 
Haldane  then  showed  me  another,  equally  embarrassing,  and 
turning  over  his  Bible,  pointed,  with  the  same  index,  to  fifteen 
or  twenty  passages,  all  directly  contradictory  of  what  I  was 
going  to  preach.  Not  only  was  I  confused  at  not  being  able 
to  prove  my  doctrine  from  the  Bible,  but  I  was  astonished 
at  the  great  facility  with  which  Mr.  Haldane  found  the  passages 
he  wanted.  When  I  left  him  I  could  not  help  thinking  that 
perhaps  my  arguments  were  right,  but  that,  at  all  events, 
Mr.  Haldane's  seemed  to  be  drawn  from  the  Bible,  and  I  felt 
that  I  had  too  little  studied  the  Scriptures,  and  had  a  very 
imperfect  knowledge  of  its  contents.  This  made  me  lose  con- 
fidence in  myself,  but  I  did  not  let  him  know  my  distrust. 
When  I  next  conversed  with  him,  he  proposed,  after  a  few 
moments,  that  we  should  take  a  walk  into  the  country.'*  It  is 
the  result  of  this  conversation  on  the  banks  of  the  Tarn  that  is 
related  by  Mr.  Haldane : — 

"  During  my  stay  at  Montauban,  a  French  pastor  from  near  Marseilles 
visited  that  place.  Immediately  on  his  arrival,  my  friends  brought  him 
to  visit  me,  as  they  were  in  the  habit  of  doing  with  pastors  who  came 
from  different  parts  of  France  or  Switzerland.  We  entered  directly  on  the 
subject  of  the  Gospel.  I  found  him  strongly  fortified  in  his  opposition  to 
the  grace  of  Ood ;  and  I  learned,  that  on  his  journey  to  Montauban, 
having  heard  of  the  discussions  that  were  agitated  there  respecting  the 
way  of  acceptance  with  God,  he  had,  in  various  meetings,  entered  keenly 
and  even  violently  into  the  subject,  thinking  it  his  duty  to  oppose,  with 
all  the  energy  he  possessed,  such  a  doctrine  as  that  of  justification  by 
faith  without  works.  That  question,  among  many  others,  we  dlscuaaed 
fully  at  our  first  and  subsequent  interviews ;  and  I  had  not  encountered 
one  who  appeared  more  decidedly  hostile  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesns, 
although  he  was  not  an  Arian  or  Socinian,  but  one  who  professed  to 
believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ.  I  met  him  one  evening,  and  propoeed 
that  we  should  walk  out  together.  Wc  immediately  entered,  as  usual, 
into  a  discussion  respecting  the  Gospel,  each  of  us  maintaining  his  own 
sentiments  on  the  subject  At  length  I  began  to  speak  to  him  on  that 
all-important  declaration  of  the  Lord  on  the  cross,  *  It  is  Jinished*  and 
endeavoured  to  show  from  that  expression,  that  everything  necessary  for 


C0WVEE8I0N    OP   A    FRENCH    PASTOE.  467 

a  sinner's  acceptance  with  God  was  already  accomplished,  and  that  Christ 
i&  the  end  (the  <  finishing'  or  accomplishment)  of  the  law  for  righteousness 
to  every  one  that  belicTeth.  I  had  not  spoken  but  a  few  minutes,  when 
it  pleased  Ood,  in  infinite  goodness  and  compassion,  to  shine  in  his  heart, 
to  give  him  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  suddenly  stopped,  and,  with  extended  arms,  vehemently  exclaimed, 
*C£ST  TBOP  OBAND  poun  ETEE  YBAi!'  (It  is  too  great  to  be  true!) 
From  that  moment  there  was  no  more  difference  of  opinion  betwixt  us — 
no  farther  opposition  on  his  part — ^no  more  objections.  In  Christ  he  was 
a  new  creature.  Old  things  had  in  a  moment  passed  away, — behold,  all 
things  had  become  new.  It  was  now  all  his  desire  to  hear  more  of  the 
great  salvation.  We  returned  to  town  holding  the  most  delightful  com- 
munication. He  remarked,  with  earnestness,  how  differently  he  would 
preach  when  he  should  return  to  his  flock.  He  confessed,  at  the  same 
time,  that  he  had  often  preached  on  texts  in  which  there  was  something 
he  had  not  fathomed,  *aprofandi,'  and  that  he  now  knew  what  it  was. 
This  is  worthy  of  notice,  as  it  discovers  the  unsatisfactory  state  of  mind  of 
many,  who,  professing  to  preach  the  Gospel,  understand  neither  what 
they  say,  nor  whereof  they  affirm.  He  said,  he  wondered  that  his  people 
should  have  had  patience  to  listen  to  such  a  system  as  he  had  been  endea- 
vouring for  seven  years  to  inculcate  upon  them — so  totally  different  from 
the  doctrine  of  the  grace  of  God.  When  we  parted,  he,  who  an  hour 
before  hated  and  opposed  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  was  filled  with  peace 
and  joy  in  believing. 

"  This  happened  on  Friday  evening.  Next  morning  he  called  on  me 
in  the  same  state  of  mind  I  had  left  him  in  the  evening  before,  rejoicing 
in  the  grace  of  God ;  but  he  said,  that  after  we  parted,  being  engaged  to 
preach  on  the  Lord's-day,  he  read  the  sermon  he  had  prepared,  and  found 
that  not  one  sentence  of  it  could  he  preach,  for  it  was  altogether  opposed 
to  what  he  was  now  convinced  was  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.  He  added, 
that  he  did  not  know  what  he  should  do,  for  that  sermon,  the  only  one  he 
had  with  him,  and  which  he  had  admired,  being,  as  he  thought,  so  well 
composed,  he  would  not  and  could  not  on  any  account  make  use  of,  and 
that  he  was  not  accustomed  to  preach  extempore.  I  replied,  that  I  never 
knew  a  case  so  similar  to  his  as  that  of  the  jailor  at  Philippi,  and  there- 
fore advised  him  to  preach  on  his  question  to  the  apostle,  and  the  answer 
he  received :  *  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.'  After  pausing  a  few  moments,  he  said 
he  would  do  so.  The  place  where  he  preached  was  at  some  distance  in 
the  country;  I  did  not  therefore  hear  him,  but  was  informed  that  the 
people  who  had  known  him  before,  listened  with  astonishment,  wondering 
that  he  now  preached  the  faith  which  so  lately  he  destroyed.  He  spoke 
with  great  feeling  and  power,  and  what  he  said  made  a  deep  impression 
on  those  who  heard  him.    I  had  afterwards,  during  the  short  time  he 

H    H   2 


468  CONVERSION    OF   A   FRENCH    PASTOR. 

remained  at  Montauban,  most  agreeable  conversations  with  him,  and 
shall  never  forget  his  prayer  when  we  parted.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
affecting  I  ever  heard — evidently  the  warm  effusion  of  his  heart— entirely 
different  from  those  studied  and  written  prayers  which  many  of  the 
French  pastors  prepare  before  they  deliver  them.  He  referred  in  a  very 
striking  manner  to  his  conversion,  and  to  his  former  and  present  state ; 
confessed  the  great  sinfulness  of  the  past  part  of  his  ministry,  and  prayed 
earnestly  for  himself  and  his  flock. 

**  On  his  return  home,  he  passed  through  a  town,  where  he  preached 
the  same  sermon  as  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Montauban.  It  came  closer 
on  the  consciences  of  his  hearers  than  the  discourses  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  listen.  One  of  the  pastors  of  the  Church  preached 
the  Gospel,  but  with  less  force.  A  flame  was  instantly  kindled  among 
them.  The  elders  of  the  Consistory  remonstrated  with  their  own  pastor 
in  the  strongest  manner,  demanding  of  him  how  he  could  have  allowed  a 
man  bringing  such  doctrines  to  preach  for  him.  He  declared  that  these 
doctrines  were  the  same  that  he  himself  preached.  They  denied  this  most 
peremptorily ;  and  the  discovery  was  now  made  that  some  of  them  were 
Socinians.  They  threatened  to  denounce  their  pastor  to  the  Government, 
and,  during  more  than  three  months,  the  greatest  agitation  prevailed  in 
his  Church.  I  saw  several  letters  which  in  the  course  of  that  time  he 
wrote  to  his  friends  at  Montauban,  declaring  his  apprehensions  that  it 
would  terminate  in  his  being  expelled  from  his  charge.  At  length,  how- 
ever, the  storm  subsided,  and  the  preaching  of  the  pastor  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood  of  Marseilles  appeared  to  have  done  good. 

'*  A  very  different  feeling  was  excited  when  the  account  of  his  con- 
version was  given  to  his  father,  a  man  above  eighty  years  of  age.  I 
afterwards  saw  another  pastor,  who  happened  to  be  at  his  house  on  a 
visit.  It  was  truly  affecting,  he  said,  to  see  the  old  man  quite  absorbed 
in  the  subject,  and  for  several  days  going  about  his  house  clasping  his 
hands,  and  joyfully  exclaiming,  ('  It  is  finished,*)  *  Tout  est  accompli.'  *' 

In  another  letter,  a  well-known  French  minister,  who  has 

been  since  much  in  England,  connected  with  the  Foreign- Aid 

Society,  wrote  to  Mr.  Haldane,  in  1825,  to  tell  him  how  the 

pastor  just  mentioned  had  become,  in  the  hands  of  God,  the 

means  of  awakening  him  out  of  spiritual  death.    After  describing 

himself  as  having  been  a  blind  man  leading  the  blind  till  the 

year  1822,  Mons.  A.  proceeds : — 

•*  At  the  above  period,  I  went  to  visit  my  former  flock  at ,  where  I 

saw,  after  nine  years  of  separation,  one  of  your  spiritual  children,  my  old 
fellow-student''  (The  pastor  above  referred  to.)  <<He  became,  in  the 
hand  of  God,  the  instrument  of  my  deliverance.    I  then  learned  the  great 


M.  BONNARD — JOSEPH    WOLFF.  469 

mystery  of  godlinessi  God  manifest  in  the  flesh ;  and  transported  out  of 
myself  by  the  joy  of  my  salvation,  I  returned  to  my  Church,  where  since 
then  the  Lord  has  given  me  grace  to  render  testimony  to  him,  and  to 
advance  a  little,  but  very  little,  in  the  knowledge  of  him." 

There  was  less  of  excitement  and  eclat  in  Mr.  Haldane's 
labours  at  Montauban  than  there  was  at  Geneva.  He  did  not 
meet  with  so  much  of  direct  and  public  opposition^  for  the 
wisdom  of  M.  De  Villele's  government  shielded  the  Protestants 
from  persecution^  and  himself  from  expulsion.  Still  the  work 
of  Evangelization  went  on  prosperously^  and  whilst  his  Christian 
friends  acquired  fresh  confidence  and  courage,  many  young 
students  were  brought  to  Christ,  many  ministers  were  delivered 
out  of  error,  and  the  seed  was  sown  of  a  future  and  abundant 
harvest  in  France. 

But  the  term  of  Mr.  Haldane's  labours  on  the  Continent 
was  now  approaching.  For  more  than  two  years  his  presence 
had  strengthened  the  faith,  and  encouraged  the  hearts  of  those 
who,  before  his  arrival,  were  overawed  by  the  influence  of 
abounding  Infidelity.  Mrs.  Haldane^s  aged  father,  the  late 
Mr.  Oswald,  of  Scotstown,  was  at  this  time  drawing  near  the 
end  of  his  mortal  career,  and  she  was  naturally  anxious  to  see 
him  once  more  before  his  departure.  Her  separation  from  their 
beloved  daughter  had  also  been  painfully  prolonged.  In  the 
hope  of  again  visiting  Montauban  at  a  future  time,  a  hope 
never  to  be  realized,  Mr.  Haldane  resolved  to  return  home. 
Their  journey  to  Paris  was  rendered  doubly  pleasing  by  the 
society  of  the  venerable  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology, 
M.  Bonnard,  the  recollection  of  whose  simple  faith  and  afiec- 
tionate  simplicity  of  heart  was  always  fondly  cherished.  On 
the  rumble  of  Mr.  Haldane's  carriage  there  was  another  remark- 
able person,  not  then  known  to  fame, — a  young  converted  Jew, 
who  had  lately  escaped  from  the  Propaganda  at  Rome  and  the 
fangs  of  the  Inquisition.  It  was  Joseph  Wolfi^,  the  celebrated 
traveller  and  missionary,  who  had  been  recommended  to  the 
protection  of  Mr.  Haldane,  and  it  is  not  one  of  the  least 
remarkable  of  his  exploits,  that  between  Montauban  and  Calais, 
he  contrived  to  learn  and  speak  the  French  language. 


470  MR.  HALDANE   RETURNS   HOME. 

Mr.  Haldane  was  never  again  to  return  to  the  Continent^  or 
again  to  meet  his  friends  at  Montauban,  but  their  correspond- 
ence proves  that  the  friendship  which  had  been  founded  on 
Christian  sympathy  was  enduring.  Ten  years  afterwards  the 
venerable  M.  Marzials  thus  writes  to  Mr.  Haldane  : — 

^  Mojitauhan,  Sth  Juhf,  1831. 
** .  .  .  But  it  was  not  on  this  account  that  I  began  this  letter.  My 
first  thought  was  to  ask  for  news  of  you  and  of  Mrs.  Haldane,  who  are 
always  very  precious  to  us.  Though  I  have  remained  silent  so  long, 
a  day  does  not  pass  without  your  being  present  to  our  minds,  or  without 
our  conversing  about  you.  Yes,  my  dear  brother,  M.  De  Rapin,  M.  Bon- 
nard,  and  I,  are  never  together  without  recalling  with  thanksgiving  the 
time  you  passed  in  this  town,  and  your  example  is  still  a  continual 
encouragement  to  us  to  speak  in  season  and  out  of  season  according  to 
the  truth  and  Gospel  of  Christ" 

Another  letter  from  the  President  of  the  Consistory,  written 
in  1842,  on  hearing  of  Mr.  Haldane's  approaching  dissolution^ 
conveys  his  matured  experience  of  the  good  accomplished  in  the 
years  spent  at  Montauban  : — 

"  Much  honouked  Sir, — Your  letter,  which  I  received  some  days 
ago,  sensibly  touched  me  by  the  information  it  contidns  of  your  much 
venerated  uncle.  I  had  been  without  any  information  respecting  him  for 
a  long  time,  and  my  Christian  friends  here  experienced  this  privation  as 
well  as  myself.  We  have  borne  him  in  our  heart  ever  since  the  moment 
when  the  Lord  blessed  us  by  bringing  him  into  the  midst  of  us,  and  the 
good  which  he  has  done  to  us,  and  which  is  extending  more  and  more  in 
our  Church,  renders,  and  will  render,  his  name  and  memory  for  ever  dear. 
When  he  first  appeared  in  our  town,  the  Gospel  of  salvation  was  in  little 
honour,  and  its  vital  doctrines  entirely  unknown  except  by  a  very  few* 
who,  encouraged  by  our  venerable  brother,  frankly  announced  them  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  unbelief.  But  thanks  be  to  Ood,  now  in  this 
Church,  as  in  a  great  number  of  others  in  our  France,  the  truth  of  Ood 
is  preached  with  power,  and  without  ostensible  contradiction.  The  great 
majority  of  pastors  are  approaching  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  orthodoxy 
of  our  fathers,  and  many  among  them  are  truly  examples  of  zeal  for  the 
house  of  Ood.  I  am  often  touched  even  to  tears  in  seeing  pastors,  at 
whose  ordination  I  did  not  wish  to  take  part,  preach  Christ,  and  Christ 
crucified,  with  liberty  of  heart  full  of  force  and  blessing.  I  tell  you 
these  things,  dear  Sir,  because  it  is  most  certainly  the  fruit  of  the  good 
seed  sown  here  and  elsewhere  by  your  venerable  uncle.  Would  that  we 
could  diminish  the  number  of  his  years,  and  see  him  once  more  in  the 


TESTIMONY    OF   M.  MARZIALS.  471 

midst  of  U8,  with  his  honoured  partDer  in  life !  Great  would  be  our  joy, 
and  his  would  be  great  also.  But  your  letter  saddens  us  by  announcing 
that  he  was  feebler  in  body.  Happily  his  soul  is  full  of  the  joy  of  the 
Lord.  For  the  rest,  he  is  one  of  those  who  cannot  occasion  a  doubtful 
thought  to  any  of  his  friends.  Yes,  your  uncle  is  one  of  those  of  whom  the 
Spirit  says  for  eerttun,  '  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord,  for 
they  rest  from  their  labours,  and  their  works  do  follow  them.'  Tell  him 
all  the  affection  of  our  heart  for  his  dear  person.  I  include  M.  Rapin 
amongst  those  who  recommend  themselves  to  his  regard :  that  dear  friend 
always  speaks  of  Mr.  Kobert  Haldane  with  affection  of  heart.  May  the 
Lord  unite  us  all  in  Jesus  Christ,  before  the  throne  of  his  glory. 
Amen. — Receive,  &c.  **  Mabziaxs. 

**  Alexander  Haldaney  Esq,** 

Many  other  testimcmies  have  since  been  borne  to  the  work  of 
God  at  Geneva  and  at  Montauban.  In  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland^  M.  Frederic  Monody  of  Paria^ 
and  Dr.  Merle  D'Aubigne^  of  Geneva^  as  well  as  other  eminent 
foreign  ministers^  have  all  testified  from  personal  observation 
to  the  blessing  that  has  resulted  from  the  labours  of  Robert 
Haldane.  During  the  period  of  the  meetings  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  in.  London^  in  1851,  one  speaker  was  recom- 
mending the  Foreign-Aid  Society,  on  the  ground  that  it  only 
employed  French  and  Swiss  preachers,  and  did  not  send  out 
Englishmen,  when  Dr.  Merle  D'Aubigne  rose  and  said,  that  he 
for  one  could  not  accept  this  as  a  recommendation,  for  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  grace  of  Grod  in  ordering  the  mission  of  the 
venerable  Robert  Haldane,  from  Scotland,  '^  I  myself,  so  far  as 
man  can  see,  would  not  have  been  here  to-day." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haldane  left  Montauban  about  the  end  of 
August,  1819,  and  arrived  in  Scotland  in  the  month  of 
September.  His  father-in-law,  Mr.  Oswald,  of  Scotstown, 
whose  declining  health  was  the  immediate  cause  of  their  return^ 
died  soon  afterwards,  at  a  very  advanced  age,  much  regretted  by 
all  who  knew  him.  Shortly  afterwards,  the  death  of  Captain 
James  Oswald,  R.N.,  and  of  his  younger  brother,  Alexander 
Oswald,  Esq.,  opened  the  succession  of  the  estate  of  Scotstown 
to  the  elder  sister  of  Mrs.  Haldane,  and  that  property  could 
not  easily  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one  more  desirous  of 
devoting  it  to  the  same  objects  in  which  her  sister  and  brother- 


472  CONTINENTAL    SOCIETY. 

in-law  were  so  deeply  intereBted.  Whilst  the  world  was  disposed 
to  regard  Mr.  Haldane's  projects  only  as  the  ebullitions  of 
''eccentric"  zeal,  she  knew  how  to  appreciate  their  untold 
value.  For  the  sake  of  Christ  she  shared  in  their  reproach, 
and  down  to  the  present  time  the  name  of  Miss  Oswald,  of 
Scotstown,  still  continues  to  be  associated  with  the  Uberal 
support  of  Christian  Missions. 

Very  soon  after  his  return,  Mr.  Haldane  made  arrangements 
for  placing  ten  Home  Missionary  students  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  Mr.  L.  Macintosh,  at  Gi*antown,  with  a  view  to  their 
itinerating  as  Home  Missionaries  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland. 
But  whilst  he  was  not  overlooking  the  claims  of  his  native 
country,  for  several  years  Mr.  Haldane  was  chiefly  occupied 
in  promoting  the  furtherance  of  the  Grospel  on  the  Continent, 
by  means  of  the  Continental  Society.  His  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  France  and  Switzerland,  and  his  correspondence  with 
Germany,  rendered  his  advice  and  co-operation  of  great  import- 
ance. The  Continental  Society  had  always  to  contend  with 
opposition,  chiefly  fomented  by  Arian  and  ^^eologian  influence 
abroad.  But  its  missionaries  were  men  like  Felix  Neff,  Henri 
Pyt,  and  Francois  Olivier,  who,  for  the  most  part,  had  been 
confessors  of  Christ,  and  felt  in  their  inmost  soul  that  Grospel 
which,  in  the  midst  of  dangers,  discouragement,  and  toil,  it  was 
their  joy  to  proclaim.  Well  may  M.  Guers  exclaim,  when 
looking  back  on  the  fifteen  years  of  his  existence,  ''The  day 
of  Christ  will  tell  what  it  did  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord.'^ 

In  Edinburgh,  an  active  AuxiUary  was  formed,  in  the  spring 
of  1821,  through  the  influence  of  Mr.  Haldane,  and  a  public 
Meeting  was  held  at  the  Waterloo  Rooms,  where  he  himself,  for 
the  first  time  after  the  lapse  of  many  years,  addressed  a  pro- 
miscuous assembly.  He  spoke  with  great  force,  and  was 
listened  to  with  the  deepest  attention.  His  details  respecting 
the  past  and  existing  state  of  religion  on  the  Continent  were 
highly  interesting,  and  his  views  as  to  the  necessity  for  the 
combined  co-operation  of  Christians,  irrespective  of  denomi* 
national  differences,  for  ever  swept  away  the  false  impressions 
which^  had  been  produced  during  the  heat  of  controversy  with 


PUBLIC    MEETING   AT   EDINBURGH.  478 

regard  to  the  Congregational  Churches.  His  early  friend,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Campbell,  formerly  of  Kippen,  near  Stirling,  but  then 
of  the  High  Church,  w^  present,  and  made  an  able  speech,  in 
which  he  furnished  out  of  his  own  stores  of  information  some 
lamentable  details  as  to  the  Infidelity  of  Geneva.  But  nothing 
in  that  speech  was  so  interesting  as  the  allusions  made  by 
this  venerable  and  able  minister  of  Christ,  to  the  interest  with 
which  he  had  marked  Mr.  Haldane's  career,  from  the  happy 
days  spent  in  his  society  at  Airthrey,  when  first  entering  on  his 
Christian  career,  down  to  the  period  of  that  successful  warfare, 
which  single-handed  he  had  waged  in  a  foreign  land  with 
Arianism  and  Infidelity.  The  crowded  assembly  went  away  at 
once  interested  and  instructed.  None  seemed  more  impressed 
than  Mr.  Haldane's  old  friend,  Mr.  Aikman,  who,  as  he  walked 
along  Princes-street  with  one  of  the  nearest  relatives  of  his 
former  associates,  seemed,  by  his  brief  exclamations,  to  express 
a  new  pang  at  the  recollection  of  the  disruption,  which  might 
have  been  less  complete  had  he  and  his  friends  listened  to  the 
united  wishes  of  the  two  brothers  in  1808. 

During  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  Mr.  Haldane  made 
a  journey  to  London  by  himself,  with  a  view  to  set  in  order 
some  matters  connected  with  the  establishment  of  the  Con- 
tinental Society.  In  this  he  was  to  a  considerable  extent 
successful,  and  promises  of  co-operation  or  assistance  were 
received  from  several  influential  men,  both  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  Dissenters.  Amongst  others,  he  again  met 
Mr.  Wilberforce,  who  for  several  years  enlivened  the  Annual 
Meetings  with  the  charms  of  his  melodious  eloquence.  Of  the 
Continental  Society,  M.  Guers  writes,  many  years  after  its 
extinction : — 

"It  was,  in  1818,  the  first  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  the  North  of 
France,  and  then  into  the  South,  and  then  into  the  centre.  Wherever 
its  missionaries  went  they  found  nothing  but  spiritual  death,  and  in  the 
hands  of  the  Lord  they  became  for  multitudes  the  instruments  of  life  and 
salvation.  The  Society  viiih  courage  and  success  passed  through  the 
reign  of  Jesuitism  in  France,  that  period  of  unhappy  memory,  during 
which  the  Oovemment  of  Charles  X.,  making  a  noiseless  war  against  the 
religious  movement,  laboured  everjrwhere  to  plant  the  banner  of  Rome. 


474  CONTINENTAL   SOCIETY. 

In  spite  of  every  difficulty,  the  Continexital  Society,  which  was  the  only 
Society  engaged  in  the  evangelization  of  France,  humhly  proceeded  with 
its  work,  under  the  protection  of  the  Lord." 

M.  Guers  proceeds  to  trace  the  progress  and  downfal  of 
the  Continental  Society^  which  he  traces  to  Irvingism.  But 
he  is  not  quite  accurate  as  to  the  details  so  far  as  concerns 
Britain.  In  Paris  it  was  always  the  object  of  jealousy — a 
jealpusy  natural  to  the  Arian^  Pelagian^  and  Arminian  enemies 
of  the  Gospel — a  jealousy  which  was  also  fostered  by  English 
influence^  seeking  a  pre-eminence  which^  in  the  first  ages  of 
Christianity^  characterized  Diotrephes.  It  was  also  opposed  by 
some^  who  were  not  ashamed  to  complain  of  the  banished  Swiss 
as  foreigners  J  and  therefore  not  adapted  for  the  office  of  evange- 
lists in  France.  But  it  was  chiefly  opposed  on  a  ground  that 
artfully  appealed  to  High  Church  prejudices  in  England^  and 
was  totally  inapplicable  to  a  Popish  country  like  France ;  namely^ 
that  the  preachers  had  no  right  to  go  into  the  parishes  of  other 
ministers,  even  although  nothing  but  Socinianism  or  Neology 
was  taught.  A  remonstrance^  embodying  these  complaints^ 
together  with  some  instances  of  trifling  indiscretions^  was  at  one 
time  got  up  in  Paris^  and  signed  by  a  formidable  array  of 
Luthei*an  and  Reformed  pastors^  chiefly  Arians  or  Neologians, 
as  well  as  Peers  of  France,  members  of  the  Chambers,  and  even 
agents  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  To  this 
document,  Mr.  Haldane,  on  the  invitation  of  the  London  Com- 
mittee, prepared  a  powerful  and  crushing  reply,  asserting,  from 
the  Word  of  God,  the  right  of  the  evangelists  to  preach  the 
Gospel  wherever  a  door  was  opened,  and  warning  the  remon- 
strants against  the  criminality  of  fighting  against  God,  and 
trying  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  truth.  There  were,  no  doubt^ 
some  who  signed  that  tmworthy  remonstrance  from  Paris,  who 
did  so  under  misconception,  and  the  influence  of  more  designing 
men.  It  failed,  however,  of  its  object  of  destroying  the  Society, 
and  the  countenance  which  men  like  Henri  Pyt  and  the  two 
OUviers  derived  in  Paris  from  the  Rev.  Lewis  Way,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Lovett,  and  other  men  of  God,  went  far  to  neutralize 
the  influence  which  sought  to  arrest  its  useful  operations  in 


CONTINENTAL    80CIBTY.  476 

France.  But  the  chief  and  most  formidahle  opposition  to  the 
missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Continental  Society  was  to  be 
found  in  the  Foreign  Bible  Societies^  which  were  at  that  time 
overrun  with  Neology  and  unbelief.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
in  too  many  instances  these  institutions  constituted  at  that 
period  what  has  been  termed  "an  organized  hypocrisy,''  and 
had  no  love  for  the  Gospel  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.  To 
these,  therefore,  the  preaching  of  the  truth  was  odious,  and 
they  did  what  they  could  to  prejudice  the  minds  of  British 
Christians  against  men,  of  many  of  whom  it  is  now  known 
that  "  the  world  was  not  worthy.'' 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  the  history  of  the  decline  and 
fall  of  the  Continental  Society.  Had  it  not  been  enfeebled 
at  home  through  the  unmitigated  hostility  it  had  experienced 
abroad,  it  would  not  have  been  left  to  perish  in  the  distrust 
inspired  by  the  errors  or  ephemeral  extravagances  of  a  section 
of  its  supporters— extravagances  which  did  not  infect  its  mis- 
sionaries or  taint  its  foreign  operations.  But  it  had  nobly  done  its 
Master's  work,  and  that  work  was  subsequently  carried  on,  first  by 
its  original  Auxiliaries  in  Scotland,*  which,  imder  Mr.  JIaldane's 
advice,  had  wisely  assumed  independent  action ;  and  finally,  by 
the  Societes  Evangeliques  of  Geneva  and  Paris,  after  the  whirl- 
wind of  the  Bible  Society  controversy  had  cleared  the  atmosphere, 
and  by  exposing  the  character  of  pretended  friends  to  the  cause 
of  the  Bible,  left  the  evangelization  of  the  Continent  in  the 
hands  of  men  of  God,  instead  of  being  intrusted  to  those  who 
either  combined  in  Bible  Societies  abroad,  for  the  sake  of 
fashion,  or  to  attain  their  own  selfish  objects. 

After  Mr.  Haldane's  journey  to  London  in  1821,  he  was  pre- 
vailed on  to  visit  Ireland  in  the  following  year,  with  the  view  of 
exciting  an  interest  on  behalf  of  the  Continental  Society.     He 

*  Dr.  Struthers,  in  his  history  of  the  Relief  Church,  imagines  that  the 
institution  of  provincial  Societies  in  Scotland,  separate  from  the  London 
Continental  Society,  was  a  proof  of  a  design  on  the  part  of  the  Established 
Church  in  Scotland  to  obtain  an  ascendancy.  The  truth  was,  that  the 
separation  was  made  in  the  hope  of  averting  what  Mr.  Haldane  foresaw 
as  an  impending  danger,  the  interference  of  Irvingism. 


476  MR.  HALDANE   VISITS   IRELAND. 

took  with  him  M.  Mejanel,  who  had  lately  arrived  from  France. 
In  Dublin  he  met  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Kelly,  and  other  Chris- 
tians of  various  denominations,  both  Churchmen  and  Dissenters^ 
from  whom  he  received  every  token  of  affectionate  respect*  In 
particular,  he  had  much  pleasure  in  the  visit  which  he  made  to 
Powerscourt,  in  witnessing  the  ardent  zeal  for  the  truth  which 
animated  the  heart  of  the  noble  proprietor,  whose  brief  career  of 
Christian  devotedness  was  soon  to  terminate.  From  Powers- 
court  Mr.  Haldane  went  to  Tullamore  Park,  on  the  invitation  of 
the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Roden ;  and  during  his  residence  at 
that  beautiful  place,  had  an  opportunity  of  preaching  on  the 
Lord's-day  in  their  domestic  chapel,  to  an  overflowing  congre- 
gation, which  blocked  up  both  its  doors  and  windows.  In 
private,  every  morning  after  breakfast,  for  six  successive  days^ 
he  expounded  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  to  a  small  circle^ 
who  heard  with  deep  interest  those  edifying  and  comprehensive 
views  of  Divine  truth  which  he  knew  so  well  how  to  enunciate. 
Amongst  those  who  then  hstened  to  the  truths  which  dropped 
from  his  lips,  was  the  late  Lady  Anne  Jocelyn,  the  beloved  sister 
of  Lord  Roden,  who  was  in  an  eminent  degree  partaker  of  the 
same  precious  faith  which  enriches  her  noble  brother,  but  who 
was  speedily  to  be  removed  from  amongst  the  worshippers 
below,  to  join  in  the  song  of  the  redeemed,  before  the  throne 
of  God  and  the  Lamb.  Shortly  afterwards,  Mr.  Haldane  had 
the  pleasure  of  receiving  Lord  Roden  at  his  own  house  at 
Auchingray,  and  a  clergyman  who  accompanied  his  Lordship 
preached  there  on  the  Lord's-day.  It  was  probably  the  first 
sermon  from  an  Episcopalian  divine  ever  heard  by  that  con- 
gregation, who  were  for  the  most  part  the  descendants  of  the 
west  country  Covenanters.  All  of  them  then  held  the  memoiy 
of  their  pious  but  warlike  ancestors  in  great  esteem,  and 
some  of  them  preserved  in  their  cottages  the  very  guns  which 
had  been  borne  at  the  battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge. 

The  following  extract  of  a  letter,  written  in  June,  1822^ 
contains  a  short  but  interesting  account  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  visit 
to  Ireland : — 

**  I  received  last  night  a  lettdt  from  my  friend  in  Ireland,  mentioniiiig 


MR.  HALDANE    VISITS    IRELAND.  477 

with  great  delight  a  visit  which  Dublin  had  lately  received  from  Mr. 
Robert  Haldane.     He  was  accompanied  by  a  M.  Mejanel,  a  French 

minister,  with  whom was  also  much  pleased.     Mr.  Haldane  has  been 

wonderfully  useful  among  the  clergy  on  the  Continent.  Mr.  Kelly  told 
him,  on  the  authority  of  M.  Mejanel,  that  it  is  calculated  that  more  than 
sixty  ministers  had  been  converted  by  his  means  in  France  and  Switzer- 
land. My  friend  says,  '  He  spent  one  morning  with  us,  and  we  also  met 
him  twice.  He  spoke  on  the  Scriptures  with  very  great  power  and  judg- 
ment. Indeed,  he  seems  to  have  drank  deeply  at  the  fountain  of  know- 
ledge. He  is  not  a  clergyman,  but  our  clergy  were  delighted  to  sit  at  his 
feet,  and  they  gave  him  the  lead  wherever  he  went.* " 

Mr.  Haldane  could  not  regard  what  he  saw  of  the  lamentable 
state  of  Ireland^  without  feeling  a  desire  to  do  something  to 
promote  its  regeneration^  and  he  strongly  stated  his  opinion 
that  this  would  never  be  accomplished  but  by  means  of  the 
Grospel.  He  therefore  urged  that  some  combined  effort  should 
be  made  to  send  preachers  into  the  Bomish  districts^  to  break 
up  the  fallow  ground,  and  to  publish  those  truths  which  are 
mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds.  But 
the  Lord's  time  was  not  yet  come,  and  his  efforts  were  in  vain, 
although  at  first  supported  by  laymen  of  great  influence.  The 
idea  of  proselytizing,  as  is  now  done  by  the  Irish  Church 
missionaries,  was  treated  as  chimerical,  and  as  likely  to  be 
attended  with  dangerous  consequences.  A  few  years  after- 
wards, Ireland  was  visited  by  another  champion  of  the  faith^ 
the  well-known  Captain  J.  E.  Gordon,  who,  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend,  describes  in  his  own  case  the  very  arguments  with  which 
Mr.  Haldane's  previous  remonstrances  had  been  parried.  Mr. 
Haldane's  plan  contemplated  the  mission  of  preachers  without 
reference  to  Episcopacy  or  Presbytery,  just  as  the  Continental 
Society  was  employing  agents  in  France.  Mr.  Grordon's  plan 
was  to  have  been  carried  out  in  connexion  with  the  Established 
Church.     The  details  are  curious,  and  worth  preserving : — 

''Hadhw  House,  March  23,  1852. 

'*The  entire  period  of  my  connexion  with  Ireland,  extending  to  not 
less  than  two  years,  was  occupied  with  one  continuous  and  sustained 
effort  to  introduce  the  Reformation  into  that  country,  or,  in  other  words^ 
to  prompt  just  such  an  aggressive  effort,  upon  the  part  of  the  Establish- 
ment, as  she  is  now  eierting  with  such  success  in  the  provinces  of  Con- 


478  CAPTAIN  Gordon's  plan  op  an  Irish  mission. 

naught  and  Munster.  As  that  Churchy  however,  had  then  ctiacharged 
herself  from  all  responfiibility  with  respect  to  the  Roman  Catholic  part  of 
the  population,  there  was  not  merely  the  vis  inertxm  of  ignorance  and 
apathy  to  overcome,  but  a  conventional  opposition  to  such  an  effort, 
founded  upon  the  conviction,  that  any  interference  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  population  would  be  a  transgression  of  the  limits  of  pastoral 
jurisdiction.  All,  therefore,  which  I  found  it  possible  to  accomplish,  was 
the  promotion  of  controversy,  through  the  platform  and  the  pulpit,  when 
practicable,  and  that  movement  it  was,  under  God,  which  gave  the  initial 
tendency  to  the  progress  of  inquiry  in  the  Irish  mind.  Not  satisfied, 
however,  with  such  random  and  partial  efforts,  I  conceived  the  design  of 
a  mission,  which  should  act  independently  of  local  authority  and  local 
obstruction.  Being  acquainted  with  Lord  Liverpool,  then  Prime  Minister, 
and  in  the  habit  of  confidential  communication  with  him  upon  the  religious 
and  moral  condition  of  Ireland,  I  proposed  to  him  the  establishment  of  a 
mission,  under  the  Royal  authority,  upon  the  same  principle  as  that 
authorized  by  Edward  VI., — a  mission  consisting  of  a  body  of  evangelical, 
jealous,  energetic  clergymen,  who  should  traverse  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  country,  and  occupy  either  the  pulpit  or  the  court-house,  as  mig^t 
best  suit  their  purpose. 

"  His  Lordship  was  much  struck  with  the  proposition,  but  said  that  it 
would  entirely  depend  upon  the  degree  of  countenance  it  might  receiye 
from  the  Irish  Church,  and  that  it  must  appear  to  come  from  that  quarter. 
I  told  his  Lordship,  that  I  possessed  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Dr. 
Magee,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  that  I  had  very  little  doubt  of  his 
countenance  in  the  scheme.  '  If,'  said  his  Lordship,  *  you  can  secure  the 
sanction  of  that  Prelate,  his  influence  would  be  sufficient  to  carry  it 
through  the  difficulties  it  would  have  to  encounter  from  the  Church  on 
this  side  of  the  water.'  I  lost  no  time  in  putting  myself  in  communication 
with  Dr.  Magee,  whose  capacious  intellect  and  active  zeal  immediately 
grasped  and  adopted  the  proposition  in  all  its  bearings,  and  he  assured 
me  that  he  would  do  everything  which  his  situation  might  enable  him  to 
do  in  favour  of  the  design.  Thus  stood  the  matter  when,  in  the  myste- 
rious providence  of  Ood,  Lord  Liverpool  was  removed  from  office,  and 
became  politically  defunct,  and  the  Archbishop  was  soon  after  summoned 
from  his  labours  to  hb  rest. 

"  Believe  me,  very  sincerely  yours, 

"  J.  E.  GOBDON." 

Once  more  it  was  seen  that  the  Lord's  time  was  not  come^ 
and  that  it  was  not  tmtil  after  a  series  of  providential  movements 
that  the  gromid  was  prepared,  and  the  Rev.  A.  Dallas  went 
forward,  in  spite  of  discouragements,  and  was  honoured  to 


STORY   OF   PETER  HEAMAN,    PIRATE.  479 

commence  those  proceedings^  which  have  silenced  the  cavils  of 
objectors^  astonished  the  unbelieving  worlds  and  filled  the  hearts 
of  Christians  with  wondering  joy^  and  caused  them  to  exclaim^ 
"  What  hath  God  wrought ! " 

In  the  winter  of  1821-2  Mr.  Haldane  had  been  engaged  for 
some  weeks  in  a  way  not  accordant  with  his  usual  habits.     It 
had  been  his  brother's  custom^  and  one  of  the  instances  of  his 
unwearied  zeal^  always  to  seek  an  interview  with  prisoners  in 
gaol,  when  imder  sentence  of  death.     His  labours  in  the  very 
first  case  which  he  attended,  in  1799,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
career,  seemed  to  have  been  blessed,  and  there  were  several 
others  in  which  there  was  reason  to  hope  that  the  word  spoken 
had   not  been  in  vain.     In  fact,   during  the  time  when  our 
criminal  code  was  so  sanguinary,  its  only  redeeming  feature  was 
to  be  found  in  the  opportunity  which  it  gave  to  the  unhappy 
criminal  solemnly  to  consider  his  state  in  the  sight  of  God,  and 
ask  for  mercy  through  the  only  appointed  channel.     In  Novem- 
ber, 1821,  two  prisoners,  the  one  a  Swede,  Peter  Heaman,  and 
the  other  a  Frenchman,  Francois  Gautier,  were  tried  for  murder 
and  piracy  on  the  high  seas,  and  convicted.     The  vessel  in 
which  they  sailed  had  on  board  a  quantity  of  specie,  and  the 
captain  was  the  only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  crew's  obtaining 
the  prize.     This  was  sometimes  referred  to  in  jest,  but  at  last 
the  foul  deed  was  committed ;  the  captain  and  one  of  the  crew 
murdered;  and  the  vessel  and  cargo  seized  by  Peter  Heaman 
and  his  comrades.     They  were  afterwards  all  captured,  and  two 
of  the  ringleaders  justly  condemned.     It  was  the  duty  of  Dr. 
Campbell,  according  to  rotation,  to  attend  these  convicts,  and, 
being  foreigners,  he  requested  of  Mr.  Haldane,  with  reference 
to  the  language,  the  aid  which  he  willingly  rendered.    In  regard 
to  the  Frenchman,  Gautier,  there  was  nothing  peculiarly  satis- 
factory,  and  he  was   attended  to  the  scaffold  by  a  Romish 
priest ;  but,  in  the  case  of  Heaman,  there  was  strong  reason  to 
conclude  that  he  received  repentance  to  believe  the  truth.     He 
was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  some  education,  and  a  sketch  of 
his  life,  written  by  himself,  was  afterwards  published  as  a  tracts 
''  with  remarks  by  J.  Campbell,  D.D.,  and  an  account  of  him  in 


480         ACCOUNT  OP  PETER  HEAMAN. 

the  goal,  and  at  bis  execution,  by  Robert  Haldane,  Esq/'  The 
narrative  of  Heaman  bears  the  stamp  of  sincerity  and  deep  con* 
trition,  whilst  the  prefixed  notices  of  two  men  so  eminent  as  the 
editors  could  not  fail  to  attract  attention.  It  was  satisfactory  to 
Mr.  Haldane  to  find  that  the  Judges  expressed  an  opinion  that 
this  tract  was  free  from  those  objections  which  too  often  apply 
to  the  accounts  of  converted  criminals. 

Dr.  Campbell's  remarks  are  valuable,  as  pointing  to  the  power 
of  the  devil  as  a  tempter  in  leading  ungodly  men  into  crime. 
Mr.  Haldane's  details  of  the  conversion  of  Heaman  are  remark- 
able as  a  short  and  comprehensive  compendium  of  the  Grospel, 
exhibiting  the  lost  condition  of  man  and  the  way  of  salvation  in 
language  at  once  clear,  powerful,  and  well  supported  by  Scrip- 
ture:— 

**  When  he  began  to  converse  with  Heaman  he  did  not  dwell  on  his 
particular  crime,  excepting  in  so  far  as  it  was  a  proof  of  the  depravity  of 
his  heart  When  Heaman  urged  his  occupation  at  sea  as  an  apology  for 
the  neglect  of  religion,  he  was  told  that  the  person  talking  to  him  prac- 
tically knew  the  life  of  a  sailor,  and  considered  that  occupation  anything 
rather  than  an  excuse  for  neglecting  the  salvation  of  God.  Nowhere 
was  there  a  better  opportunity  for  reading  the  Scriptures,  for  meditating 
on  them,  and  holding  communion  with  God ;  and  nowhere  was  there  a 
louder  call  to  exercise  habitual  dependance  on  God  than  on  board  of  ship. 
There,  too,  vice  often  appeared  in  forms  so  gross  as  to  render  it  peculiarly 
odious,  and,  consequently,  more  easily  resisted  and  overcome  than  when 
it  presented  itself  in  shapes  more  alluring  and  seductive,  because  more 
refined  and  disguised. 

*^  The  Gospel  was  then  stated  to  Heaman.  The  atonement  made  by 
Christ  is  complete.  His  righteousness  is  applied  to  every  individual  of 
the  human  race  who  is  united  to  Christ  by  faith.  For  the  great  purpose 
of  sanctification,  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  is  obtained  through  the 
mediation  of  Christ.  Heaman  was  shown,  in  the  words  of  Luther,  that 
*  if  I  were  to  work  to  eternity  on  the  plan  of  reformation  and  self-justifi- 
cation, I  could  never  find  rest  to  my  conscience,  for  I  should  never  be 
certain  that  I  had  done  enough.' " 

At  the  end  of  another  conversation  to  the  same  effect,  Heaman 
said  that  he  felt  "  lightened,^'  and  that  this  was  "  good  news, 
indeed  ;^^  and  that  he  had  never  before  met  a  single  person 
who  presented  to  him  such  views  of  the  Gospel.  It  was  after 
this  that  he  made  his  confession,  and,  in  token  of  his  true 


ACCOUNT   OF   PETER   HEAMAN.  481 

penitence,  gave  up  a  sum  of  money  whicli  he  had  the  full 
opportunity  of  leaving  to  his  wife  and  family.  For  eight  days 
before  his  death  his  countenance  became  marked  by  tranquillity 
and  peace,  and  his  composure  continued  to  the  last.  On  the 
scaffold  there  was  no  hardened  indifference  to  death,  nor  any 
of  that  levity  and  trifling  which  miscalled  philosophers  have 
affected. 

"  He  appeared,**  says  Mr.  Haldane,  **  to  be  properly  sensible  of  his 
situation  as  a  criminal  justly  condemned  by  the  laws  of  God  and  man, 
and  as  an  immortal  creature  who  was  about  to  appear  before  his  final 
Judge.  At  the  same  time  there  was  a  dignified  composure  visible  in  his 
deportment,  as  of  one  who  knew  in  whom  he  had  believed,  and  whose 
feet  were  placed  on  a  rock  that  stood  immoveable,  against  which  the 
threatening  billows  that  beat  around  him  dashed  in  vain. 

**  Part  of  the  fifty-first  Psalm  was  sung,  and  a  very  impressive  address 
delivered  by  Dr.  Campbell.  Heaman,  after  bowing  to  the  spectators, 
confirmed  the  Reverend  Clergyman's  statements.  Mr.  Haldane  remarked 
to  him,  that  this  was  a  large  assembly,  but  that,  in  a  few  minutes,  he 
would  see  a  very  different  one, — the  innimierable  company  of  angels,  the 
general  assembly  of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  Jesus  Christ 
Himself.  He  expressed  his  himible  conviction  that  this  would  be  the 
case.  These  triumphant  words  were  then  suggested, — *  O  death,  where  is 
thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?  The  sting  of  death  is  sin, 
and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  law ;  but  thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth 
me  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.' "  Mr.  Haldane's  narrative 
proceeds : — "  He  repeated  them  aloud,  with  great  earnestness.  An 
ejaculatory  petition  was  put  up  by  one  (Mr.  Haldane)  standing  by,  that 
God  would  receive  his  departing  spirit.  He  then  prostrated  himself  on 
his  face  on  the  scaffold,  and  continued  for  a  short  time  in  secret  prayer. 

**  Ever3rthing  being  ready  for  the  execution,  he  asked  if  he  should  yet 
be  allowed  time  to  pray.  He  was  assured  it  should  be  granted,  and  a 
handkerchief  was  given  him,  as  the  signal,  both  for  himself  and  his  fellow- 
prisoner,  to  be  dropped  when  all  was  ready.  A  cap  was  placed  on  his 
head  to  cover  his  face,  and  the  rope  was  placed  round  his  neck.  With  an 
unfaltering  voice,  and  with  great  apparent  earnestness,  he  then  uttered  a 
very  suitable  prayer.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  those  parts  of  the  fifty-first 
Psalm,  which  had  just  been  sung,  that  were  most  applicable  to  his  case, 
and  of  part  of  the  130th  Psalm,  beginning,  *  Out  of  the  depths  have  I 
cried  unto  thee,  O  Lord ; '  then  of  the  twenty-third  Psalm,  of  which  he 
distinctly  repeated,  *  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil;  for  thou  art  with  me.'  In  that  awful 
moment,  on  the  brink  of  eternity,  with  the  fiettal  rope  around  his  neck,  it 

I  I 


482     MR.  J.  A.  haldake's  occupations. 

might  haye  been  supposed  that  his  thoughts  would  have  been  entirely 
absorbed  in  his  own  situation,  and  that,  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  his 
prayer,  he  would  have  made  the  signal,  but  even  then  a  proof  of  self- 
possession  and  of  feeling  consideration  for  his  fellow-sufferer  was  exhi- 
bited, to  which  it  will  not  be  easy  to  find  a  parallel.  With  perfect 
seeming  composure  he  turned  to  him  his  face,  covered  as  it  was,  and  aaid, 
'Francois,  do  you  wish  to  pray?'  Afterwards  he  himself  resumed  his 
supplications.  Having  expressed  his  entire  confidence  in  his  Redeemer, 
distinctly  repeating  these  emphatic  words,  *  I  know  whom  I  have  believed, 
and  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed 
unto  Him,'  and  having  resigned  himself  into  His  gracious  hands,  saying, 
'  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit,'  he  threw  the  handkerchief  to  the  aide  of 
the  scaffold,  in  a  manner  which  seemed  to  indicate  that  he  was  not  only 
ready,  but  willing,  to  depart." 


The  course  of  the  narrative  has  of  late  chiefly  concerned 
the  elder  brother.  Meanwhile^  Mr.  James  Ualdane  was 
enabled  to  hold  on  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  neither  elevated 
by  the  excitement  of  popularity,  nor  depressed  by  the  want  of 
co-operation.  He  had  still  many  seals  to  his  ministry^  and^ 
except  at  the  very  commencement  of  his  career,  there  was  no 
period  at  which  his  usefulness  was  more  remarkable,  than  at  that 
which  followed  the  disruption  of  the  Tabernacle  connexion.  To 
his  own  success  he  hardly  ever  aUuded,  but,  in  writing  to  Mr. 
Campbell,  of  Kingsland,  in  1809,  he  says,  "  We  were  told  that 
'  the  world'  would  leave  us,  that  no  good  would  be  done,  and  that 
there  would  be  an  end  of  usefulness.  But  numbers  still  attend 
(he,  doubtless,  meant  in  the  afternoon  and  evening),  and  we 
have  received  more  converts  from  '  the  world '  than  for  four  years 
previously.'^  But  the  good  of  which  he  was  instrumental  will 
not  be  known  till  the  books  shall  be  opened  on  the  day  of  the 
gathering  round  the  great  white  throne.  We  are  told  that^  in 
that  day,  there  shall  be  a  bright  diadem  for  those  who  have 
turned  many  to  righteousness;  and  that  this  honour  was 
reserved  for  James  Haldane,  long  after  he  ceased  to  itinerate 
and  preach  to  wondering  thousands,  is  proved  by  many  authentic 
testimonies.  Amongst  others,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  Thomsonj 
who  had  one  of  the  largest  parishes  in  Edinbur^^  pointedly 


MB.  J.  A.  HALDANE's    OCCUPATIONS.  488 

remarked,  that,  in  examining  candidates  for  admission  to  his 
half-yearly  communions,  he  found  a  greater  number  of  instances 
of  awakenings  attributed  to  the  preaching  of  Mr.  James  Haldane 
than  to  that  of  any  other  preacher  in  Edinburgh.  The 
same  testimony  was  borne  by  others,  and  it  agrees  with  an 
anecdote  which  rests  on  the  authority  of  a  venerable  minister  in 
England,  who  still  survives,  and  who  stated  that,  in  a  conversa- 
tion with  Dr.  M'Crie,  during  a  visit  to  Edinburgh,  they  were 
discussing  the  merits  of  various  preachers,  when  the  celebrated 
historian  of  John  Knox  observed,  that,  in  his  opinion,  Mr.  James 
Haldane  preached  the  doctrine  of  free  justification  more  fully 
and  more  clearly  than  any  other  minister  he  knew. 

At  the  end  of  1819  his  mother's  last  surviving  sister  died. 
She  was  the  mother  of  Admiral  Haldane  Tait,  and  of  three 
other  sons,  one  of  whom  was  long  numbered  amongst  the  most 
esteemed  ministers  in  Edinburgh.  There  was  a  third  son,  who 
was  well  known,  both  in  the  counties  of  Perth  and  Forfar,  as 
the  resident  manager  of  the  Earl  of  Camperdown's  estates,  and 
who  dated  his  conversion  to  his  conversations  with  Mr.  James 
Haldane,  and  to  a  tract  which  he  had  recommended,  intituled, 
''  Three  Dialogues  between  a  Clergyman  and  his  Parishioners.^' 
Mr.  James  Haldane's  attention  to  his  dying  aunt  was  another 
illustration  of  his  character.  During  the  last  weeks  of  her  life 
it  was  unremitting.  Besides  his  daily  morning  visits  to  her 
house,  whatever  were  his  engagements,  and  how  late  soever  he 
had  been  occupied  by  prayer-meetings.  Church  meetings,  or 
preaching, — ^whatever  was  the  hour  and  whatever  was  the 
weather,  both  on  the  week-days  and  the  Lord's-days,  he  never 
failed  to  walk  to  her  house,  in  order  that  he  might  pray  beside 
her  bed  and  comfort  her  with  some  of  the  precious  promises  of 
the  Gospel.  It  was  in  these  things,  in  his  domestic  circle^ 
amongst  his  friends,  and  in  his  private  as  much  as  in  public 
engagements,  that  he  exhibited  one  of  the  brightest  examples  of 
that  pure  and  undefiled  religion  which  consists  in  visiting  the 
widow  and  the  fatherless,  and  keeping  himself  unspotted  from 
the  world.  He  was  a  man  who  never  acted  a  part  or  seemed  to 
be  what  he  was  not.     His  character,  both  in  public  and  private, 

II  2 


I 


4 


484  MB.  J.  A.  haldane's  publications. 

was  earnest  and  truthful.  The  more  closely  his  walk  was  sur- 
veyed^ the  more  did  it  appear  that  his  steps  were  ordered  of  the 
Lord,  and  that  he  himself  adorned  the  doctrines  which  he  so 
fervently  beUeved  and  faithfully  preached. 

For  five  years  he  conducted  the  "  Scripture  Magazine^''  which 
contained  many  valuable  elucidations  of  the  Word  of  Grod,  both 
critical  and  expository,  of  different  works  that  appeared  on 
disputed  points.  Its  chief  object  was  to  establish  the  grand 
truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  it  contains,  amongst  other  valuable 
essays  from  his  own  pen,  and  ''notes  on  Scripture,^'  a  series 
of  articles  which  he  once  thought  of  consoUdating  into  a 
volume,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Revelation  of  Mercy.*'  They 
were  intended  to  illustrate  the  gradual  unfolding  of  the  great 
scheme  of  redemption,  from  the  garden  of  Eden  to  the  garden 
of  Gethsemane;  to  have  followed  its  development  through  all 
its  successive  stages,  from  the  promise  made  to  the  first  Adam, 
after  his  fall,  to  the  moment  when  the  great  work  of  the  second 
Adam  was  finished  on  Moimt  Calvary.  He  particularly  intended 
to  show  the  inseparable  union  between  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New ;  how  Jesus  Christ  lives  and  breathes  in  every  page  of 
the  sacred  volume ;  how  his  righteousness  was  alike  exhibited  in 
the  types  of  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  and  the  Levitical  sacrifices, 
in  the  shadowy  grandeur  of  ancient  prophecy,  and  the  wonderful 
history  of  the  Jewish  economy.  The  design  of  publishing  this 
volume  was  never  accomplished,  but  he  afterwards  printed  a 
valuable  little  tract,  intituled  "  The  Revelation  of  God's  Right* 
eousness,"  embodying  an  epitome  of  his  views.  After  being 
out  of  print  for  nearly  thirty  years,  a  third  edition  was  lately 
published,  on  the  recommendation  of  some  very  competent 
judges,  who  have  expressed  their  obligations  to  that  treatise,  as 
having  enlarged  their  views  of  the  wonderful  connexion  between 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.* 

In  1819  he  wrote  some  very  able  ''  Strictures  on  a  Publica* 
tion  upon  Primitive  Christianity,  by  Mr.  John  Walker,  formerly 
Fellow  of  Dublin   College.''     Mr.  Walker  had  assumed   the 

•  "  The  Revelation  of  God's  Righteousness."  By  the  late  J.  A.  Hal- 
4ane.    London :  Nisbet  and  Co.    Edinburgh :  Whyte  and  Co. 


STRICTURES   ON    MR.  WALKER,   OP   DUBLIN.        486 

principle  that  a  mere  profession  of  belief  was  all  that  was 
required  to  constitute  a  claim  to  Christianity^  and  that^  if  a 
brother  professed  repentance  after  an  ofiFence,  he  was  to  be 
restored^  '^  although  they  should  have  the  next  day  to  accom- 
pany that  brother  to  the  gallows  ;^^  and  that  this  was  to  be 
their  duty  and  their  rule,  although  such  a  professing  brother 
should  commit  the  same  offence  seventy  times  seven.  Mr. 
Walker  was  a  great  scholar,  and  had  been  a  clergyman  from 
whom  much  had  been  expected;  but  as  Mr.  James  Haldane 
observes,  although  he  seemed  likely  'Ho  run  well,'*  he  had 
been  ''  hindered,'^  and  whilst  he  grievously  mistook  our  Lord's 
rules  of  discipline  by  applying  the  law  intended  solely  for 
personal  quarrels  between  brethren  to  the  case  of  questions  as 
to  Christian  character,  he  also  took  a  false  view  of  faith,  after 
the  manner  of  the  Sandemanians,  leaving  out  of  account  the 
responsibiUty  of  man,  and  omitting  the  inspired  test  of  faith^ 
which  Mr.  James  Haldane  adopts  as  the  motto  of  his ''  Strictures  'J* 
^'  Little  children,  let  no  man  deceive  you ;  he  that  doeth 
righteousness  is  righteous,  even  as  he  is  righteous/'  The 
venerable  Mr.  Jay,  of  Bath,  in  writing  to  the  late  Robert  Spear^ 
Esq.,  in  1804,  says  of  Mr.  James  Haldane :  ''  I  was  much 
pleased  to  hear  his  views  of  faith,  although  I  was  obUged  to 
oppose  them  in  order  to  hear  them.''  Mr.  Walker's  erroneous 
views  on  this  subject  drew  him  out  in  print,  and  showed  the 
consistency  with  which  he  continued  to  hold  the  sentiments 
which,  fifteen  years  before,  had  won  the  marked  approval  of 
Mr.  Jay.  Like  one  able  rightly  to  divide  the  Word  of  (Jod,  and 
who  had  drank  deep  into  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  Mr.  James  Haldane 
exposed  those  errors  which  had  tempted  Olas  and  Sandeman  into 
others  of  an  opposite  and  more  dangerous  kind.  Some  of  the 
good  old  writers,  in  order  to  guard  against  self-deception,  had 
so  clouded  over  the  brightness  of  the  shield  of  faith  as  to  have 
obscured  its  glory. 

'*  Saving  faith/'  he  says,  "  was  defined  so  as  to  include  every  holy 
disposition,  and  there  was  no  small  danger  of  men  being  led  to  establish 
their  own  righteousness  under  the  name  of  faith.  Glas  and  Sandeman 
boldly  opposed  the  popular  doctrine,  and  asserted  that  faith  is  simply  the 


486  MR.  WALKER,   OP   DUBLIN. 

belief  of  the  truth.  But  *  in  guarding  against  self-righteousness'  they 
ridiculed  'heart  religion/  and  encouraged,  in  some  respects,  a  very 
improper  laxity  of  conduct." 

The  whole  of  the  discussion  is  important.  The  glory  and 
simplicity  of  faith  is,  on  the  one  hand,  vindicated  from  the 
error  of  those  who  would  interpose  something  between  the 
sinner  and  Christ,  and,  on  the  other,  from  the  still  more 
dangerous  extreme  of  making  the  profession  of  a  mere  intel- 
lectual act,  unaccompanied  by  any  change  of  heart,  a  title  to 
salvation.  The  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  responsibility  of  man 
were  two  doctrines  which  Mr.  J.  Haldane  never  tried  to  reconcile, 
but  which  he  fully  and  strongly  preached. 

**  No  man  who  is  not  warped  by  a  system  will  hesitate  to  use  the  language 
of  Scripture :  '  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found ;  call  ye  upon 
him  while  he  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the 
unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and 
he  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly 
pardon.'  But  Mr.  Walker  is  so  apprehensive  of  self-righteousness  that 
he  seems  afraid  of  anything  resembling  those  tender  and  pathetic  expos- 
tulations so  frequent  in  the  inspired  volumes.  To  inadequate  views  of 
human  responsibility  I  attribute,  in  a  great  measure,  that  harshness  and 
severity  which  characterize  the  writings  of  Mr.  Walker.** 

In  1822,  Mr.  James  Haldane  was  called  to  sympathize  with 
his  friend.  Dr.  Stuart,  on  the  melancholy  occasion  so  well  known 
to  the  world,  when  his  son,  Mr.  James  Stuart,  was  involved  in 
a  political  duel,  in  which  Sir  Alexander  Boswell,  the  son  of  the 
celebrated  biographer  of  Dr.  Johnson,  was  killed.  At  that  time 
party  ran  high  in  Edinburgh.  It  was  the  crisis  of  a  long 
protracted  struggle  between  the  Tories  and  the  Whigs^  or 
Liberals.  The  Tories  had  for  so  many  years  exercised  a  para- 
mount influence  in  Scotland,  which  had  been  for  some  time 
declining.  Mr.  James  Stuart,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  and 
most  intimate  friends  of  Lord  Brougham,  had  taken  a  leading  part 
on  the  side  of  the  Whigs,  whose  great  political  organ  and  rallying 
point  had  been  the  ''Edinburgh  Review.''  In  1819-20  he  had 
been  bitterly  lampooned  in  the  "  Sentinel,''  a  weekly  political 
journal  set  up  in  Edinburgh  about  the  same  time  that  the 


DEATH    OP    SIR   ALEX.  BOSWELL.  487 

^'John  Bull^'  had  been  established  in  London.  A  quarrel 
amongst  the  publishers  induced  one  of  them  to  betray  the 
secrets  of  the  contributors^  and  disclosed  Sir  Alexander  Boswell 
as  one  who  had  satirized  Mr.  Stuart  as  a  coward.  A  duel 
followed,  of  which  an  account  is  given  in  the  following  letter. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  Mr.  James  Stuart  had  then  at  least  no 
sympathy  with  his  venerable  parent's  religious  sentiments : — 

"  Edinburgh,  AprU  6,  1822. 
*' .  .  .  Dr.  Stuart  is  pretty  well,  but  much  distressed  (about  his  son). 
Boswell  said,  after  he  received  his  wound,  that  Stuart  could  not  have 
acted  otherwise.  It  was  a  singular  coincidence,  that  after  Boswell  was 
wounded,  and  carried  to  Lord  Balmuto's,  his  Lordship  showed  (Sir) 
George  Wood,  who  had  gone  as  his  surgeon,  di£ferent  rooms,  that  he 
might  choose  where  he  should  be  laid.  He  fixed  on  one,  and  that  very 
day  a  picture  of  Lord  Auchinleck,  Boswell's  grandfather,  had  come  from 
Edinburgh  to  Balmuto,  and  it  was  removed  from  the  bed  on  which  it  had 
been  laid  to  make  room  for  the  grandson.  When  Boswell  first  got  Lord 
Rosslyn's  message  he  was  a  good  deal  agitated,  suspecting  what  it  referred 
to,  and  told  his  wife.  She  sent  for  Baron  Hume,  and,  in  consequence 
of  his  advice,  the  SherifiTs  warrant  was  obtained.  This,  however,  only 
extended  to  the  county  of  Edinburgh,  and  probably  rather  hastened  the 
catastrophe.  Douglas  (afterwards  Marquis  of  Queensberry),  Boswell'a 
second,  called  for  him  at  three  in  the  morning,  and  told  him  the  thing 
was  blown,  and  not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  They  immediately  set  off 
for  Fife.  Boswell,  it  is  said,  asked  Douglas  if  he  ought  to  fire.  This 
question  the  other  declined  answering ;  and  it  is  said  he  did  not  mean  to 
fire,  but  his  pistol  went  off  when  he  received  his  wound.  .  .  .  Boswell, 
instead  of  raising  his  pistol  when  the  signal  was  given,  was  holding  it  up 
over  his  head,  and  thus  exposed  himself.  Had  not  this  been  the  case  he 
would  probably  have  received  the  ball  in  his  arm.  George  Bell  (the 
surgeon),  whom  I  met  at  your  uncle's  last  night,  told  me  this.  Into 
what  difficulties  do  men  plunge  themselves  when  they  forsake  the 
Divine  authority!  As  soon  as  that  is  lost  sight  of  they  think  them- 
selves obliged  to  do  what  they  feel  and  know  to  be  most  improper. 
They  are  shut  up  to  risk  their  own  lives,  and,  perhaps,  to  murder  their 
fellow-creatures.    Truly  the  way  of  transgressors  is  hard." 

Rather  more  than  three  years  after  the  removal  of  his  first 
wife  Mr.  James  A.  Haldane  formed  a  second  union.  On  the 
23d  of  April,  1822,  he  married  Margaret  Rutherford,  a  daughter 
of  the  late  well-known  physician  and  Professor  of  Botany  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Daniel  Rutherford,  the  maternal 


488  MR.  hill's   last   visit   to    SCOTLAND. 

uncle  of  Sir  Walter  Scott^  so  that  the  second  Mrs.  James 
Haldane  was  the  cousin-german  of  the  celebrated  poet.  In  all 
things  she  was  like-minded  with  her  husband^  the  value  of 
whose  exalted  excellencies  she  thoroughly  appreciated,  whilst 
her  own  amiable  and  valuable  qualities  contributed  to  render 
the  imion  happy  and  prosperous.  Down  to  the  last  hour 
of  his  mortal  life  it  was  her  constant  study  to  minister  to  his 
comfort  and  promote  that  of  his  family. 

It  was  in  the  sumnier  of  1823  that  Mr.  Rowland  Hill 
revisited  Scotland  for  the  first  time  since  his  tour  in  1798. 
The  Circus  no  longer  existed  as  a  place  of  worship,  but  he 
once  more  preached  for  both  of  his  old  friends,  Mr.  J.  Haldane 
and  Mr.  Aikman.  He  was  not  now  able  to  preach  on  the 
Calton  Hill  to  20,000  hearers,  but  his  spirit  was  unchanged,  as 
is  evinced  in  the  following  letter : — 

"  London,  29th  May,  1823. 

**  Mt  dear  Sir, — It  is  with  the  sincerest  gratitude  and  thankftdness  I 
return  my  most  grateful  acknowledgments  to  you  for  your  afiectionate 
invitation  to  your  hospitable  abode. 

'*  There  is  a  gratification  in  seeing  and  conversing  with  old  friends 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  arising  among  living  Christians  from  their  union 
with  Christ,  whereby  all  his  members  are  made  one  with  each  other,  as 
being  one  in  him,  while  to  love  the  image  of  Christ,  as  we  see  it  upon  our 
fellow-mortals,  is  one  of  the  brightest  evidences  that  we  have  been  beloved 
by  him. 

'*  While  1  lament  that  the  Lord  has  taken  from  you  your  late  beloved 
partner,  yet  I  trust  you  will  prove,  by  your  present  union,  that  he  has 
repaired  the  breach.  Little  did  1  think  when  I  was  last  in  Scotland — 
now,  I  believe,  three-and-twenty  years  ago — ^that  I  should  yet  live. 
Within  the  short  space  of  a  few  weeks  from  hence  and  1  shall  enter  the 
eightieth  year  of  my  age,  and  though  no  wonder  that  I  feel  not  as 
I  once  was,  yet  1  ought  to  be  very  thankful  that  I  am  as  1  am. 

"  Some  of  my  old  friends  in  Scotland,  1  suppose,  are  still  remaining. 
To  such  1  beg  my  most  cordial  love  and  respects.  Oh !  that  we  may  be 
kept  from  declining  in  spirituality  in  our  declining  days,  blest  with  an 
ardent  desire  to  work  as  long  as  we  can  work,  and  longing  for  still 
brighter  evidences  of  that  glory  that  shall  be  revealed. 

**  Mrs.  Hill  returns  grateful  thanks  for  Mrs.  Haldane's  kind  invitation, 
though  she  does  not  accept  it;  and  be  assured,  dear  Sir,  that  I  can 
subscribe  myself, — ^Yours,  very  affectionately  and  sincerely, 
.  **  Rw.  James  A.  Haldane/*  **  Rowland  Hill. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

IMPORTANC?B  OF  THE  APOCBYPHA  CONTROVERSY  AS  INVOLV- 
ING THE  CANON  OP  SCRIPTURE— ORIGIN  OF  THE  CON- 
TROVERSY  IN  1821— FAILURE  OF  MR.  HALDANE'S  ENDEA- 
VOURS  TO  OBTAIN  AN  AMICABLE  ADJUSTMENT— INTER- 
MINGLED APOCRYPHAS— REV.  JOHN  OWEN— VACILLATINa 
CONDUCT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  —  FIRST  EDINBURGH 
STATEMENT  —  CAMBRIDGE  PROTEST  — MR.  SIMEON  AND 
MR.  (K)RHAM— DOUBTS  AS  TO  THE  SACRED  CANON— MR. 
HALDANE'S  FIRST  REVIEW— TOULOUSE  AND  MONTAUBAN 
BEBLEa-SECOND  EDINBURGH  STATEMENT— CHARACTER 
OF  DR.  ANDREW  THOMSON— DR.  THOMSON  PERSONALLY 
ATTACKED— DR.  STEINKOPFFS  PAMPHLETS  —  MR.  HAL- 
DANE'S  SECOND  REVIEW  —  HAFFNER'S  PREFACE  — 
M.  BOST  — FOREIGN  BIBLE  SOCIETIES  OPPOSE  THE 
PREACHERS  OF  THE  GOSPEL— DR.  GORDON'S  TESTIMONY 
—LETTER  OF  MR.  HALDANE. 

[1821—26.] 

From  the  year  1816,  to  the  close  of  the  year  1824,  Mr. 
Haldane^s  chief  efforts  had  been  directed  .towards  the  Continent 
of  Europe,  with  that  intense  earnestness  and  concentration  of 
purpose  which  always  characterized  his  plans  and  operations. 
But  at  the  end  of  1824,  he  was  called  on  to  gird  himself  for  a 
new  contest,  and  one  which  was  far  more  painful,  as  it  was  not 
merely  with  Ariaus,  Socinians,  or  Neologians,  but  with  some 
whom  he  loved  and  honoured  as  fellow-labourers  in  the  Gospel 
of  Christ. 

In  approaching  the  Bible  Society  controversy,  the  difficulties 
and  delicacy  of  the  subject  stand  out  in  strong  relief.  But 
truth  cannot  suffer  from  discussion ;  and  nothing  is  more  remote 
from  the  design  of  these  Memoirs  than  to  stir  the  embers  of  a 


490  BIBLE   SOCIETY    CONTROVERSY. 

smouldering  fire.     In  a  Life  of  Robert  Haldane  it  would^  how- 
ever^ be  impossible  to  omit  all  reference  to  what  he  deemed  its 
most  important  act.     Even  if  silence  were  attempted,  it  would 
be  rebuked  by  recollections  too  sacred  to  be  forgotten.     Only  a 
few  days  before  his  death,  after  a  calm  and  solemn  review  of  the 
principal  events  of  his  life,  he  himself,  when  thus  standing  on 
the  confines  of  the  eternal  world,  intimated  his  wish  that  at  some 
period,  although  not  till  a  few  years  should  have  elapsed,  an 
account  should  be  written  of  the  Bible  Society  controversy.     He 
thought  that  it  would  be  useful  to  preserve  such  a  record,  that 
Christians  might  better  understand  the  immense  importance  of 
the  subject  in  debate,  involving  as  it  did  the  Divine  authority  of 
the  holy  Scriptures,  and  the  integrity  of  the  sacred  canon,  as 
well  as  the  principles  on  which  it  was  lawful  to  associate  and  act 
with  unbelievers  for  the  circulation  of  the  Bible.     Nearly  ten 
years  have  passed  away  since  this  injunction  was  given,  and 
in   the  interval   most  of  those  who  were  implicated  in  that 
arduous  contest  have  disappeared  from  the  busy  scene  of  mortal 
life.      Many   of  the   evils   against   which    Mr.    Haldane,   Dr. 
Thomson,  and  their  compeers  warred,  have  been  entirely  removed, 
and  the  rest  greatly  abated.     The  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  has  been  every  year  approaching  nearer  and  nearer  to 
those  principles  of  Christian  simplicity,  a  departure  from  which 
at   one   time  involved  its   administrators   in   much   that   was 
embarrassing,  and  not  a  little  that  was  sinful.     The  Word  of 
Qod  is  no  longer  adulterated  by  the  intermixture  or  addition  of 
Apocryphal  fables,  or  the  writings  of  lying  prophets.     Although 
some  of  the  Foreign  Societies  still  pursue  this  unhallowed  course, 
and  may  even  now  number  in  their  Committees  the  enemies  of 
the  Gospel,  yet  the  British  representatives  of  the  Society  abroad 
are  no  longer  in  alliance  with  Infidels,  Socinians,  or  persecutors. 
Bomish  priests,  receiving  unacknowledged  salaries,  no  longer 
exhibit  the  contradictory  marvel  of  Popery  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  Bible  distribution.     Translations  are  no  longer  intrusted  to 
such  men  as  those  who  vitiated  the  sense  of  Scripture  at  Lausanne, 
or  who,  in  the  Turkish  version,  exchanged  the  majesty  of  the 
eternal  Word  for  the  bombast  of  an  Oriental  paraphrase.     The 


BIBLE    SOCIETY    CONTROVERSY.  491 

missionaries  and  preachers  of  the  Gospel  in  France  and  Switzer- 
landj — such  as  Malan^  Bost^  Empeytaz^  Felix  Neff^  or  Henri 
Pyt, — are  no  longer  ignored  or  publicly  disclaimed  by  the  agents 
of  British  Christians.  Neologians  can  no  longer  evade  the  laws^ 
and  by  dexterous  contrivances  deface  the  blessed  volume  of 
inspiration  with  infidel  introductions  or  heretical  notes.  In  a 
word,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  whilst  collecting 
round  its  standard  the  excellent  of  every  Christian  denomination, 
has  been  gradually  retracing  its  steps  out  of  that  labyrinth  of 
error  in  which  it  was  involved  at  the  time  when  Robert  Haldane 
first  uplifted  his  warning  voice,  and  recalled  its  members  to  a 
sense  of  the  guilt  and  danger  of  pursuing  the  unhallowed  course 
into  which  some  of  their  leaders  had  been  imperceptibly  and 
unconsciously  betrayed. 

When  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  was  first  insti- 
tuted, there  is  no  doubt  that  its  rules  contemplated  the  exclusion 
of  the  Apocrypha.  This  is  sufficiently  established  by  the  written 
record,  but  the  words  of  the  Rev.  Josiah  Pratt,  one  of  its 
founders,  are  conclusive:  "That  Society,"  says  this  excellent 
man,  himself  a  partisan  of  Earl-street,  "That  Society  was 
formed — we  speak  advisedly  and  of  our  own  knowledge — on  the 
principle  of  the  utter  exclusion  of  the  Apocrypha.''  And  again : 
"  We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  a  single  native  of  the  British 
islands  had  any  other  intention  than  to  disperse  the  inspired 
Word  of  God,  and  that  only,  throughout  the  world.'*  *  This 
rule  was  strictly  adhered  to  in  regard  to  the  English  authorized 
version,  with  the  exception  of  one  edition,  which  was  admitted  to 
have  been  an  error,  and  which  became,  in  1818,  the  subject  of 
a  remonstrance  from  the  Edinburgh  Society,  by  whom  the  mis- 
take was  first  detected. 

It  matters  little  at  what  time  the  laws  of  their  Institution  were 
first  contravened,  but  Mr.  Gorham,  with  his  usual  minute  and 
scholastic  accuracy,  holds  it  to  be  established,  that  "  up  to  the 
month  of  January,  1812,"  the  Committee  considered  themselves 
debarred  from  sanctioning  the  addition  of  the  Apocrjrpha, 
whether  appended  or  interspersed.     From  the  7th  June,  1818, 

*  Missionary  Register,  1827. 


492     INTIBMINGLED   APOCRTPHA. ^EEY.  JOHN    OWEN. 

the  downward  coarse  became  bolder  and  more  rapid^  until  at 
last,  in  1819>  the  administrators  of  the  Society^  growing  confident 
in  immunity  from  censure,  actually  b^an  themselves  to  print 
Bibles  with  the  Apocrypha  either  appended  or  intermingled^ 
according  as  they  were  designed  to  gratify  the  Continental  pre- 
judices of  Protestants,  Romanists,  or  Greeks.  It  is  acaioely 
needful  to  observe,  that  in  the  intermingled  Bibles  intended  for 
the  members  of  the  Romish  and  Greek  Churches,  there  is  nothing 
to  distinguish  the  inspired  from  the  uninspired  books;  and  that 
although  the  Council  of  Trent  had  not  dared  to  insert  the  third 
books  of  Esdras  and  of  Maccabees,  these  were  printed  in  the 
Selavonian  Bible  in  1815,  and  received  the  public  thanks  of  the 
Archbishop  Vicarius  of  Moscow.  This  excessive  adulteration  of 
the  pure  Word  of  God  was  sanctioned  on  grounds  of  expediency  ; 
but  the  subsequent  overthrow  of  the  Bible  Societies  in  Russia^ 
and  the  exclusion  from  Russia  of  the  agents  who  had  assisted  in 
the  work,  only  exhibit  another  instance  of  the  importance  of 
standing  upon  principle,  and  not  yielding  up  the  truth  of  God, 
in  the  vaiu  hope  of  promoting  his  glory. 

But  during  all  the  time  that  this  was  going  on,  no  public 
intimation  of  it  was  made  to  the  Society.    The  Clerical  Secretary, 
the  Rev,  John  Owen,  was  a  man  of  fine  parts, — brilliant  aa  an 
orator,  a  good  tactician,  energetic  in  his  seal  for  Bible  distribu*- 
tion,  somewhat  vain  of  his  diplomacy,  and  little  disposed  to  be 
stopped  in  his  ardent  career  by  dry  rules  or  technical  diflBculties. 
His  influence  was  paramount  in  Earl-street.     He  was,  as  one  of 
his  friends  and  apologists  declared,  "  the  dictator  "  of  the  Com- 
mittee, and  it  would  have  been  a  bold  act  for  any  member  to 
have  opposed  his  measures,  or  questioned  his  decisions.     Much 
was  done  in  sub-committees  which  never  came  before  the  general 
body.     Even  so  late  as  1825,  active  and  intelligent  members 
could  be  named  who  were  still  in  the  dark;  and  Mr.  T.  Pell 
Piatt,  the  friend  and  admirer  of  Mr.  Owen,  as  well  as  Honorary 
Librarian  to  the  Society,  published  a  letter  to  Dr.  Wardlaw  in 
1827,  where  he  declared  that  Mr.  Owen  designedly  suppressed 
the  information.    It  was  publicly  admitted  to  have  been  a  common 
saying  in  Earl-street,  that  ''John  Bull  would  never  stand  an  inter- 


MR.  HALDANE's    first   VISIT   TO   EARI4-8TREET.    493 

mingled  Apocrypha/^  These  are  things  which  now  belong  io 
history ;  and  whatever  irritation  the  charge  of  ^^  studied  conceal- 
ment '^  occasioned  at  the  firsts  the  fact  was  afterwards  admitted^ 
and  it  is  due^  not  only  to  the  assailants  of  the  Apocrypha^ 
but  to  a  large  majority  of  the  Committee^  who  were  unconsciously 
involved  in  the  guilt  of  adulterating  the  Word  of  God^  that  the 
truth  should  be  stated. 

It  was  in  August^  1821^  when  Mr.  Haldane  was  in  London^ 
that  he  called  with  a  friend  at  the  offices  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society^  to  make  some  inquiries  with  reference  to 
an  edition  of  Martinis  French  Bible.  That  edition  had  been 
printed  at  Toulouse  at  the  expense  of  the  Society^  under  the 
inspection  of  Professor  Chabrand^  to  whom  the  office  of  editor 
had  been  committed^  on  the  recommendation  of  Mr.  Haldane^ 
acting  through  General  Macaulay,  whom  he  had  met  at  Montau- 
ban.  On  the  occasion  of  that  visit  to  Earl-street^  Mr.  Haldane 
forgot  his  umbrella,  and  being  much  accustomed  to  observe  the 
leadings  of  Providence,  it  was  to  this  accident  that  he  was  wont 
reverentially  to  trace  the  part  he  took  in  originating  and  carrying 
on  the  Apocrypha  controversy.  He  returned  on  the  following 
day  to  reclaim  his  umbrella,  and  was  requested  by  Mr.  Zachary 
Macaulay  to  join  a  Sub-committee,  which  was  then  in  conference 
with  Dr.  Pinkerton  in  regard  to  the  Toulouse  Bible.  To  his 
surprise,  he  discovered  not  only  that  the  Apocrypha  had  been 
appended  to  this  edition,  but  that  an  earlier  edition,  which  he 
had  himself  originated  at  Montauban,  had  undergone  the  same 
contamination,  although  his  contributions  to  its  cost  had  been 
made  under  repeated  pledges  that  it  should  contain  nothing  but 
the  pure  Word  of  God.  These  discoveries  were  as  startling  to 
the  noble  President  himself  as  they  were  to  Mr.  Haldane.  They 
led  to  other  inquiries,  and  the  whole  truth  with  reference  to  the 
general  circulation  of  the  Apocrypha  was  very  soon  disclosed. 
Mr.  Hughes  seemed  anidous  to  abate  the  evil,  and  Mr.  Owen 
looked  like  one  who  was  disconcerted  at  the  discovery,  but  who 
felt  that  further  perseverance  in  the  same  course  would  be 
madness.  Had  Mr.  Owen  lived,  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  he 
would  have  steered  the  gallant  yessel  which  had  so  long  been  his 


404  ME.  drummond's  NARKATT?!. 

\mi\p  Anil  bi»  boMt.  It  is  probable  that,  between  two  difficnltiesy 
tin  WDtilil  have  choten  that  whkb  would  have  aeenred  peace  at 
\\i\u\Vf  and  renounced  the  Apocrypha.  But  he  did  not  long 
mirvivc,  and  bin  nucccssor^  Mr.  Brandram,  was  unfortunately 
wmltlfd  to  th<^  nyatcm  into  which  Mr.  Owen  had  fidlen,  and  he 
illUnmif«)y  did  Imttlc  in  defence  of  the  Apocrypha^  with  an  honest 
m^\  and  unbending  determination  worthy  of  a  better  cause. 
Uniinn  Uio  intor\'al  between  the  day  when  Mr.  Haldane  first 
imvali^ly  o)Vi>n<Ml  the  subject  in  Earl-street^  in  August,  1821^  and 
ihi^  )ndibo  ni|>lniv  in  1825,  there  was  much  friendly  negotiation. 
On  ln«  ivUim  honto,  be  addressed  a  private  letter  to  one  of  the 
HfHMvUiii^,  datinl  Awchingray,  6th  October,  1821,  which  was 
Vi>ad  \\\  KarUa(nH»t«  (Hunting  out,  in  minute  detail  and  with  great 
ftwHV  uf  a\>tnnionl,  iho  evil  of  which  the  Society  was  guilty. 

Mi\  l>i^nunuvnd  has  published  a  narrative  of  what  happened 
in  ibi^  niU>r\a)«  M>i^t^n  1H21  and  1825.  It  is  marked  by  his 
Mtin^^l  okH^rn<'«»  and  prcviAiiw,  as  well  as  some  of  the  other  cha- 
flH^li>vittho«  (^'  Uu  lor»o«  grajdiic,  and  forcible  style.  He  relates 
^^^^  «su^\t^i>M^fHUU  >l^1^rr  hold  with  the  Secretaries,  how  they 
adinMhsl  I W  >  uUal h\u  t\f  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Society, 
III  ms\  \\\\y{  I  hoy  In^sgo^l  Av  time;  how  all  went  on  well  until, 

HiH^vl^  a  \t>ar  artomar^K  '*  we  kamt,  to  our  great  surprise,  that 
iVuU  had  n^vi  Ivoon  Voivf  with  us;  that  the  Committee  was 
d^un^  \vi^  jn«l  aA  \l  had  boon  doing  before.''     Mr.  Drummond 


: 
■I 

I 


» 


^  b  N^^«  ihi'U  ii^EfVo%l  t\N  W  iMV^Ntiounr  U>  bnn|:  the  qoesdon  to  the  formal 
il«s\i»UK(v  \\f  lK«'  t\\ii\u\Uhxv  A  i\v(aaunei^  w«s  specially  summoned,  sfter 
a  Kxiy^  Uv^lu>^  l^vr  A\^^\vkt  )^  IS:^^  al  vhkh  Lord  Teignmouth  presided. 
Atf^^^r  ^nhnK  ^lohaltH^x  it  >r;Mk  ly^'ih^  tbai  the  pnedce  should  be  discon- 
^ia^Hsi ;  Wl  iWaI  a«  iW  l\>WMlail^^«^  had  Kna  fWi|r  oq  for  a  oanndenble 
|)^^s\  i>^  ^W^AV  «-^rsvrv  ii  «h\H^  laktr^  tia»«f  ^cndiudlT  to  retnce  its  steps ; 
tk^^l  M\^huv^  >hs^uM  W  xUNi\<  KaMi^\  Kit  that  finnly*  persevcnnglj,  and 
a^^KU>x  lW  UUu^Vutkvi^  ^m'iW  A|vvn}iha  fhvHiki  Ixe  stopped,  and  a  Resohi- 
tisxu  tWiMv^l  l^vr  ^KU  )^MT|v\iie  ^k^  a^>|>t«^d  unasumoaslr.'^ 


MaiK^  >(^«^f^  ih^  quiolly  an^aI^|^td»  and  erimrthing  prooiiaed 
l^oaoo^  \uud  tW  incailh  i>f  Sqa^ember^  1J^4>  when,  on  the  apfili- 
tpal^sMa  ^'  a  KMiu»h  |Mml> — ih*  same  who  was  snlHeqnently 


MR.  drummond's  narrative.  495 

dismissed  from  their  service^ — the  Committee  unanimously  voted 
500/.  for  an  intermingled  Apocrypha. 

''  A  clergyman,''  says  Mr.  Drummond,  "  who  usually  attends  the  Com- 
mittee, heard  of  this,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  protest  against  it  At  the 
following  meeting  some  of  the  Committee  thought  the  most  dignified 
course  to  pursue  was  to  take  no  notice  of  the  protest,  but  to  confirm  the 
vote  of  the  preceding  meeting.  Upon  Lord  Teignmouth,  however,  who 
was  in  the  chair,  asking  the  Committee,  whether  in  case  they  confirmed 
their  vote  they  were  prepared  for  seeing  the  clergyman's  protest  in  print, 
they  agreed  to  postpone  the  further  consideration  of  it  to  another  meeting. 
Accordingly  the  subject  again  came  forward  at  a  third  meeting,  when, 
without  one  single  word  being  uttered  by  any  individual  for  or  against  it, 
the  vote  for  500/.  was  unanimousfy  rescinded.  Is  cool  judgment  and 
infiexible  principle,  or  impulse  and  feeling,  the  guide  of  a  Board,  which 
is  unanimous  one  day  upon  any  given  point,  and  as  unanimous  the 
following  day  upon  its  direct  contrary  ?  " 

The  Anti- Apocryphal  resolution  of  the  19th  August,  1822^ 
allowed  that  the  omission  of  the  Apocrypha  was  necessary^ 
in  order  "to  keep  entire  good  faith  with  the  members  of  the 
Society.'*  The  vote  to  Dr.  Van  Ess,  in  1824,  was  therefore 
not  a  sin  of  omission  or  of  carelessness,  but  a  departure  from 
the  pledge  privately  made  to  Mr.  Haldane,  Mr.  Macaulay,  Mr. 
Drummond,  and  Dr.  Thorpe,  in  1821,  and  in  the  following 
year  publicly  repeated  and  recorded  in  the  minute-books.  The 
vote  to  Van  Ess  destroyed  the  hopes  cherished  during  three 
years  of  patient  delay,  and  now  Mr.  Haldane  felt  that  the  time 
for  action  was  at  last  come.  As  his  previous  conduct  had  been 
characterized  by  moderation  and  forbearance,  so  were  his  future 
acts  to  bear  witness  to  his  Christian  courage  and  indomitable 
perseverance.  On  the  21st  of  September,  18^,  a  letter  of 
expostulation  was,  for  the  first  time,  addressed  to  Earl-street, 
from  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Committee.  A  temporary  Resolution 
was  passed  on  the  20th  of  December,  1824,  allowing  that  to  be 
done  indirectly,  which  was  not  to  be  done  directly.  It  was  a 
well-meant  effort  of  the  Noble  President  to  please  both  parties, 
on  a  question  too  grave  to  admit  of  compromise.  It  was,  in 
fact,  afterwards  allowed  on  all  hands  to  be  ineffectual  for  the 
objects  it  had  in  view.     It  settled  nothing,  and  satisfied  no  one* 


496  VACILLATING    RESOLUTIONS. 

Still  the  Edinburgh  Committee  were  ayerse  to  an  open  rupture. 
In  the  hopes  of  obtaining  terms  of  peace^  they  addresaed  to  Earl- 
street  a  further  remonstrance^  dated  the  17th  of  January^  1825, 
embodied  in  a  series  of  Resolutions,  chiefly  drawn  up  by  the  late 
Rev.  Edward  Craig,  an  English  Episcopal  clergyman^  a  fact 
worthy  of  record,  as  contradicting  the  allegation,  industriously 
circulated,  that  it  was  a  Scotch  question. 

But  the  supporters  of  Apocryphal  circulation  were  not  idle, 
and  a  remonstrance  of  an  opposite  character  was,  on  the  11th 
of  February,  prepared  at  the  lodge  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Cambridge,  and  signed  by  twenty-six  members  of  the  Senate, 
protesting  against  that  part  of  Lord  Teignmouth's  compromise, 
which  denied  pecuniary  aid  to  editions  of  the  Bible  in  which 
the  Apocryphal  books  were  ''  mixed  and  interspersed.^' 

To  this  document  the  following  note  was  appended : — 

**  We  have  no  desire  whatever  that  the  Apocrypha  should  be  circulated 
where  the  canonical  Scriptures  will  he  received  without  it;  but  we 
earnestly  wish  that  the  circulation  of  these  may  not  he  impeded,  by  any 
determination  which  will  excite  direct  opposition  from  the  very  Churches 
that  most  need  to  be  supplied  with  them." 

The  opinion  of  the  Secretaries,  as  well  as  that  of  their  most 
active  coadjutors  in  the  Committee,  unhappily  accorded  with 
the  Cambridge  Protest,  and,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1825,  the 
same  day  on  .which  it  was  read  in  Earl-street,  it  was  at  once 
resolved,  ^^  That  all  the  Resolutions  of  this  Committee,  relative  to 
the  Apocrypha  be  rescinded.^'  Another  unsatisfactory  Resolution 
of  the  Committee,  passed  on  the  22d  April,  leaving  money 
grants  unnoticed,  and  sanctioning  the  gift  of  canonical  books 
in  parts,  thereby  supplying  facilities  for  the  interspersion  of 
the  Apocrypha,  indiscriminately  mingled  with  the  sacred  text, 
and  indirectly  favouring  the  circulation  of  a  false  canon  op 
Scripture.  It  thus  appeared,  that  the  Committee  was  no  longer 
agreed  as  to  the  book  which  was  to  be  called  the  Bible;  that, 
at  best,  the  question  of  what  was,  and  what  was  not,  holy 
Scripture,  was  to  be  an  open  question,  and  that  the  Bible, 
instead  of  being  associated  with  the  hallowed  influence  that 
belongs  to  its  character,  as  only  containing  the  Word  of  Grod,  was 


FIRST   EDINBURGH    STATEMENT.  497 

to  be  a  term  which  might  be  anything  or  nothings  according 
to  the  latitudinarian  views  of  Romanists^  Neoiogians^  or  Pan- 
theists. 

As  soon  as  this  melancholy  conclusion  was  known  to  the 
Edinburgh  Bible  Society^  its  Committee  met^  and  issued  its 
first  '^  Statement  relative  to  the  circulation  of  the  Apocrypha^ 
by  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society/^  It  contained  a 
brief  narrative  of  the  discussion  which  had  already  taken  place, 
the  resolutions  prepared  by  Mr.  Craig,  and  an  Appendix,  drawn 
up  by  the  learned  and  venerable  Professor  Paxton,  exhibiting 
the  corruptions,  false  doctrines,  and  superstitions,  sanctioned  by 
the  Apocryphal  writers.  Of  this  remarkable  document  five 
thousand  copies  were  printed,  and  circulated  all  over  the 
kingdom.  The  rival  Protest  from  Cambridge  was,  at  the 
same  time,  printed  by  the  opposite  party,  and  from  the  ware- 
houses of  Earl-street  it  was  profusely  distributed,  accompanied 
by  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  written  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Venn. 
The  Cambridge  gentlemen  maintained  two  propositions,  which 
were  equally  incorrect  and  untenable :  first,  that  all  the  foreign 
Churches  regarded  the  Apocrypha  as  an  integral  part  of  the 
Bible;  and  next,  that  it  was  "impossible  to  circulate  among 
them,  to  any  extent.  Bibles  which  do  not  contain  it.'^  With 
reference  to  the  first  proposition,  it  was  true  in  regard  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  finally  sealed  its  apostasy  as  a  witness 
for  God,  when,  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  in  order  to  serve 
the  purposes  of  the  Man  of  sin,  it  purposely  incorporated  the 
Apocrypha  with  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  pronounced  its 
anathema  upon  those  who  do  not  receive  these  lying  fables. 
It  might  possibly  be  true  in  regard  to  the  Greek  Church, 
although  its  decision  had  not  been  collectively  pronounced,  but 
it  was  not  true  in  regard  to  the  foreign  Protestant  Churches. 
With  reference  to  the  second  proposition,  had  it  been  certain 
that  it  was  impossible  to  circulate  the  Bible  without  the 
Apocrypha,  such  a  fact  would  not  have  justified  a  violation  of 
Christian  principle ;  but  the  experience  of  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  has  now  happily  dissipated  the  gloomy  forebodings 
of  those  who  signed  and  issued  the  Cambridge  Protest,  and 

K   K 


498  MR.  8IME0K    AND   MR.  60RHAM. 

IiM  shown  that  the  God  of  the  Bible  has  not  reduced  his  people 
to  the  humiliating  necessity  of  adulterating  his  holy  Word^  in 
order  to  secure  for  it  the  acceptance  of  his  own  guilty  creatures. 

The  Cambridge  Protest  was  followed  by  a  letter  to  Lord 
Teignmouth^  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon^  in  which  it  aeemed 
as  if  the  renerable  and  amiable  writer  had  meant^  in  his  own 
person^  to  add  another  illustration  to  the  precept,  ''  Cease  ye 
from  man.''  In  a  speech^  supposed  to  be  uttered  by  the  Apostle 
Paul^  Mr.  Simeon  strenuously  urged  the  expediency  of  inter- 
mingling the  Apocrypha^  if  it  were  necessary  to  render  the 
pure  Word  of  (rod  more  acceptable  to  the  taste  of  the  superstitiouay 
idolatrous^  and  corrupt  Churches  of  the  Romish  and  Greek 
persuasion.  This  duty  he  strove  to  inculcate  from  the  principle 
of  becoming  all  things  to  all  men^  and  from  the  circumciaioii 
of  Timothy^  as  if  it  were  lawful  to  do  evil  that  good  might 
come,  or  as  if  in  the  case  of  one  whose  mother  was  a  Jew, 
although  his  father  was  a  Greek,  compliance  with  an  act  in 
such  a  case  lawful,  if  not  actually  binding,  were  parallel  to  a 
participation  in  the  corruption  of  the  Word  of  God. 

To  the  remarks  accompanying  the  Cambridge  Protest^  Mr. 
Gorham  published  a  masterly  reply,  in  which,  with  much 
scholastic  ability  and  profound  research,  he  demolidied  every 
argument  adduced  in  mitigation  of  the  sin  of  violating  the 
canon  of  Scripture,  and  by  an  appeal  to  history,  antiquity,  and 
actual  fact,  proved  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Bible  Society 
to  intersperse  the  Apocrypha,  without  violating  its  original  con- 
stitution, going  back  to  the  principles  of  Romanism,  and  undoing 
the  work  of  our  great  Ecclesiastical  Reformers. 

Meanwhile,  the  remonstrances  of  the  Edinburgh  and  other 
Scotch  Societies  were  followed  by  protests  from  several  English 
auxiliaries,  and  the  aspect  of  afiairs  appeared  so  threatening, 
that,  on  the  2d  of  August,  1825,  it  was  resolved  to  refer  the 
whole  subject  to  a  Special  Committee. 

Whilst  this  Committee  was  deliberating,  several  incidental 
circumstances  tended  to  show  how  much  reason  there  was,  that 
Christians  should  be  called  to  a  sense  of  the  importance  of 
maintaining  inviolate  the  sacred  canon.     Every  argument  used 


DOUBTS  AS  TO  THE  CANON.  499 

m  palliation  of  an  intermingled  Apocrypha^  might  evidently 
be  traced  to  doubts  or  uncertainty  on  this  momentous  question. 
Nay^  so  little  had  Christians  been  accustomed  to  observe  the 
bulwarks  and  mark  the  battlements  which  encircle  the  sacred 
canon^  that  Mr.  Simeon  himself  evinced  some  confusion  on  the 
subject^  in  a  second  letter^  which  he  printed^  but  was  persuaded 
to  withdraw;  whilst^  emboldened  by  such  authorities^  a  clever 
writer  in  the ''  Eclectic  Review  '*  published  an  article  in  February, 
1825,  expressing  doubts  with  regard  to  no  less  than  ten  books 
and  one  hundred  and  forty  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures.  This  article  was  hailed  with  delight  by  the  leading 
Philo-Apocryphists,  and  acquired  a  demi-official  character  from 
the  zeal  with  which  it  was  sent  out,  with  the  aid  of  its  organized 
machinery,  and  at  the  expense  of  members  of  the  Committee. 

The  country  was  now  in  a  blaze  on  the  subject  of  the 
Apocrypha,  but  although  Mr.  Haldane  was  the  first  to  lay  the 
matter  before  the  Edinburgh  Society,  and  maintained  a  constant 
correspondence  with  members  of  the  London  Committee,  and 
others  who  attended  its  meetings,  it  was  not  till  the  close  of  the 
year  that  he  himself  appeared  in  print.  It  was  then  that  he 
published  his  first  "  Review  of  the  Conduct  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  relative  to  the  Apocrypha,  and  to  their 
Administration  on  the  Continent ;  with  an  Answer  to  the  Rev. 
C.  Simeon,  and  Observations  on  the  Cambridge  Remarks.'^  His 
two  weU-chosen  mottoes  contain  the  gist  of  all  his  writing  and 
speeches  on  this  subject  during  a  period  of  nine  years  :  ^'  Add 
thou  not  unto  his  words,  lest  he  reprove  thee,  and  thou  be 
found  a  liar^'  (Prov.  xxx.  6) ;  and,  "  Shouldst  thou  help  the 
ungodly,  or  love  them  that  hate  the  Lord  f  (2  Chron.  xix.  2.) 
During  three  years  he  had  tried  every  e£fort  to  adjust  the 
question  amicably  and  privately.  During  a  fourth  year  he  had 
laboured  to  obtain  the  withdrawal  of  the  Apocrypha,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Edinburgh  Society,  of  which  he  was 
Vice-President.  At  last,  he  himself  came  forward  with  his 
'^Review  of  the  Conduct  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society.''  It  consisted  of  five  chapters,  each  grave,  convincing, 
and  e£fective.     In  t%B  first,  he  asserts  the  importance  of  the 

K   K  2 


500  MR.  haldane's  first  review. 

question^  inTolving^  as  it  did^  the  authenticity  of  Scripture^  the 
integrity  of  the  canon,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  Word  o!  Qod, 
against  those  who  talked  as  if  it  were  a  light  matter  to  con- 
taminate the  sacred  oracles  by  Apocryphal  corruptions^  whether 
added  or  interspersed.  In  his  second  chapter,  he  enoountere4 
Mr.  Simeon^s  arguments,  drawn  from  Scripture,  which  he  not 
only  fuUy  answered,  but,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Zachary  Macaulay, 
''pulverized.^'  In  his  third  chapter,  he  sifts  the  testimony 
adduced  in  the  Cambridge  Remarks,  drawn  from  the  alleged 
necessity  of  the  case,  and  by  that  process  of  reasoning,  of  which 
he  was  so  great  a  master,  turns  against  the  Cambridge  protesters 
the  evidence  of  all  their  witnesses,  and  proves  that  the  foreign 
letters,  on  which  their  case  was  grounded,  had  either  been 
furnished  to  them  mutilated  and  garbled,  or  were,  from  their 
own  internal  evidence,  unworthy  of  credit.  One  of  the  omis- 
sions in  the  letter,  published  as  that  of  Van  Ess,  contained  this 
important  statement,  which  was  excluded,  without  an  asterisk 
to  denote  the  hiatus : — "It  is  but  candid  to  sat/y  that,  individual^, 
I,  like  many  other  enlightened  Roman  Catholics,  feel  disposed  to 
take  no  umbrage  whatsoever  at  such  a  separation.'^ 

Professor  Kiefifer's  ailments  and  evidence  were  still  more 
triumphantly  disposed  of.  His  comparison  of  the  Bible  and 
Apocrypha  to  the  parable  of  the  wheat  and  the  tares,  was  not  only 
shown  to  be  ''  a  licentious  misapplication  of  the  Word  of  God/' 
but  an  index  to  the  same  doubts  or  indifference  as  to  the  sacred 
canon,  which  lurked  behind  every  argument  in  favour  of  the 
Apocrypha.  Of  Mr.  Haldane's  forcible  mode  of  reasoning, 
and  of  the  manner  also  in  which  he  generally  turned  the 
defences  of  Bible  adulteration  into  foolishness,  the  following 
is  an  example  : — 

"  Ought  we  not,  with  perfect  confidence,"  says  Mr.  Kieffer,  "  to  leave  to 
the  Almighty  the  means  and  the  time,  which,  in  His  incomprehensible 
wisdom,  he  shall  consider  the  most  fit  and  proper  for  separating  those 
books  from  the  inspired  writings  ?  "  Mr.  Haldane  replies,  "  According  to 
Mr.  Kiefier's  application  of  the  parable  of  the  tares,  the  Bible  is  the  wheat, 
the  Apocrypha  the  tares,  the  devil  is  the  author  of  it,  and  the  servants 
are  forbidden  to  take  away  what  he  has  indited.  Extraordinary  as  it 
may  appear,  that,  in  pleading  the  cause  of  the  Apocrypha,  he  should  have 


MR.  HALDANE's    first   REVIEW.  501 

laid  down  such  premisesy  the  conclusion  which  he  draws  is  still  more 
remarkable.  In  plain  language  it  is  as  follows : — Let  us,  then,  imitate  the 
conduct  of  this  enemy,  and,  as  long  as  the  serrants  shall  sleep,  unite  with 
the  devil  in  sowing  tares  among  the  wheat,  by  continuing  to  print  the 
Apocrypha.  Arguments  like  these,  should  arouse  the  most  dormant  and 
inconsiderate,  while  they  prove  to  what  lengths  such  perversions  of  Scrip- 
ture would  conduct  us." 

These  references  to  Mr.  Haldane's  first  Review  are  given  aft 
records  of  the  real  state  of  affairs  at  the  time  when  he  com- 
menced his  public  exposure  of  the  abuses^  which  had  grown 
up  under  the  shelter  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
That  Institution  had  an  object  of  surpassing  glory^  but  the  glory 
of  the  object  had  been  too  much  transferred  to  the  men^  and  to 
the  Society.  They  had^  in  a  certain  sense^  lost  sight  of  the  end 
in  idolatry  of  the  means.  The  circulation  of  the  Bible  is  a 
glorious  thing  as  a  means  of  promoting  the  salvation  of  men, 
but  the  salvation  of  men  will  not  be  accomplished  by  any 
diplomatic  craft  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  holiness  of  God. 
It  was  needful  that,  in  circulating  the  Bible,  a  more  becoming 
reference  should  be  made  to  the  perfections  and  the  power  of  its 
Almighty  Author.  The  cause  of  God  never  can  be  advanced  by 
swerving  from  the  requirements  of  his  infinite  purity. 

The  fourth  chapter  of  the  Review  fully  enters  into  the 
question,  how  far  Christians  are  at  liberty  to  make  additions 
to  the  Book  of  God,  in  order  to  promote  its  circulation.  He 
particularly  draws  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the  Apocryphal 
writers  have  blasphemously  usurped  the  prophetic  character. 
''  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying,'^  &c.  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord.'^  The  conclusion,  then,  is  inevitable.  The 
Apocrypha  is  either  the  Word  of  God,  or  an  addition  of  lying 
prophets.  That  it  is  the  work  of  lying  prophets  is  proved  both 
by  external  and  internal  evidence,  and  he  therefore  winds  up  his 
demonstration  in  the  following  words  : — 

**  If  the  man,  or  angel,  who  shall  preach  another  Gospel  than  that 
which  the  Bible  contains,  is  by  the  Holy  Ghost  pronounced  accursed, 
then  does  this  awfiil  denunciation  apply  to  a  book,  which,  pretending 
to  record  the  message  of  an  angel  from  heaven,  teaches  another  GospeL 


502  CHARACTER  OF   THE   APOCRYPHA. 

Under  this  anathema,  then,  the  Apocrypha  lies.    By  the  authority  of  an 
apostle,  we  are  bound  to  hold  it  accursed." 

The  Cambridge  annotators  had  quoted  with  approbation  an 
extract  from  Hooker^  in  which  that  great  writer^  acting  the  part 
of  an  advocate  in  controversy  with  the  Puritans,  had  applied  the 
term  "  Divine  ^'  to  the  Apocryphal  books,  in  a  modified  aenae. 
To  the  authority  of  Scripture  Mr.  Haldane  ever  bowed  with 
a  reverence  unhesitating  and  supreme.  To  the  authority  of 
man,  when  placed  in  competition  with  the  Bible,  he  paid  no 
respect  at  all.     He  therefore  exclaims : — 

**  Were  they  not  ashamed  when  they  produced  such  a  quotation  ?  .  .  . 
Because  Hooker  called  the  Apocrypha  divine,  which  the  Scriptures 
denounce  as  accursed,  are  we  to  set  aside  the  authority  of  Ood,  and 
bow  to  his?  Because  Augustine,  whom  these  gentlemen  also  quote, 
could  not  distinguish  between  the  doctrines  of  justification  and  sancti- 
fication,  are  we  to  give  up  the  important  distinction  ?  Far  different  was 
the  language  in  which  the  pious  and  learned  Bishop  Hall  denoimoed  the 
Apocrypha,  from  that  of  him  who,  on  this  occasion,  was  not  thejtuUeiouM 
Hooker.  Of  these  books,  says  the  good  Bishop,  '*  some  purpose  to  their 
readers  no  better  than  magical  jtiggling ;  others,  bloody  self-murders ; 
others,  lying  fables ;  and  others.  Heathenish  rites,  not  without  a  public 
applause  in  their  relation.** 

Professor  Kieflfer's  facts  were  still  more  conclusively  over- 
turned by  Mr.  Haldane's  own  testimony^  and  by  that  which  he 
obtained  from  various  quarters  through  his  French  correspond- 
ence. The  case  of  the  Toulouse  Bible  is  an  example.  It  had 
been  unscrupulously  asserted  in  Fans^  and  the  Earl-street 
Committee  had  been  led  to  believe^  that  this  edition  had  been 
at  first  actually  published  without  the  Apocrypha^  but  that^ 
in  consequence  of  a  "  protest  on  all  sides ''  against  this  omission^ 
the  Society  had  been  obliged  to  supply  the  want.  Far  from  this 
being  the  case^  it  was  proved^  firsts  that  the  Apocrypha  was 
added  before  the  experiment  was  made;  secondly^  that  it  was 
inserted  to  satisfy  the  old  Paris  Bible  Society,  composed,  as 
it  was,  of  Arians,  Socinians,  and  unbelievers;  thirdly,  that  it 
was  done  in  defiance  of  the  Christian  remonstrances  of  Professor 
Chabrand,  who  alleged  that  by  doing  so  "  there  was  danger  of 


TOULOUSE   BIBLE.  603 

the  Protestants  confounding  the  Apocryphal  with  the  Canonical 
books/'  fourthly^  that  not  only  was  the  Apocrypha  thus  forced 
into  the  Toulouse  Bible^  but,  under  the  pretence  of  not  giving 
o£fence  to  Romanists^  David  Martin's  admirable  preface  was 
omitted^  although  it  contained  one  of  the  most  luminous  views 
of  the  history  and  errors  of  the  Apocryphal  books.  In  oppoai* 
tion  to  the  statement^  that  there  was  a  protest  on  all  sides 
against  the  omission  of  the  Apocrypha^  MM.  Chabrand^  Bonnard, 
Marzial,  and  other  Christian  Protestant  pastors  and  Professors 
in  the  South  of  France,  with  one  voice  testified  that  there  wei« 
no  such  complaints,  except  it  might  be  from  quarters  very  litde 
entitled  to  the  consideration  of  true  Christians. 

The  case  of  Martin's  Pocket  Bible  was  equally  misrepresented ; 
for  it  was  clearly  proved,  that,  in  its  unadulterated  state,  it  had 
sold  better,  and  circulated  more  freely,  than  the  adulterated 
Bibles.  The  Montauban  Bible  was  another  striking  illustration 
of  the  sad  state  of  the  foreign  agency  and  Associations  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  at  the  commencement  of  the 
controversy,  and  its  history  furnishes  an  example  of  Mr. 
Haldane's  labours  in  the  South  of  France.  He  states,  that, 
being  at  Montauban  in  1817,  he  discovered  a  deplorable  want 
of  Bibles  among  the  French  Protestants.  To  encourage  his 
Christian  friends  there  to  publish  a  new  edition,  he  o£fered  a 
donation  of  100/.,  and  to  add  as  much  more  if  it  should  be 
needed.  His  proposal  was  accepted,  and  on  his  suggestion  an 
application  was  forwarded  to  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  in  reply  to  which  a  very  liberal  donation  was  soon 
afterwards  received.  It  was  then  resolved  to  commence  the 
work,  but  not  until  after  a  decided  protest  from  Mr.  Haldane 
had  secured  a  clear  understanding  and  engagement  to  omit  the 
Apocrypha,  and  publish  the  Bible  alone. 

The  Protestant  Chxirches  throughout  France  were  then  applied 
to,  and  most  of  them  subscribed  to  the  proposed  work,  without 
the  Apocrypha ;  and  while  the  printing  of  the  Bible,  consisting 
of  six  thousand  copies,  was  going  forward,  during  the  two  years 
Mr.  Haldane  continued  at  Montauban,  not  a  syllable  was 
uttered  about  adding  the  Apocrypha,  nor  was  there  a  word 


604  MONTAUBAN    BIBLE. 

of  complaint  on  the  subject  of  its  omission.  It  was  at  length 
published^  and  when  no  less  than  three  thousand  copies  had  been 
disposed  of,  the  Fans  Bible  Society^  under  Socinian  or  Neologian 
influence^  procured  the  addition  of  the  Apocrypha^  in  spite  of 
the  remonstrances  of  the  Christians  at  Montauban^  who  decidedly 
opposed  the  measure^  and  considered  it  alike  improper  in  itaelf^ 
uncalled  for  by  the  people^  and  treacherous  towards  Mr.  Haldane, 
with  whom  this  edition  of  the  Bible  originated. 

After  citing  other  convincing  proofs  to  show  that  the  adulte- 
ration of  the  Bible  was  entirely  the  result  of  Socinian  influence 
in  France,  he  exclaims : — 

**  Here  I  cannot  but  exult  in  the  Christian  conduct  of  my  good  firienda 
at  Montauban.  I  feel  high  satisfaction  when  I  compare  it  with  the 
worldly  policy  of  many.  In  all  things  they  have  approved  themselves  to 
be  clear  in  this  matter.  Thus  wisdom  is  justified  of  ber  children.  The 
weight  of  the  opinions  of  such  men  on  a  religious  subject  is  very  different^ 
indeed,  from  that  of  some  of  the  correspondents  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society."  (P.  78.) 

Mr.  Haldaue's  first  Review  was  in  truth  unanswerable,  both 
in  arguments  and  facts,  and  it  may  be  said  to  have  cloaed  the 
first  campaign, — for  contemporaneous  with  its  publication,  the 
Special  Committee,  to  whom  the  whole  subject  of  the  Apocrypha 
had  been  referred,  gave  in  their  Report,  which,  although  anti- 
Apocryphal  in  substance,  was  still  uncompromising  and  unsatis- 
factory. 


But  a  new  chapter  was  about  to  open  in  this  painful  history^ 
and  a  new  champion  was  about  to  enter  the  lists.  The  Report 
of  the  Special  Committee  in  Earl-street  was  adopted  on  the 
21st  November,  1825,  and  a  Resolution  confirmed  on  the 
28th,  which  prohibited  the  circulation  of  the  Apocrypha^ 
either  appended  or  interspersed,  but  in  the  matter  of  money 
grants,  left,  as  Dr.  Wardlaw  expressed  it,  "  a  postern/*  by 
which  its  efficacy  might  again  be  evaded.  Considering  the 
previous  vacillations  of  the  Earl-street  Committee,  and  the  fact 
that  Mr.  Brandram  had  gone  so  far  as  to  record  a  formal  protest 


MR.  brandram's  protest.  505 

against  its  limited  restrictions^  it  is  no  marvel  if  the  Edinburgh 
Society  were  still  dissatisfied  with  the  Resolution.  It  was  indeed 
difficult  to  persuade  them  to  trust  to  so  doubtful  a  rule^  in 
the  hands  of  administrators  avowing  such  sentiments^  espe- 
cially after  all  the  concealments  which  a  mistaken  policy  had 
dictated.  If  any  one  interested  in  the  question  chooses  to  read 
the  article  which  was  reprinted  from  the  "  Eclectic  Review/^  of 
Aprils  1826^  he  will  see  ground  enough  to  justify  this  distrust, 
and  vindicate  the  decided  course  adopted  in  Edinburgh.  To 
the  writer  in  the  ^'  Eclectic/'  who  was  the  chief  advocate 
of  the  Apocryphists^  the  praise  of  zeal,  ability,  and  out-spoken 
frankness  may  all  be  fully  conceded.  He  was  well  known  as 
the  friend  of  James  Montgomery,  and  as  being  himself  the 
author  of  some  beautiful  gems  of  sacred  poetry,  which  the 
Christian  world  will  not  willingly  let  die.  But  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  avow  it  as  his  honest  opinion,  that  ^'the  great 
error  '^  of  Earl-street  consisted  in  ^'  vacillation  and  indecision,'' 
that  they  ought  not  to  have  compromised  the  point  at  issue, 
and  that  their  attempt  to  conciliate  had  '^  paralyzed  their  friends, 
without  satisfying  their  enemies.''  He  boldly  argued,  that  the 
Committee  were  entitled  to  have  taken  '^  higher  ground,"  that 
they  had  been  compelled  "  to  defer  to  the  clamour  "  in  abandon- 
ing the  Apocrypha,  that  their  "indecision,"  their  ''vibrating 
Resolutions,"  were  attributable  to  divisions  amongst  themselves, 
or  to  the  interference  of  privileged  members.  He  adds,  that  they 
had  only  ''  given  ear  too  patiently,  and  given  way  too  timidly," 
out  of  deference  to  public  opinion. 

It  was  at  this  crisis  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  for 
the  first  time,  appeared  in  the  field  in  a  cause  worthy  of  all  the 
energies  of  his  ''colossal  mind."  His  gigantic  intellect,  his 
unflinching  courage,  his  elastic  spirits,  his  buoyant  humour,  his 
indomitable  industry,  his  capacity  for  business,  his  vigorous  pen, 
and  his  powerful  eloquence,  entitled  him  to  rank  amongst  the 
first  men  of  his  age.  As  a  debater  in  the  General  Assembly 
and  Church  Courts  of  Scotland  he  stood  unrivalled.  Not  one 
of  his  opponents  had  been  able  to  stand  before  him,  and  the 
superiority  of  his  practical  talents,  his  readiness  to  detect  a 


5U0  DK-  ANDREW  TB0H80K. 

weak  point  in  his  adrerauies'  line  of  htiXlt,  his  quidmesa  in 
■elf-possemon,  enabled  him  to  trinniph  on  occuions  irikere  ere: 
the  majesty,  the  biilhancy,  and  the  thrilling  eloquence  of  Di 
Chalmcn  were  insufficient  to  secure  a  majcmtj.  His  chic 
■ppuil  was  not  to  the  paaaons,  bnt  to  the  judgment  of  hi 
•uditory.  Hii  l<^c  was  irresistible,  bnt  he  could  also  toud 
thv  tenderer  chords  of  feeling,  as  in  music  he  could  blend  thi 
highest  and  the  lovest  notes  in  delightfdl  barmcmy.  He  oonlt 
speak  for  hours  without  &tiguing  his  audience,  whilst  hii 
pmii-at  arguments  were  diversified  by  bunts  of  uplendit 
dcclsuistioti,  or  by  flsshes  of  that  playful  wit  or  witheiinf 
sarrsKm,  which  could  alike  captivate  a  listener  or  ctmfoond  ai 
nitant.  Deeply  penetrated  with  a  sense  of  the  importanei 
of  the  U()S]ie),  he  had  thrown  his  mighty  Kgis  over  that  sectioi 
of  thL-  Scuttiih  Church,  whose  courage  had  too  long  bea 
parnlyxed  by  the  opposing  spirit  of  moderation.  Many  battlei 
huit  he  fought  in  its  defence,  and  it  was  under  his  guidanot 
tbnl  (lie  Evangelicals  were  first  led  on  to  victory,  and  enabled 
to  mil  back  the  tide  of  secularity  and  Felagianism  by  which  the 
anrirnt  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  had  been  nearly  overwhdmed. 
No  tvouder,  then,  that  he  became  "the  foremost  and  moat 
F«»)*|iiVuoi)s  man"  in  Scotland,  and  that  all  the  deepest  syrnp*- 
thio*  vf  thr  best  portion  (rf  the  natioQ  were  fondly  associated 
wilU  the  nau)c  of  Andrew  Thomson.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he 
wa"  one  of  those  stirring  spirits  which  find  a  pleasure  in  the 
rxrilcnieut  of  action.  Like  the  war^horae,  that  "  smelletfa  the 
lMttli>  fnnn  afar,"  he  heard  of  the  contest  in  which  Mr.  Haldane 
then  liHtk  the  teat), — "  the  thunder  of  the  captains,  and  the 
slioului);."  Btit  he  approached  the  battle-field,  as  be  himself 
axttwixl,  with  Muite  ivvlings  of  doubt  and  jealousy  as  to  the  chief 
(if  the  anti-A|MK^-|>hsl  f<.Hrces,  whose  rebuke  he  had  not  then 
AM^ttifU.  Hnt  when  he  came  to  fathom  the  depths  oC  the 
«tihji-t<l.  and  to  undrtMand  its  bearings, — when  he  came  to  see 
thai  (he  auptviHacy  of  the  Bible  «-as  at  stake,  that  the  qoestica 
i»vi>lteil  the  <«no»  <if  Seri)ttnre,  the  Book  of  God,  the  lecwd  ot 
aa«)itK  failK,  the  t^utitor  cU'  our  salvatioa, — all  hia  doubts  and 
m*t\>  tii)i«  «w*  dttiyc  to  the  winda.     He  geneionaly  gave  the 


DR.  ANDR£W  THOMSON.  507 

right  hand  of  fellowship  to  Mr.  Haldane^  and  threw  himself 
into  the  conflict  just  at  the  moment  when  Mr.  Z.  Macaulay  and 
others  in  England  were  deserting  Mr.  Haldane^  and  content 
with  a  compromise,  or  tired  of  a  contest  with  their  friends^  were 
leaving  him  alone  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  purity  of  God's 
Word  and  maintain  the  protest  against  Socinian  or  Infidel 
alliances.  To  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Edinburgh  Bible 
Society  Dr.  Thomson  was  appointed^  on  the  Motion  of  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane^  one  of  its  original  founders  and  steadiest  Mends* 
The  Second  Statement  of  th^  Edinburgh  Bible  Society  was  the 
first  public  intimation  that  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  was  in  the 
field.  It  is  difficult  to  speak  too  highly  of  its  ability  and  force. 
It  was  comprised  in  151  octavo  pages^  and  embodied  six  distinct 
propositions^  each  of  which  was  logically  and  elaborately  proved. 
To  much  of  the  scholastic  accuracy  of  detail  which  distinguishes 
the  pamphlet  of  Mr.  Grorham^  without  its  minuteness,  it  added 
a  fuller,  more  comprehensive,  more  thorough-going,  and  more 
popular  survey  of  all  the  bearings  of  the  questions  at  issue, 
whether  they  concerned  the  laws  of  the  Society,  the  importance 
of  the  sacred  canon,  or  the  history  of  the  mistakes,  the  vadlla* 
tion,  and  the  instability  which  had  marked  the  policy  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society's  administrators.  Viewed  as  a 
piece  of  sustained  reasoning,  it  will  endure  as  a  monument  of 
talents  which  were  sufficient  to  have  placed  the  author  in  the 
first  rank  of  debaters  in  the  most  august  assembly  in  the  world, 
whilst  it  also  contains  occasional  bursts  of  majestic  eloquence 
rising  out  of  the  argument,  combined  with  all  the  native  sim- 
plicity, which  imprinted  on  his  manly  brow  the  stamp  of  intel- 
lectual aristocracy. 

This  document  was  welcomed  by  Mr.  Haldane  with  cordial 
pleasure.     On  the  16th  January,  1826,  he  writes : — 

''  Dr.  Thomson  has  executed  it  with  singular  ability.  To-day  we  had 
our  Meeting  of  the  General  Committee,  which  was  very  fully  attended, 
with  Dr.  Davidson  in  the  chair.  A  considerable  part  of  the  statement 
was  read,  and  received  with  the  highest  satisfaction  and  most  cordial 
unanimity.  Dr.  Peddie  (of  the  Secession  Church),  in  the  most  candid 
and  open  manner,  declared  himself  convinced.  Mr.  Craig  was  the  only 
dissentient    We  went  with  it  immediately  to  the  printer*s,  and  expect 


508  DR.  ANDREW   THOMSON. 

the  fint  part  of  it  on  Wednesday.  .  .  .  Lei  me  kaoir  hov  many  •hotdd 
be  srnt  to  England.  Ezpense  vill  not  be  spared,  aa  we  conaider  it  the 
greatest  question  that  ha4  been  agitated  since  the  Uefonnation.  I  Dever 
MV  the  religious  public  here  so  unanimous  on  any  subject  aa  tbey  hsTe 
been  aince  the  publication  of  my  (first)  Review." 

It  would  be  alike  tedious  and  unnecessaiy  to  travel  over  the 
grounds  on  which  Dr.  ThomBon  shows  the  Ituufficiency  of  the 
Earl-street  Besolution  of  the  21at  November,  1825,  not  merely 
from  the  inadequacy  of  its  terms,  but  from  the  history  of  the 
past.  The  Second  Statement  whs  circulated  throughout  the 
country,  and  fell  amongst  the  Pbilo-Apocryphists  like  the 
stroke  of  a  tempest.  By  the  Eclectic  Reviewer  it  is  described 
as  having  "  taken  by  surprise"  the  Committee,  who  "  were  not 
prepared"  for  "a  proceeding  so  invidious  and  so  malignant." 
But  the  act  of  the  Edinburgh  Committee  might  have  beeo 
assailed  without  a  personal  attack  on  their  Honorary  Secretary. 
However,  from  several  quarters  Dr.  Thomson  was  unhappfly 
assailed  with  great  asperity  and  unwarrantable  invective.  Had 
be  been  a  Melanctbon,  instead  of  a  Luther,  he  would  have  beeo 
compelled  to  answer  for  himself.  Amongst  other  unlawful 
shafts  which  were  hurled  against  bim  in  the  pamphlets  circn- 
lated  from  the  depositories  in  Earl-street,  be  was,  at  this  early 
stage  of  the  controversy,  held  up  to  reprobation  aa  exhibiting  a 
"  violent  and  intolerant  spirit,"  and  as  wielding  a  pen  which 
had  "been  compelled  to  apologise  for  its  own  libels."  The 
writer  knew  not  how  little  sohd  ground  there  was  for  this  bitter 
accusation.  It  was  only  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Thomson's  geueroua 
reluctance  to  betray  a  friend,  and  it  was  not  till  after  his  death 
that  Dr.  M'Crie  published  the  fact,  that  in  the  case  alluded  to, 
when  he  stopped  a  prosecution  by  paying  its  expenses,  and 
inserting  an  apology  in  the  "Edinburgh  Christian  Instructor," 
he  was  "as  innocent  as  the  child  unborn,"  But  he  paid  the 
forfeit  rather  than  give  up  the  name  of  his  friend,  who  was 
morally  responsible,  thus  evincing,  as  Dr.  M'Crie  justly  adds, 
"  an  example  of  generous  self-devotion  which  has  few  paralleU." 
Whether  he  was  right  in  thus  submitting  to  the  obloquy  which 
belonged  to  the  mistake  of  another  is  a  separate  question,  but  it 


EARL-STEEET   COMMITTEE.  509 

exhibits  himself  as  indeed  "  the  hearty^  gallant^  and  out-and-out 
trustworthy  friend/'  described  by  Dr.  Chalmers. 

Meanwhile^  the  Earl-street  Committee-room  continued^  during 
the  winter  of  1826,  to  be  itself  the  arena  of  perpetual  strife  and 
acrimonious  debate.  The  termination  of  the  contest  waged 
between  what  were  called  the  Philo-Apocryphists,  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  elected  Committee,  headed  by  the  Secretaries,  and 
the  Anti-Apocryphists,  consisting  chiefly  of  privileged  members, 
headed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thorpe,  Mr.  Gorham,  Mr.  Drummond, 
Mr.  Irving,  and  others,  was,  however,  still  uncertain,  when,  on 
the  2dd  March,  1826,  it  was  resolved  that  a  deputation  should 
be  sent  to  Edinburgh,  with  the  view  of  proposing  further  terms 
of  compromise.  The  deputation  consisted  of  two  of  the  one 
party  and  two  of  the  other,  namely,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hughes 
and  Mr.  E.  N.  Thornton  of  Southwark,  with  Dr.  Thorpe  and 
Mr.  Percival  White.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  divided 
deputation  should  prove  very  successful  diplomatists.  Their 
admissions  tended  to  strengthen  the  cause  of  pure  Bible  circu- 
lation, and  as  they  set  out  without  any  definite  propositions  of 
peace,  the  failure  of  their  mission  is  not  wonderful.  The 
Philo-Apocryphist  members  themselves  appreciated  the  earnest 
adhesion  to  principle  which  characterized  the  members  of  the 
Edinburgh  Committee,  and  in  particular,  they  acknowledged 
"  the  affectionate  hospitality^'  with  which  they  were  personally 
welcomed  by  Mr.  Haldane  and  his  brother,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  both  strenuously  opposed  the  principles  of  the  Apo- 
cryphal advocates.  At  the  Greneral  Meeting  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  on  the  3d  of  May,  1826,  Resolutions 
were  adopted  which  approached  still  nearer  to  the  original 
requirements  of  the  Scottish  Societies,  and  closed  up  that 
''  postern"  for  Bible  contamination  which  had  been  first  pointed 
out  by  Dr.  Wardlaw. 

A  Third  Statement  explains  the  grounds  on  which  the  Edin- 
burgh Society  were  still  unable  to  compromise.  There  were 
three  principal  points  on  which  the  London  deputation  and  the 
Edinburgh  Committee  had  been  at  variance.     These  were, — 

I.  As  to  the  propriety  of  an  expression  of  regret  for  the  past 


510  DEMANDS   OF   THE   EDINBURGH    SOCIETY. 

yiolation  of  what  was  now  admitted  to  have  been  the  fmida- 
mental  law. 

II.  The  necessity  of  breaking  o£f  all  connexion  with  foreign 
Societies  which  should  continue  with  their  own  funds  to  adul- 
terate the  sacred  canon. 

III.  Some  change  in  the  membership  of  the  London  Com- 
mittee, so  as  to  ensure  an  administration  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  the  Society. 

The  first  of  these  requisitions  was  resisted  as  derogatory  to 
the  dignity  of  the  Committee,  whilst  the  Edinburgh  Society, 
not  without  reason,  argued,  that,  considering  what  had  happened 
between  1821  and  1825,  it  was  necessary  as  a  security  for  the 
future,  and  that  if  an  error  had  been  committed,  and  the  same 
administration  were  to  remain,  some  acknowledgment  was  due 
to  the  cause  of  truth,  as  confession  was  the  first  token  of 
rqpentance.  This  difficulty  would  not,  however,  have  been 
insuperable  had  the  other  points  been  conceded.  But  Earl- 
street  refused  to  break  with  the  Apocryphal  and  Neologian 
AuxiUaries  on  the  Continent,  and  far  from  acknowledging  any 
sense  of  error,  Mr.  Brandram,  in  one  of  his  speeches,  asserted^ 
that  for  himself  he  ''  could  not  cease  to  reprobate  the  Resolu- 
tions of  the  Meeting  against  the  circulation  of  the  Apocrypha,'' 
and  declared  his  continued  adhesion  to  the  Protest,  which  is 
dated  the  28th  November,  1825,  and  was  thus  recorded  in  the 
minute-book : — 

"  We  protest  against  the  present  decision  of  the  Committee  on  the 
subject  of  the  Apocrypha,  as  being,  according  to  our  ddiberate  judgment, 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  moral  bearing  and  general  spirit  of  God's 
word." 

About  the  same  time  also.  Dr.  SteinkopflT,  the  Foreign  Secre- 
tary, published  his  *'  Letter  addressed  to  Robert  Haldane,  Esq., 
containing  some  Remarks  on  his  Strictures  relative  to  the  Con- 
tinent and  to  Continental  Bible  Societies.^^  It  was  written 
with  all  the  mildness  and  gentleness  of  spirit  which  charac* 
terize  the  venerable  author ;  but  he  declared  that  he  considered 
it  a  duty  to  yield  to  the  prejudices  of  foreigners,  and,  for  the 
sake  of  the  Bible,  to  aid  them  in  circulating  the  Apocrypha. 


MR.  HALDAN£8   ''SECOND    REVIEW.  511 

It  did  not  disprore  the  substance  of  Mr.  Haldane's  ''First 
Review/'  and  scarcely  touched  one  of  its  details^  but  it  gave 
occasion  to  Mr.  Haldane's  ''  Second  Review/'  consisting  of 
more  than  200  pages^  which^  like  the  firsts  passed  through  two 
large  editions^  and  contained  most  interesting  and  valuable, 
although  melancholy^  testimonies  to  the  irreligious  state  of  the 
Continent.  This  publication  was^  in  fact,  a  fuller  development 
of  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  first,  and  gave  an  awful  demon* 
stration  of  the  Infidelity  which  reigned  over  a  large  proportion 
of  the  Foreign  Bible  Societies.  That  this  was  not  a  private 
opinion  of  Mr.  Haldane  may  be  proved  by  the  testimony  of  one 
of  the  favourers  of  Apocryphal  circulations,  the  learned  Dr.  Fye 
Smith,  whose  own  views  of  the  sacred  canon  were  always  cloudy. 
Before  the  commencement  of  the  controversy,  when  his  opinions 
were  not  coloured  by  party  strife,  he  thus  described  the  Greneva 
Bible  Society  in  his  answer  to  Chenevieie  :— 

**  On  the  last  day  of  1814,  a  Bible  Society  was  fonned  at  Geneva ;  but 
M.  Cheneviere  must  bear  with  me,  while  I  bluntly  remind  him  that  so 
long  as  it  was  under  a  management  which  he  perfectly  understands,  it  wot 
little,  if  at  all,  better  than  a  blind  to  the  public,  a  coverinff/or  doing  nothing^ 

A  BOUOH  GARMENT  WOBN  TO  DECEIVE.'' 

No  language  employed  by  Mr.  Haldane  ever  went  beyond  this 
of  Dr.  Fye  Smith.  It  was,  in  fact,  describing  such  Neologian 
Societies  as  being  what  they  really  were,  ^^an  organized  hypo- 
crisy.^' From  personal  observation,  and  the  testimony  of  other 
Christians,  Mr.  Haldane  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Dr. 
Fye  Smith's  opinion  was  correct,  and  that  the  greater  part  oi 
the  Continental  Bible  Societies  were  no  better  than  those  of 
Faris,  Geneva,  and  Lausanne.  What,  indeed,  could  be  expected 
of  Neologists  like  Frofessor  Faulus,  '*  the  most  atrocious  of  them 
all,''  or  of  persecutors  like  Levade,  Curtat,  or  Cheneviere  f 
Societies  composed  of  such  men  were,  to  adopt  Dr.  Fye  Smith's 
words,  only  ''  blinds  to  the  public,  a  covering  for  doing  nothing," 
or  rather,  '^  synagogues  of  Satan,"  where  the  enemies  of  the 
Gospel  found  a  rallying  point,  from  which,  with  the  aid  of 
British  money,  they  could  encourage  one  another,  and  frown 
upon  those  who  attempted  to  preach  a  pure  Gospel. 


512  PROFESSOR   HAFFNER. 

It  would  be  tedious  and  painful  in  this  place  to  give  many 
instances  in  corroboration  of  these  statements.  Still  it  is  neces- 
sary to  furnish  some  proofs  of  the  awful  facts  which  Mr.  Haldane 
brought  so  prominently  into  view^  or  it  might  be  argued  that  he 
was  justly  accused  of  having  needlessly  disturbed  the  peace  of 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  One  of  the  most  flagrant 
and  melancholy  illustrations  of  the  manner  in  which  Foreign 
Bible  Societies^  under  pretence  of  circulating  the  Scriptures, 
prostituted  their  influence  in  order  to  difiuse  Socinianiam  and 
Neology^  is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  what  has  commonly 
been  termed  "  The  Strasburg  Preface.^'  Professor  Hafiber  was 
by  no  means  an  avowed  Infidel^  but  he  was  what  is  worse, 
because  more  subtle  and  more  dangerous^ — ^he  was  a  strong 
Neologist^  or  Rationalist.  The  excellent  M.  Empeytas,  of 
Geneva^  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  persecution  of  M.  Bost, 
thus  speaks  of  Hafiner  and  his  Preface, — 

*'  This  Neologian,  who  enjoyed  such  a  reputation  that  no  one  dared  to 
contradict  him,  did  indeed  praise  the  sacred  books ;  but  this  praise  is  so 
feeble,  so  deceitful,  that  it  could  not  conceal  his  impious  intentions.  M. 
Bost  (then  a  missionary  at  Strasburg  for  the  Continental  Society),  believing 
that  it  was  his  duty  as  a  Christian  and  a  minister,  took  up  his  pen,  and 
with  his  characteristic  force  compared  the  Preface  with  the  Word  of  God. 
He  openly  unmasked  the  malice  of  the  Pope  of  Strasburg,  and  it  created 
a  great  public  sensation.  The  friends  of  Haffner  denounced  it  as  sacrilege^ 
whilst  the  cowardly  half-Christians,  those  pests  of  the  Church,  actually 
united  with  its  declared  enemies  to  decry  Bost  and  load  him  with  the 
vilest  calumnies.  Bost,  in  the  midst  of  all  this  tumult,  exhibited  a  noble 
magnanimity,  exhibiting  on  all  occasions  an  immoveable  calm,  which  was 
given  to  him  of  the  Lord,  for,  as  he  himself  said,  in  all  this  affSEur  he  only 
acted  under  the  dictates  of  his  conscience." 

M.  Bost  has  been  already  noticed  in  connexion  with  the  dawn 
of  a  revival  of  Christianity  at  Greneva^  and  a  beautiful  sketch  of 
his  faithfulness  and  self-sacrifice  has  been  published  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Burgess,  of  Chelsea,  in  his  "  Voice  from  the  Alps."  He  is 
also  mentioned  by  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  in  his  answer  to  Cheneviei^^ 
aa  '^a  man  of  good  sense,  of  research,  and  capacity  for  sound 
reasoning."  His  attack  on  the  Preface  had  nearly  cost  him  his 
life;  for  the  students,  filled  with  hatred  of  Methodism^  and 


PERSECUTION    OP   M.  BOST.  513 

hearing  of  what  had  happened^  were  irritated  to  the  highest 
pitchy  and  with  murderous  intent  assembled  under  M.  Bost^s 
windows^  with  stones  concealed  in  their  cloaks.     Knowing  that 
he  was  passionately  fond  of  music^  they  sung  an  hymn  to  induce 
him  to  come  out,  whilst  they  were  ready  to  knock  him  on  the 
head  the  moment  he  appeared.     The  Professors,  however,  not 
being  prepared  to  carry  the  matter  so  far  as  to  commit  murder 
in  cold  blood,  having  heard  of  their  design,  concealed  themselves 
in  an  adjoining  house,  and  ran  in  amongst  the  students  at  the 
moment  of  danger,  and  succeeded  in  dispersing  them.     Hafiher 
and  the  other  Infidel  Professors  did,  however,  procure  from  the 
mayoralty  an  order  for  his  banishment ;  but  to  the  honour  of  the 
(Government  of  Louis  XVIIL,  it  must  be  added  that  its  confir- 
mation was  refused  by  the  Prefect.     There  is  a  more  pleasing 
sequel  to  this  melancholy  exhibition  of  enmity  to  the  Grospel.    In 
Strasburg,  there  was  an  aged  and  pious  pastor,  who  had  been 
overawed  by  the  talents  and  power  of  Hafiher,  and  so  prevented 
from  faithfully  declaring  the  Gospel.     He  went  one  day  on  a 
parochial  visit  to  call  on  a  Christian  family,  who  had  read  M. 
Bost's  pamphlet.     The  lady  of  the  house  addressed  him  as  he 
entered,  "  Well,  Mr.  Pastor,  a  stranger  has  done  what  the  Chris- 
tian pastors  ought  to  have  done.^'    The  rebuke  was  felt.    M.  Bien 
searched  out  M.  Bost,  and,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  thanked  him 
for  his  faithful  testimony,  confessed  his  own  shameful  fear  of  the 
champion  of  Neology,  and  in  token  of  his  resolution  from  that 
moment  to  act  a  more  Christian  part,  went  home  and  wrote 
an  answer  to  Hafiuer. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  Dr.  Hafiiier's  Pre- 
face was  published.  Information  of  this  daring  outrage  on  the 
Word  of  God,  perpetrated  by  a  Bible  Society  in  connexion  with 
the  British  and  Foreign,  reached  the  Continental  Society  on  the 
2d  of  August,  1819,  and  on  the  9th  of  the  same  month  was  con- 
veyed to  the  Secretaries  of  the  Earl-street  Committee.  From  that 
date,  the  facts  may  be  gathered  from  the  official  documents  which 
were  printed.  From  these  it  appears  that,  in  violation  of  a 
solemn  pledge,  the  Strasburg  Committee  had  published,  with 
their  own  money,  an  introduction  to  a  Bible  which  the  London 

L    L 


•  ■ 

4 


\\ 


514  haffner's  preface. 

Committee  had  enabled  them  to  print.  Ignoring  the  character 
of  the  preface^  of  which  M.  Boat  had  given  copious  extracts,  the 
Secretaries  despatched  a  gentle  remonstrance  to  Strasburg,  assum- 
ing that  the  preface  might  be  ^^  innocent  and  faultless,^'  instead 
of  beings  as  they  were  fully  informed^  a  dehberate  attempt  to 
pervert  the  Scriptures.  They  evaded  every  entreaty  to  ascertain 
with  certainty  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  obnoxious  preface, 
and  thus  left  the  Strasburg  Neologians  to  imagine  that  the 
objection  to  the  publication  was  rather  formal  than  substantiaL 
The  Strasburg  Committee  replied  by  assuring  Mr.  Owen,  in  the 
blandest  terms,  that  they  too  had,  on  the  same  9th  of  August, 
resolved  '^  that  it  should  be  sold  and  distributed  separately"  but 
that  they  could  not  ^'  prevent  such  as  wished  it  from  binding  up 
this  introduction  with  their  copy  of  the  Bible,  since  it  is  printed 
in  the  same  size.''  And  as  if  to  pour  profane  mockery  on  the 
whole  affair,  by  imitating  the  language  of  British  Methodists, 
they  add :  "  May  the  Lord  vouchsafe  his  blessing  to  our  labours, 
and  cause  the  good  seedy  which  we  shall  not  cease  to  scatter 
abundantly  abroad,  to  bear  fruit  I "  The  rulers  in  Earl-street 
might  well  have  been  startled  by  the  answer  made  to  Mr,  Owen, 
and  although  they  passed  a  pubUc  resolution,  '^  approving  of  the 
measures  adopted  by  the  Strasburg  Society,"  another  private 
letter  was  addressed  to  the  offending  parties,  intimating  that  the 
Strasburg  resolution  was  not  sufficiently  clear,  and  reconmiending 
that  as  a  Society  they  should,  both  as  to  expense  and  otherwise, 
"  renounce  every  concern  in  that  publication.''  *'  By  these 
means,"  says  the  letter,  "  the  voice  of  slander  which  has  been 
raised  against  your  Society  will  be  hushed."  Notwithstanding 
these  gentle  remonstrances,  couched  in  terms  so  flattering  to  the 
Neologian  wrong-doer,  M.  Haffher,  and  so  contemptuous  towards 
'^  Christ's  faithful  soldier  and  servant,"  M.  Bost,  the  promises  of 
the  Strasburg  Society  proved  delusive,  and  by  means  of  what  have 
been  justly  stigmatised  as  "artful  and  mendacious  evasions," 
the  Strasburg  Neologians  still  sold  and  distributed  the  Infidel 
Preface  for  nearly  two  years  after  the  time  of  its  first  exposure 
in  August,  1819.  During  that  interval  a  donation  in  money 
was  granted  to  them  to  purchase  500  Bibles  and  250  Testaments, 


FRUITS    OP   NEOLOGIAN    ALLIANCES.  516 

"  without  the  preface/'  Meanwhile^  the  attention  of  Earl-street 
was  again  called  to  the  scandal^  and  in  March,  1821,  a  stronger 
remonstrance  was  despatched  trom  London.  The  Strasburg 
Secretary,  annoyed  at  the  pertinacity  of  these  remonstrances, 
replied  by  complaining  that  '^  the  same  spirit  of  hostility  and 
intolerance  which  disturbed  our  peaceful  Association  eighteen 
months  ago,  still  works  in  the  dark,  and  pursues  us  with  false 
accusations  and  calumnies.'^  But  he  frankly  admits  that  the 
preface  was  in  their  depositories,  was  sought  for,  was  sold,  was 
circulated,  although  not  bound  up  by  the  Society  with  its  Bibles. 
"  We  cannot,"  he  says,  "  be  responsible  for  what  private  persons 
or  clergymen  may  think  proper  to  do.''  In  short,  during  the 
interchange  of  these  protocols,  no  fewer  than  5,000  copies  of 
this  Infidel  Preface  were  circulated  in  Alsace  along  with  Bibles 
paid  for  with  British  money. 

At  length,  after  further  remonstrances  on  the  part  of  Sir 
Thomas  Baring,  Mr.  Drummond,  and  the  Continental  Society, 
Dr.  Pinkerton  was  despatched  on  an  embassy  to  Strasburg. 
His  narrative  furnishes  one  of  the  most  curious,  and  but  for 
the  melancholy  occasion,  amusing  examples  of  the  diplomacy 
then  pursued.  He  teUs  how  carefully  he  avoided  even  reading 
the  preface,  in  order  that  he  might  be  enabled  to  profess 
his  incompetency  to  pronounce  an  opinion  on  its  merits. 
He  declined  seeing  any  one  before  he  met  the  redoubtable 
Hafiner  himself,  and  at  last,  by  much  fair  speech  and  the  aid  of 
the  President,  succeeded  in  inducing  the  Professor  to  move  for 
the  exclusion  of  his  own  preface  from  the  Strasburg  depositories, 
although  not  from  circulation.  It  was,  in  fact,  purchased  by 
Baron  Turkheim,  their  President ;  and  in  permitting  it  to  be  no 
longer  issued  by  the  Society,  although  still  patronised  and  sold 
or  distributed  by  its  members,  the  Baron  declares  that  '^  the 
elevated,  though  Christian  humble  mind  of  our  venerable  Vice- 
President,  Dr.  Haffner,  appeared  in  its  true  light."  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  these  hollow  compliments  were  re-echoed  in  the 
Annual  Report  of  the  London  Society,  and  '^the  generous 
sacrifices  to  the  principles  of  our  common  union"  are  spoken 
of  in  "  terms  of  real  satisfaction."     p 

L  L  2 


516    ORIGIN  OF  DISCUSSION  ON  CANON  OF  8CBIPTT7BE. 

In  glancing  over  the  melancholy  details  of  this  painful  history, 
no  one  can  fail  to  discern  the  sad  consequences  of  being,  in  a 
religious  work,  "  unequally  yoked  with  unbelievers/'  The  Bibles 
were  furnished  by  the  British  and  Foreign,  but  the  preface  was 
provided  by  the  Strasburg  Society.  No  one  charged  a  single 
member  of  the  Earl-street  Committee  with  sanctioning,  fur  less 
desiring  to  circulate  such  Infidelity.  Their  fault  exclusively  lay 
in  continuing  to  maintain  an  alUance  with  such  '^  an  organised 
hypocrisy,'^  with  men  who  were  at  the  same  moment  attacking 
the  Scriptures  of  truth  and  persecuting  the  ministers  of  Christ. 

But  the  Strasburg  preface  was  destined  to  originate  a  discus- 
sion concerning  the  integrity  of  the  canon,  and  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  Scripture,  which  issued  in  sounder  and  more  estab* 
lished  views  on  these  important  subjects.  It  was  Dr.  Pye 
Smith's  inconsiderate  defence  of  the  preface  that  produced  these 
effects.  In  the  exercise  of  a  charity  which  sometimes  conducted 
him  into  error,  the  good  Doctor  made  an  unwise  and  ill-judged 
attempt  to  palliate  the  mischiefs  of  the  Infidel  Preface.  In  reply 
to  a  correspondent  of  the  "  Evangelical  Magazine,''  he  strove  to 
represent  Dr.  Haffner  as  one  of  those  who  had  sometimes 
defended  the  outworks  of  Christianity,  although  he  never  entered 
the  gates  of  the  temple.  Nay,  in  the  warmth  of  his  zeal,  he 
went  so  far  as  to  say,  that,  although  the  author  was  no  doubt  '^  a 
Rationalist,"  yet  in  some  respects  his  preface  was  "  an  interesting 
and  valuable  performance."  With  reference  to  this  rash  propo- 
sition, it  is  right  to  add,  that  in  a  private  letter  addressed  in 
August,  1837,  to  his  old  antagonist  in  the  "  EvangeUcal  Maga- 
zine," the  learned  and  pious  Doctor,  with  the  amiable  candour  for 
which  he  was  pre-eminent,  spoke  with  regret  of  the  expressions  he 
had  used.  But  these  expressions  were  eagerly  laid  hold  of,  and, 
strange  to  say,  even  copied  into  the  "  Church  Missionary 
Register,"  then  edited  by  the  Rev.  Josiah  Pratt.  This  rendered 
it  necessary  for  Mr.  Haldane,  Dr.  Thomson,  and  others,  to  say 
much  more  than  would  otherwise  have  been  necessary  of  the 
worthless  production  of  Dr.  Hafiner,  in  which  the  early  history 
of  the  Jews  is  compared  to  the  fables  of  "  the  heroic  ages "  of 
Rome,  the  prophets  are  represented  as  ''men  whom  God  had 


DR.  PYE    smith's    DEFENCE   OF    HAFFNEE.  617 

furnished  with  superior  mental  endowments/'  ^'unveiling  to 
them  the  near  future^  and  permitting  them  to  anticipate  the 
more  distant/'  Daniel  had  "  the  art  of  interpreting  dreams/' 
Ezekiel  '^a  very  lively  imagination/'  and  his  prophecies  ^'resemble 
a  poetical  picture^  the  only  features  of  which  we  find  in  the 
Revelation  of  St.  John/'  who  '^ modelled''  his  vision  after  those 
of  Ezekiel  and  Daniel.  The  Deity  of  our  Lord^  the  corruption 
of  human  nature,  the  renewing  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were 
of  course  doctrines  which  did  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  Pro- 
fessor Hafiiier's  philosophy,  and  on  the  subject  of  prayer  he  is 
profoundly  silent.  Even  the  character  of  a  prophet  was  denied 
to  our  Lord,  and  He  was  said  to  have  had  only  ^'  a  presentiment 
of  his  own  death."  Dr.  Smith  had  objected  that,  unsound  as 
Hafiher  was,  yet  it  was  most  absurd  and  unjust  to  call  him  an 
Infidel.  To  this  Dr.  Carson  replied,  "  No,  Dr.  Smith,  no ;  it  is 
not  most  absurd,  it  is  not  unjust,  it  is  not  most  untrue,  to  call 
Dr.  Haffner  an  Infidel,  in  the  sense  in  which  he  has  been  so 
designated.  He  is  worse  than  an  Infidel.  Commanding  a  battery 
on  the  Christian  citadel,  he  turns  his  guns,  not  against  the 
enemy,  but  against  the  temple  of  God."  An  eminent  clerical 
member  of  the  Earl-street  Committee,  misled  by  Dr.  Pye  Smith's 
panegyric,  on  one  occasion  ventured  publicly  to  express  the 
opinion  that,  after  all,  there  was  nothing  very  bad  in  Hasher's 
preface.  A  privileged  lay  member,  amazed  at  the  statement, 
immediately  read  some  of  the  extracts,  when  the  clergyman 
started  up,  and  interrupting  him,  begged  to  retract  what  he  had 
stated,  and  earnestly  ^^  declared  to  God "  that  he  had  not  been 
aware  that  it  contained  such  shocking  impiety.  Dr.  Pye  Smith's 
defence  of  Haffner  proved  the  commencement  of  an  important 
discussion  concerning  the  inspiration  of  Scripture,  in  which  Mr^ 
Haldane  took  a  prominent  part,  and  will  therefore  be  presently 
noticed. 

The  case  of  Dr.  Haffner's  preface  was  not,  however,  the  only 
evidence  of  the  character  of  the  foreign  auxiliaries  of  Earl-street, 
which  was  brought  forward  in  Mr.  Haldane's  Second  Review. 
The  unfaithful  translation,  called  the  Lausanne  Bible,  with 
its  fifty  thousand  spoliations  and  its  objectionable  notes,  the 


618  PEOFKSSOB  LEVADE. 

Hanover  Preface,  the  Turkicli  Testament,  and  other  nmilar 
cwett,  were  all  esamples  of  the  evil  of  associating  in  sadi  a 
work  with  men  who  unscrupulously  violated  the  lawv  of  the 
Society,  and  some  of  whom  hecame  bitter  persecutors  of  the 
ministers  of  Christ.  Amongst  the  heads  of  the  LaosBDne  Bible 
Society  was  Dean  Curtat,  who  published,  what  Mr.  Haldane 
■ays,  "  I  never  before  met  with,  in  any  theological  diecoanon,  a 
laboured  apology  for  spending  the  evening  of  the  Lord'a-day 
m  playing  at  cards."  His  arguments,  drawn  fiom  the  ailemee 
of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  respecting  card-playing,  might 
seem  a  burlesque  on  the  practice  after  the  manner  of  Dean 
Swift.  Ajiother  of  the  leading  foreign  correspondents  of  the 
Bible  Society,  was  Professor  Levade,  of  Lausanne,  who,  in  his 
lettPTs,  used  to  boast  of  "  the  good  resulting  £ram  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Bible  Society  in  our  Canton."  Although  a  translator 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  President  of  the  Lausanne  Bible  Society, 
he  was  a  bitter  persecutor  !  After  Mr.  T.  F.  Piatt  resigned  his 
office  of  Honorary  Librarian  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  he  publicly  related,  that  when,  as  a  very  young  man, 
he  visited  Lausanne,  his  connexion  with  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  did  not  prevent  his  being  on  the  Lord's-day 
evening  introduced  to  a  party  of  clergymen  and  Frofeaaors, 
where  he  was  invited  to  join  in  the  amusement  of  cards. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  encouragement  given  to  the 
ungod'y  was  bad  enough.  This  could  not,  however,  be  done 
without  also  discountenancing  the  true  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
that  at  a  time  of  persecution  and  trial.  It  would  he  ea^  to 
record  facta  as  startling  as  they  are  painful,  relative  to  the 
conduct  and  demeanour  of  the  representatives  of  Earl-street, 
when,  in  the  presence  of  the  persecutors  and  the  persecuted, 
they  were  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  determining  whether 
to  endure  reproach  with  the  people  of  God,  or  enjoy  the 
support  of  His  enemies.  It  is  more  agreeable  to  throw  a  veil 
over  such  occurrences,  and  only  to  allude  to  them  as  a  solemn 
warning  against  the  exercise  of  such  worldly  policy.  M.  Chene- 
viere  did  not,  however,  fail  publicly  to  make  use  of  these 
instances  of  unfiuthfulitess,  as  proofs  that  he  had  been  enabled 


NEOLOGY   ON    THE   CONTINENT.  519 

to  '^  rectify  *'  the  ideas  of  the  representatives  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society.  The  principle  on  which  they  then 
acted  was  thoroughly  tainted^  but  it  was  a  principle  which 
had  neither  been  canvassed  nor  fully  examined.  It  was  the 
principle  of  attempting  to  secure  the  circulation  of  the  Bible 
by  any  means^  and  especially  by  the  co-operation  of  the 
strongest  and  most  influential  party^  without  considering 
whether  it  consisted  of  the  friends  or  the  enemies  of  the 
Lord.  In  the  Second  Review^  there  is  a  remarkable  letter 
fix)m  an  eminent  (xenevese  pastor,  which  contains  the  following 
passage: — 

**  Mr.  Ron^berg  (then  Assistant  Foreign  Secretary  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society),  wrote  to  me  that,  in  passing  by  Geneva,  he  could 
not  but  laugh  at  seeing  these  little  ones,  who  think  that  the  whole  world 
should  be  occupied  about  their  four  articles  of  controversy,  while  the 
Bible  Society  has  many  thousand  Bibles  to  send  to  China,  and  over  the 
whole  world.  By  this  you  may  judge,  dear  brother,  if  the  old  dragon 
does  not  know  how  to  make  use  of  Bible  Societies.  **  '*The  four  articles,** 
adds  Mr.  Haldane,  *'  include  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  the  most  import- 
ant doctrines  of  the  Bible." 

Mr.  Haldane^s  testimonies  to  the  state  of  the  Continent  were 
drawn  partly  from  his  personal  observation,  and  partly  from  the 
testimony  of  many  British  and  foreign  correspondents,  who 
furnished  him  with  details  relative  to  France,  Switzerland, 
Germany,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  the  North,  Poland,  Prussia, 
Holland,  Hungary,  and  other  places.  The  Brcv.  Hugh  J.  Rose's 
book,  then  lately  published,  supplied  many  details.  Professor 
Tholuck  then  described  Germany  as  little  better  than  a  land  of 
Heathenism  and  entire  darkness,  but  it  is  believed  that  Tholuck, 
who  was  himself  ill-grounded  in  the  truth,  afterwards  swerved 
from  his  statements  under  the  pressure  of  remonstrant  Neolo- 
gians.  The  Rev.  Sydney  Thelwall,  the  Rev.  Lewis  Way,  and 
the  late  Captain  Angas,  of  Newcastle,  were  amongst  his  chief 
English  informants. 

Mr.  Haldane  thus  closes  this  part  of  his  reply  to  Dr. 
Steinkopff,  with  reference  to  the  materials  out  of  which  the 
foreign  auidliaries  were  formed : — 


520  SIR   THOMAS    baking's    REMONSTRANCE. 

"  In  demonstration  of  the  religious,  or  rather  irreligious,  state  of 
the  Continent,  I  have  appealed  to  the  voluminous  writings,  profe$90dly 
religious^  and  of  the  greatest  celebrity,  sent  forth  by  the  most  learned  Pro- 
fessors in  the  Universities  .  .  .  And  far  firom  resiling  from  the  instances 
I  have  given,  and  the  writings  to  which  I  have  appealed,  I  stand  to  what 
I  have  written, — I  explain  away  nothing.  I  look  on  the  multitude  of 
presidents,  secretaries,  and  managers  of  Bible  Societies — on  the  hosts  of 
learned  pastors  and  Professors  of  Divinity  scattered  over  Europe,  and  I 
challenge  the  possibility  of  producing  demonstration  more  complete  on 
the  point  which  I  undertook  to  establish." 

Mr.  Haldane  had  made  good  both  of  his  points.  He  had 
proved  that  the  Apocrypha  was  not  necessary  for  the  circulation 
of  the  Bible^  and^  on  the  contrary^  that  it  had  been  forced  upon 
those  who  were  averse  to  the  contamination  of  the  Word  of 
God.  He  had  further  proved,  that  by  forming  Associations 
composed  of  Neologians  and  Socinians,  there  had  been  estab- 
lished on  the  Continent  a  machinery^  by  means  of  which  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  had  been  arrested,  and  persecution 
promoted,  by  those  who  continued  to  enjoy  the  countenance 
and  correspondence  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

But  perhaps  the  most  flagrant  proof  of  the  wretched  conse- 
quences of  these  unchristian  alliances  on  the  Continent,  will  be 
found  in  the  fact,  now  almost  incredible,  that  the  Bible  Society 
was  induced,  by  the  dread  of  giving  ofience,  to  refuse  to  intrust 
Bibles  for  distribution  to  such  able,  holy,  and  zealous  men 
as  Bost,  Henri  Pyt,  or  Felix  Neff",  "  the  apostle  of  the  Alps." 
Their  opportunities,  as  Continental  missionaries,  could  not  be 
doubted,  and  Lord  Teignmouth  at  first  assiured  the  late  Sir 
Thomas  Baring,  that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  complying 
with  this  request.  But  Lord  Teignmouth^s  desire  was  over- 
borne, and  an  apology  for  the  refusal  was  found  in  the  jealousy 
entertained  in  regard  to  them  by  the  foreign  allies  of  the  Society. 
An  indignant  remonstrance  was  addressed  on  the  subject  by 
Sir  Thomas  Baring  to  Lord  Teignmouth : — 

"  If  our  Society "  (the  Continental),  said  its  President,  Sir  Thomas 
Baring,  **  were  to  publish  all  that  has  come  to  our  knowledge  respecting 
the  conduct  of  the  Paris,  Geneva,  Straaburg,  and  other  Bible  Societies 
on  the  Continent,  to  whom  very  liberal  aid  has  been  given  by  the  London 


MR.  HALDANe's    second    REVIEW.  521 

Bible  Society,  it  would  very  much  weaken  the  confidence  placed  in  these 
Societies,  consisting,  as  I  hare  understood,  of  a  large  majority  of  free- 
thinkers, who,  having  neither  the  glory  of  Qod  nor  the  good  of  men 
at  heart,  are  not  fit  agents  to  be  employed  by  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.'' 

Mr.  Haldane^s  Second  Review  produced  a  great  sensation^  and 
excited^  as  may  be  supposed^  a  good  deal  of  irritation  in  some 
quarters.  In  Scotland^  it  confirmed  the  impression  made  by 
the  Edinburgh  statements^  and  was  appealed  to  in  every  future 
discussion.  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  characterized  it  as  '^by  far 
the  most  powerful  essay  which  has  yet  appeared  on  the  contro- 
versy/' and  declares  "  that  it  gives  such  a  view  of  the  Foreign 
Societies^  as  should  make  every  man  tremble  at  the  thought 
of  employing  them  as  agents.'^  Its  accuracy  was  peculiarly 
striking^  considering  the  vast  variety  of  facts  it  deals  with^  and 
the  large  field  over  which  it  travels.  Every  efibrt  was  made  to 
impugn  its  statements^  but  vague  charges  of  exaggeration  or 
over-colouring  were  all  that  deserved  notice.  In  a  letter  written 
on  the  15th  August^  1827^  Mr.  Haldane  observes:  ''Is  it  not 
remarkable^  that  not  a  single  statement  in  either  of  my  Reviews 
has  been  disproved  ?''  Among  the  many  testimonies  borne 
by  distinguished  men  to  the  value  of  these  publications^  one  may 
be  selected.  It  is  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon^  who  justly  ranks 
as  one  of  the  most  highly-gifted  and  spiritually-minded  ministers 
of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland^  for  whom  Mr.  Haldane  enter- 
tained the  most  afiectionate  esteem.  It  is  contained  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  son-in-law.  Colonel  Eckford, 
C.B.,  who  has  served  long  and  with  distinction  in  India : — 

"  I  cannot  help  alluding  to  the  grand  question  that  has  for  a  consider- 
able time  agitated  the  Christian  world.  I  mean  the  controversy  of  the 
Edinburgh  and  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  about  the  circulation 
of  the  Apocrypha.  Our  venerable  friend,  Mr.  Robert  Haldane,  has  stood 
forward  in  apostolic  simplicity  and  might,  the  champion  of  the  purity  of 
God's  Word.  His  knowledge  of  the  Continent  gave  him  an  advantage 
over  the  sickly,  puling  advocates  of  a  worldly  policy,  and  in  two  publica- 
tions of  unrivalled  power,  he  has  demolished  the  fairy  and  fanciful  &bric 
which  the  compromising  circulators  of  the  Bible  have  reared,  with  the 
view  of  impressing  the  Christians  of  Great  Britain  that  the  seat  of  the 
beast  had  already  become  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  The  public  mind  is  not 


622  LETTER  OF    MR.   HALDANE. 

80  stedfastly  and  so  generally  on  the  side  of  truth  as  we  could  wish,  but 
it  will  come  round.  I  hope  that  among  the  communications  you  receiTO 
firom  this  country,  you  will  have  these  publications,  as  well  as  the  state- 
ments of  the  Edinburgh  Committee.  I  cannot  express  to  you  the  yenera- 
tion  I  feel  for  Mr.  Haldane's  character.  Oh,  for  something  more  of  his 
spirit,  his  simple,  uncompromising,  stem  adherence  to  the  truth ! " 

An  extract  fix)m  one  of  Mr.  Haldane's  own  letters  will  serve 
to  indicate  the  temper  in  which  he  was  so  earnestly  contending 
for  what  he  believed  to  be  the  faith  delivered  to  the  saints. 
During  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  about  the  end  of  the  year  1826, 
one  of  the  few  members  of  the  Elected  Committee,  who  had  both 
in  public  and  in  private  assisted  in  putting  down  the  circulation  of 
the  Apocrypha,  and  the  employment  of  Neologian  agency,  seemed 
ready  to  faint,  and  had  expressed  himself  as  disposed  to  shrink 
trom  any  longer  encountering  the  pressure  of  opposition  and 
obloquy  to  which  the  opponents  of  the  rulers  in  Earl-street  were 
exposed.     To  this  Mr.  Haldane  thus  alludes : — 

"  25th  DecembeTy  1826. 

**  I  trust  that  Mr.  will  not  faint  in  this  business,  and  become 

weary  of  well-doing.  Remind  him  of  the  magnitude  of  the  question, 
which  refers  to  the  purity  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  the  expulsion  of  that 
dreadful  abomination,  the  Apocrypha — a  question  which  now  shakes  all 
Europe,  and  which  was  never  before  agitated  on  its  true  merits,  or  to  such 
an  extent.  Never  in  his  life,  it  is  probable,  will  he  have  such  another 
opportunity  of  glorifying  God.  So  far  from  sinking  under  the  persecution 
and  evil-speaking  which  he  has  to  encounter,  he  should  take  fresh  courage 
from  them,  like  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  like  him  fight  the  good  fight  of 
faith.  Let  him  by  no  means  give  up  attending  the  Committee,  but  watch 
more  earnestly  and  sedulously  than  ever.  Let  all  of  us  remember  the 
words  of  God,  and  not  incur  the  rebuke,  *  If  thou  faint  in  the  day  of 
adversity,  thy  strength  is  small.'  *  If  thou  hast  run  with  the  footmen,  and 
they  have  wearied  thee,  then  how  canst  thou  contend  with  horses  ?  and  if 
in  the  land  of  peace,  wherein  thou  trustedst,  they  wearied  thee,  then  how 
wilt  thou  do  in  the  swelling  of  Jordan  V  Most  gladly,  then,  let  him  rejoice 
in  these  tribulations.  *  Be  not  afraid  of  their  faces,  for  I  am  with  thee  to 
deliver  thee,  saith  Jehovah.'  Could  the  enemy  desire  anything  better, 
than  that  the  servants  of  God  should  flee  from  their  post,  like  Jonah,  and 
succumb  in  such  a  struggle  ?  Let  us  be  followers  of  them  who  through 
£uth  and  patience  inherit  the  promises ;  and  let  us  imbibe  the  sentiments, 
and  imitate  the  conduct,  of  him  who  said,  *  None  of  these  things  move 
me ;  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my 


LETTER   OF   ME.    HALDANE.  523 

course  with  joy.'  '  Behold,  I  come  quickly !  hold  that  fast  which  thou 
hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  It  is  by  taking  this  serious  view 
of  the  subject,  that  those  engaged  and  exposed  to  the  heat  of  the  battle 
will  be  enabled  to  stand,  looking  not  to  the  things  which  are  temporal, 
but  to  those  which  are  eternal — ^to  God,  and  not  to  man. 

<*  Most  affectionately  yours,  *'  Robebt  Haldane." 

This  message  was  communicated  to  the  member  referred  to^ 
and  he  replied : — 

"  You  have  encouraged  my  heart  and  strengthened  my  hands  by  your 
kind  letter,  so  full  of  Christian  counsel  and  consolation.  Pray  offer  my 
affectionate  respects  to  your  venerable  uncle,  and  tell  him  that  it  shall  be 
my  prayer,  that  his  holy  admonitions  may  be  an  effectual  means  of 
keeping  me  stedfast,  unmoveable,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord."  .  .  . 

After  saying  that  those  who  were  contending  for  the  preser- 
vation of  Gk)d's  Word  might  truly  say,  ''the  battle  is  the 
Lord's,'^  and  the  victory  is  his,  he  adds, — 

'*  But  I  must  stop.  You  see  that  your  kind  letter  has  rekindled  my 
smoking  flax.  There  is  to  be  a  meeting  on  Monday,  although  it  be  New 
Year*s-day.    I  think  it  will  be  anything  but  a  diet  non, 

**  With  great  respect  and  esteem,  your  obliged  Friend." 

Not  long  afterwards.  Dr.  Thomson  thus  writes : — 

'*  It  is  now  more  necessary  than  ever  for  the  friends  of  truth  to  speak 
truth,  to  uphold  truth,  to  propagate  truth,  and  not  to  be  led  away  by  that 
flimsy,  mawkish,  delusive  sentiment,  which  is  so  prevalent  amongst  your 
men  of  flaming  profession,  and  supersedes  all  exercise  of  understanding, 
and  all  depth  of  feeling,  and  all  inflexibility  of  ]Hinciple  in  matters  of 
religion.  The  more  I  know  and  observe  the  more  am  I  jealous  of  its 
finding  its  way  into  Scotland,  and  impairing  that  honest,  substantial,  old- 
fashioned  system,  which  has  so  long  maintained  its  place  amongst  us. 
We  need  improvement,  but  we  must  not  seek  it,  for  we  cannot  get  it,  in 
the  South.  The  Bible  Society  controversy  has  opened  my  eyes  wider  to 
the  fact  than  ever  they  were  before.  The  laxity  of  opinion  that  obtains 
among  you  is  Mghtful.  Mr.  Pratt,  in  his  last  *  Register,'  tells  an  awful 
tale  of  those  who  prefer  an  adulterated  to  a  pure  Bible." 

Dr.  Thomson  would  have  modified  his  opinion  as  to  "  the 
South*'  had  he  been  spared  to  see  the  improved  tone  of  Chris- 
tian principle  which,  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  in  1849,  gladdened  the  heart  of  the  late 
Edward  Bickersteth. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

DISCUSSION  RESPECTING  THE  CANON  AND  INSPIRATION  OF 
SCRIPTURE— DR.  PYE  SMITH'S  DEFENCE  OF  DR.  HAFFNEB 
—DR.  CARSON'S  REPLY— MR.  HALDANE  ON  INSPIRATION 
—EXTRACTS  FROM  DR.  CARSON— PROFESSOR  GAUSSEN'S 
THEOPNEUSTIA  ;  OR,  "  IT  IS  WRITTEN  "—PROGRESS  OF 
RIGHT  VIEWS  ON  INSPIRATION— PROGRESSIVE  REFOR- 
MATION OF  THE  BIBLE  SOCIETY— DISMISSAL  OF  VAN 
ESS  —  ANGLICANUS  —  MR.  HALDANE'S  PAMPHLETS  —  DB. 
THOMSON'S  SPEECH  -  HIS  VISIT  TO  PAUL'S  CRAY  — 
DEPLORES  THE  PREVAILING  LAXITY  OF  CHRISTIAN 
PRINCIPLE— FRIENDSHIP  BETWEEN  DR.  THOMSON  AND 
THE  TWO  BROTHERS. 

[1826-1833.] 

Mr.  Haldane  always  regarded  the  certainty  of  the  Canon  of 
Scripture  as  the  grand  point  at  issue  in  the  Apocrypha  contro- 
versy. It  was  long^  however,  before  this  issue  was  distinctly 
taken,  and  many  vindicated  the  circulation  of  contaminated 
Bibles,  without  considering  the  practice  as  one  calculated  to 
bring  discredit  on  the  majesty  of  the  Word  of  God.  Dr.  Pye 
Smithes  apology  for  Hasher's  preface  at  last  introduced  the 
discussion,  not  only  as  to  the  canon,  but  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible.  His  apology  was,  no  doubt,  a  rash  act  of  chivalry, 
which  was  partly  attributable  to  his  own  indistinct  views  on 
the  subject,  and  partly  to  a  desire  to  throw  his  shield  over  the 
Earl-street  Committee.  It  has  been  already  noticed,  that  in 
a  letter,  written  in  1837,  he  himself  acknowledged,  with  hia 
accustomed  candour,  that,  in  regard  to  Hafiher,  he  '^  reflected 
with  sorrow  on  the  tone  and  manner  in  which  he  wrote ;  ^'  and 
Dr.  Smith  was  too  good  a  man  to  aUow  his  pride  long  to 
triumph  over  his  piety. 


THE    CANON    AND    INSPIEATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.    325 

On  Christinas-day^  1826,  Mr.  Haldane  writes : — 

'*  At  the  end  of  this  week  Dr.  Thomson's  letter  to  Lord  Bexley  is  to  be 
published ;  and  in  next  month's  *  Instructor '  will  be  the  review  of  the 
Strasburg  minutes.  That  subject  demands  the  greatest  attention.  Dr. 
Pye  Smith's  papers,  in  vindication  of  Haffner,  are  the  most  dangerous 
that  have  yet  appeared  in  the  Apocrypha  business.  Tour  answer  to  him 
is  quite  triumphant,  but  the  principles  contained  in  his  first  paper  require 
a  full  investigation.  This  has  been  very  ably  done,  at  my  request,  by  one 
who  does  not  wish  his  name  to  be  affixed  to  it.  Your  father  has  read  it, 
and  much  approves  of  it.  From  its  development  of  general  principles,  it 
is  calculated  to  counteract  the  erroneous  sentiments  of  Dr.  Smith,  as  well 
as  to  be  very  generally  useful.  The  expense,  of  course,  if  it  does  not  pay 
itself,  I  am  answerable  for.** 

This  pamphlet,  which  Mr.  Haldane  first  proposed  to  publish 
in  London^  without  the  author's  name^  was  '^The  Review  of 
Dr.  Pye  Smith's  Defence  of  Dr.  Hafiher's  Preface,  and  of  his 
Denial  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  Part  of  the  Canon,  and  of  the 
full  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  by  Alexander  Carson.'' 
In  another  letter  Mr.  Haldane  writes,  that  it  was  now  deter- 
mined that  the  author's  name  should  appear. 

**  There  will,"  he  says,  "  be  about  fifty  pages  respecting  Hafiner,  and  as 
many  respecting  Dr.  Smith's  theory  of  inspiration.  The  last,  on  inspira- 
tion, is  not  quite  finished.  They  are  both  most  powerful,  especially  the 
latter.  Dr.  Smith  will  find  himself  matched  in  learning  and  everything 
else." 

In  the  same  letter  he  writes : — 

"  I  am  also  preparing,  for  separate  publication,  the  two  chapters  in  my 
first  volume  of  *  Evidences  on  the  Authenticity  and  on  the  Inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures.  Will  you  be  so  good  as  to  read  them  as  soon  as  you 
receive  this,  and  send  me  any  suggestions  P  The  question  of  inspiration 
ia  one  of  the  deepest  moment,  and  will  excite  great  attention." 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Haldane  first  re-published  his  own  treatise 
on  the  "  Authenticity  and  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,'' 
announcing,  as  its  sequel,  "Dr.  Carson's  Review  of  Dr.  Pye 
Smith."  Mighty  in  the  Scriptures  and  simple  in  his  aim,  Mr. 
Haldane  never  flinched  from  any  contest  in  which  the  truth  of 
God  was  at  stake.  He  drew  his  arguments  from  an  armoury 
with  which  he  was  perfectly  familiar ;  but,  knowing  that  he  was 
not  a  match  for  Dr.  Pye  Smith  in  scholastic  learning,  philology^ 


526  DR.  CARSON. 

or  minute  criticism^  he  did  not  himself  attempt  this  warfare. 
These  branches  of  knowledge  he  neither  overrated  nor  under- 
valued. The  pastor  of  Tubbermore^  in  the  north  of  Ireland^ 
was  a  man  of  deep  spiritual  attainments  and  noble  independ- 
ence; one  whose  skill  in  the  refinements  of  criticism,  the 
subtleties  of  metaphysics,  and  the  philosophy  of  language,  was 
such  as  to  leave  him  but  few  competitors.  But,  in  lus  isolated 
position  and  with  his  contracted  means,  there  was  a  danger  lest 
his  abilities  might  be  unexercised,  like  a  piece  of  artillery  which 
has  fallen  into  a  ditch  or  wants  a  gun-carriage.  On  various 
occasions  it  was,  therefore,  Mr.  Haldane's  privilege  to  be  able 
to  bring  Dr.  Carson^s  talents  into  the  field  by  securing  to  him 
at  least  some  reward  for  his  literary  labours,  and  always  shield- 
ing him  from  loss.  For  many  years  a  large  proportion  of  Dr. 
Carson's  works  were,  from  time  to  time,  sent  over  to  Edinburgh 
and  published  at  Mr.  Haldane's  expense.  One  of  his  produc- 
tions, distinguished  for  its  originaUty,  is  an  ^'  Essay  on  Figures 
of  Speech.''  It  was  written  whilst  Mr.  Haldane  was  on  the 
Continent,  and  was  therefore  sent  to  his  brother,  who  could  not, 
however,  find  a  publisher  willing  to  undertake  the  risk,  although 
the  celebrated  Dr.  Thomas  Brown  pronounced  it  to  be  a  master- 
piece. It  was  afterwards  published  in  Dublin.  Another  work 
was  his  "  Letter  to  Mr.  Richard  Carlile,"  the  Atheist,  which 
contains  a  striking  argument,  with  reference  to  the  character 
and  attributes  of  God,  in  refutation  of  Infidelity.  The  question 
of  inspiration  was,  however,  most  of  all  congenial  to  his  tastes, 
his  habits,  and  previous  studies. 

More  than  ten  years  before,  Mr.  Haldane  had  himself  pub- 
lished a  chapter  on  the  plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture,  which 
had  already  attracted  considerable  attention  and  established  the 
faith  of  several  eminent  ministers,  amongst  whom  was  the  Rev. 
Marcus  Dods,  author  of  the  valuable  work  on  the  Incarnation. 
It  had  also  met  with  some  opposition  from  those  whose  minds 
had  been  perverted  by  the  unwarrantable  theory  of  a  graduated 
scale  of  inspiration,  which  Doddridge  had  imported  from  the 
German  innovators  who  preceded  Semler,  the  father  of  modem 
Neology.    Mr.  Haldane's  was  the  first  systematic  treatise  a88eri«> 


MR.  HALDANE   ON    PLENAUY   INSPIRATION.         527 

ing  the  doctrine  of  plenary^  or^  what  has  been  less  appropriately 
called  verbal^  inspiration.  But  there  were  subtle  objectors^  who 
started  puzzling  questions^  requiring  to  be  discussed  by  a 
scholar  criticaUy  acquainted  with  the  original  languages  and 
well  versed  in  all  philological  science.  To  these  difficulties  Dr. 
Carson  addressed  himself  in  his  "  Review  of  Dr.  Smith's  Defence 
of  the  Strasburg  Preface.^'  It  was  the  first  of  a  series  of 
publications^  each  written  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Haldane^  and 
each  published  at  his  risk ;  so  that^  during  a  period  of  nearly 
ten  years^  Dr.  Carson  was  enabled  triumphantly  to  maintain  the 
field  against  all  comers^  while  he  not  only  defended  the  Canon, 
which  had  been  assailed,  but,  by  overthrowing  one  adverse 
theory  after  another,  proved  to  demonstration  that  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  can  never  be  successfully  assailed, 
except  through  the  sloth,  the  ignorance,  or  the  cowardice, 
of  those  who  choose  to  surrender  without  a  struggle.* 

*  The  following  are  some  of  Dr.  Carson's  works,  relating  to  the  inspi- 
ration of  Scripture,  which  passed  through  Mr.  Haldane's  hands  and  were 
published  for  the  learned  author : — 

1.  ''Review  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Pye  Smith's  Defence  of  Dr.  Haffiiex^s 
Preface  to  the  Bible,  and  of  his  Denial  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  Part  of 
the  Canon,  and  of  the  Full  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures."   Svo.,  1827. 

2.  "  The  Incompetency  of  the  Rev.  Professor  Lee,  of  Cambridge,  for 
Translating  or  Correcting  Translations  of  Holy  Scriptures,  proved  and 
illustrated  in  a  Criticism  on  his  Remarks  on  Dr.  Henderson's  Appeal  to 
the  Bible  Society."  8vo.,  1829.  Of  this  treatise  it  was  said,  by  Dr. 
Cooke,  of  Belfast,  himself  an  eminent  philologist,  that  it  raised  his 
opinion  of  Dr.  Carson,  as  a  philologist,  more  than  all  that  he  ever  wrote ; 
that  Dr.  Carson  was  enabled,  without  understanding  Turkish,  to  demon- 
strate from  the  principles  of  philology,  that,  upon  Professor  Lee's  own 
showing,  the  Turkish  Testament  was  incurably  bad,  and  Dr.  Lee's  defence 
of  it  untenable. 

3.  "  An  Answer  to  the  Letter  of  the  Rev.  Professor  Lee,  in  Reply  to 
the  Proof  and  Illustration  of  his  Incompetency  for  Translating  or  Cor- 
recting Translations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures."     1829. 

4.  "  Theories  of  Inspiration  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Wilson  (now  Bishop  of 
Calcutta),  Rev.  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dick,  proved  to  be 
erroneous;  with  Remarks  on  the  'Christian  Observer'  and  'Eclectic 
Review.'"     12mo.,  1830. 

5.  "  History  of  Providence,  as  unfolded  in  the  Book  of  Esther."    1833. 


628  PLENARY    INSPIRATION. 

The  value  of  these  works  to  a  student  of  philology^  as  well  as 
to  the  plain  Bible  reader^  can  hardly  be  overrated.  Of  the 
"  Examination  of  the  Principles  of  Biblical  Interpretation/'  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  the  second  part  was  never  completed.  In 
the  judgment  of  a  learned  Bishop^  it  proved  the  author  to  be 
''a  first-rate  scholar.''  But,  away  from  College  libraries,  the 
labour  was  too  great,  and  the  second  part  never  appeared. 

With  reference  to  the  concessions  which  Christians  are  too 
apt  to  make  to  Neologians,  Dr.  Carson  thus  writes,  in  a  passage 
that  marks  the  unmistakeable  idiosyncracy  of  his  style : — 

^  The  doctrine  of  verbal  inspiration  is  one  of  the  fortresses  committed 
to  Christians  by  Jesus  Christ.  Dr.  Smith  cries  mercy,  and  strikes  his 
colours  to  a  most  contemptible  enemy,  without  ever  firing  a  gun.  Had 
he  mustered  the  royal  forces  and  come  to  an  actual  engagement  with  the 
squalid  foe,  he  would  have  put  him  to  flight  at  the  first  fire.  He  would 
have  found  the  enemy  totally  without  ammunition.  There  might  be, 
indeed,  as  much  powder  as  would  enable  him  to  puff  a  little,  but  not  to 
do  any  execution.** 

Dr.  Smith  had  said,  that  the  book  of  Esther  and  the  books 

of  Chronicles,  though  not  inspired,  are  ''  very  properly  included 

in  our  canon  as  both  authentic  and  true."     Dr.  Carson  replies, 

in  another  passage,  exhibiting  the  logical  accuracy  as  well  as 

the  force  and  the  faults  of  a  style  which  secured  its  author 

against  plagiarism  :— 

**  Now  what  canon  ?  The  answer  is  self-evident :  canon  of  Scripture. 
What  other  canon  is  the  writer  here  concerned  with  ?  Included  in  the 
canon  of  Scripture,  while  they  are  not  Scripture !  Included  in  a  canon 
to  which  they  do  not  belong !  Included  in  the  canon  of  inspired  bookty 
while  they  are  not  inspired !  As  well  may  Dr.  Smith  be  included  in  the 
peerage,  while  he  is  not  a  peer ;  or  be  enrolled  among  crowned  heads,  while 


Second  Edition,  18mo.,  2«.,  1836.    This  went  through  two  editions,  and 
was  published  in  Dublin. 

6.  **  Examination  of  the  Principles  of  Biblical  Interpretation  of  Emesti, 
Ammon,  Stuart,  and  other  Philologists.''  12mo.,  1836.  This  is  a  most 
learned  and  elaborate  specimen  of  a  work  which  unhappily  was  never 
completed. 

7.  **  Refutation  of  Dr.  Henderson's  Doctrine  in  his  late  Work  on  Divine 
Inspiration,  with  a  Critical  Discussion  on  2  Timothy  iii.  16.**    1837. 


THE    CANON    AND    INSPIRATION    OP    SCRIPTURE.    529 

he  is  but  a  subject.  Include  the  writings  of  men  among  the  writings  of 
God,  under  one  designation !  Was  ever  absurdity  more  monstrous  ?  I 
had  thought  that  the  Church  of  Rome  had  exhausted  all  the  mines  of 
absurdity,  but  it  seems  there  are  some  rich  veins  of  unappropriated  ore, 
left  to  be  worked  by  Protestant  divines,  for  the  support  of  sophistry. 
The  authenticity  of  a  book  does  not  entitle  it  to  be  taken  into  the  canon 
of  Scripture.  Mathematical  demonstrations  have  no  more  right  to  a 
place  in  the  canon  of  the  holy  books,  than  the  most  extravagant  romance. 
They  are  truths,  but  they  are  not  the  truths  written  by  the  Spirit  of  Qod, 
for  the  spiritual  instruction  of  mankind.  The  Jewish  canon  was  the  canon 
of  Scripture,  not  the  canon  of  authentic  books  in  general.  Our  canon  is 
the  canon  of  the  books  acknowledged  as  inspired,  not  the  canon  of  all 
true  history ;  Dr.  Smith's  canon  would  include  all  the  authentic  history  of 
all  ages  and  countries.  Is  not  a  canon  a  rule  ?  and  what  rule  ought  any 
uninspired  book  to  be  in  the  things  of  Ood  ?  .  .  .  I  thank  thee,  great 
Jesus,  that  thou  hast  not  left  the  making  of  our  Bible  to  the  ingenuity  of 
learned  doctors.  Much  of  thy  wisdom  in  it  appears  to  them  to  be  folly. 
Their  learning  is  employed  in  mending  thy  work,  and  polishing  what  thy 
hand  has  left  unfinished.  Go,  Dr.  Smith,  enrol  thy  name  with  that  of 
him,  who,  in  the  arrogance  of  his  wisdom,  boasted  that  he  could  have 
given  a  better  model  for  creation,  had  be  been  admitted  to  the  Divine 
counsels.  But  let  the  Bible  alone.  It  is  the  very  wisdom  of  wisdom. 
The  blemishes  that  the  wisdom  of  this  world  finds  in  it,  are  often  its 
greatest  excellencies.'' 

Afler  putting  his  own  veork  to  press^  Mr.  Haldane  writes,  on 
the  27th  of  January,  1827,  "  I  am  truly  rejoiced  that  the 
subjects  of  the  canon  and  inspiration  have  now  come  forward/' 
He  entertained  no  apprehensions  as  to  the  issue  of  the  combat, 
and  felt  convinced  that  it  was  only  from  ignorance  of  their 
own>  strength,  that  Christians,  like  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  had  been 
tempted  to  abandon  this  citadel  to  the  enemies  of  the  Bible. 
As  an  instance  of  the  fearful  extent  to  which  the  opposite  spirit 
had  been  spreading,  the  following  extract  is  taken  from  one  of 
Dr.  Thomson's  letters,  written  at  the  same  time : — 

**  The  battle  rages  in  Newcastle.  .  .  .  The  friends  of  your  (the  Earl- 
street)  Committee  are  ruining  their  credit  by  eulogising  the  Apocrypha. 
I  am  challenged  to  disprove  its  inspiration,  and  I  am  dared  to  prove  the 
inspiration  of  some  parts  of  the  Bible,  particularly  those  parts  on  which 
Pye  Smith  has  put  his  ban ! " 

Mr.  Haldane's  treatise  on  inspiration  sold  rapidly.      It  was 

M    M 


530       RAPID    SAL£   OF   MB.  HALDANB's   TREATI8B. 

publiaiied  in  March^  and^  on  the  18th  of  May,  he  writes  that 
his  publisher  informs  him  that  the  demand  continued,  and  only 
two  or  three  copies  remained.  Other  editions  followed,  and  the 
good  results  have  been  seen  in  the  wide  diffusion  of  scriptural 
knowledge  on  a  subject  which  had  be^i  httle  studied.  Dr. 
Carson's  writings,  notwithstanding  his  great  qualities,  were  not 
generally  popular,  and  although  himself  simple  in  his  manners, 
hiunble  and  amiable  as  Dr.  Pye  Smith  himself,  the  dogmatic 
power  with  which  he  denounced  error,  and  the  unsparing 
sarcasm  with  which  he  unmasked  every  attempt  at  sophistry, 
tended  to  create  a  prejudice  which  it  was  difficult  to  surmount. 
For  example,  in  the  very  first  page  of  his  ''Review,''  he 
characterizes  Dr.  Pye  Smith's  defence  of  Hafiher's  "  Trehce/*  as 
''one  of  the  most  detestable  productions,"  he  had  ever  seen 
from  the  pen  of  a  Christian.  Yet  for  Dr.  Smith's  personal 
character  he  entertained  a  high  respect.  It  was  not  Mr.  Hal- 
dane's  fault  if  Dr.  Carson's  writings  were  not  more  generally 
sought  after,  for  he  distributed,  gratuitously,  hundreds  of  almost 
every  work  he  published.  For  example,  in  a  letter,  dated  the 
12th  of  April,  1827,  he  writes  :— 

«  By  mistake  only  two  hundred  of  Canon's  '  Review '  were  sent  to 
London.  I  intended  that  there  should  have  been  three  hundred,  that 
you  might  consider  in  what  way  it  was  best  to  distribute  them.  It  is  so 
important  a  publication,  containing  principles  so  essential  and  so  ably 
stated,  that  it  is  peculiarly  adapted  for  England,  where  many  view  the 
subjects  of  which  it  treats  in  a  very  loose  and  superficial  manner.** 

The  reader  has  abready  seen  something  of  the  style  of  •Br. 
Carson.  It  is  so  clear  and  epigrammatic ;  it  possesses  so  much 
of  idiosyncracy  and  originality,  that  a  paragraph  or  a  sentence 
of  his  might  be  picked  out  amongst  a  thousand.  His  con- 
cluding address  to  Dr.  Smith  is  worth  preserving.  It  is  equally 
applicable  to  those  who,  like  Coleridge  and  his  disciples,  would 
deny  the  inspiration  of  large  portions  of  the  Bible,  and  still  say 
that  it  contains  the  Word  of  Ood.  It  is  not  thus  that  either 
Deists  or  Pantheists  will  be  convinced : — 

''  Let  not  Dr.  Smith  vainly  imagine,  that  by  throwing  the  objected 
books  overboard,  he  will  be  able  to  keep  the  ship  from  sinking,  and 


DR.  CABBON  AND  DR.  PTB  SMITH.        631 

save  the  rest  When  he  offers  to  surrender  these  books  to  the  Deist, 
if  he  knows  his  business,  the  Deist  will  not  take  them  from  him.  He 
may  reply,  Dr.  Smith,  these  books  that  you  give  up  to  me,  are  authenti- 
cated by  him  you  call  your  Master,  and,  by  him,  you  denominate  the 
great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  You  must  acknowledge  them  as  yovrns,  or 
you  must  surrender  at  discretion,  and  give  me  up  all  the  writings  of  Paul, 
and  all  the  authority  of  Jesus.  If  the  one  fidls,  the  other  will  fall,  of 
course.  Who  can  depend  on  Jesus,  if  he  has  acknowledged  the  authority 
of  a  book,  which  you  and  I  have  found  to  be  the  writing  of  a  '  wicked 
Jew  P '  What  credit  can  be  given  to  Paul,  if  he  has  so  egregiously  lied 
about  these  books?  <0r  fight,  or  yield.'  .  .  .  Dr.  Smith,  you  are 
engaged  in  a  very  imholy  cause.  Your  genius  and  learning  are  very  iU 
employed.  You  are  labouring  to  unsettle  the  canon  of  Scripture,  and  to 
unhinge  the  mind  of  simple  Christians,  by  your  speculations.  You  have 
denied  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  every  kind  of 
inspiration  to  all  the  passages  that  any  one  may  choose  to  consider  not 
of  a  religious  or  moral  nature,  and  you  close  by  rejecting  whole  books, 
on  principles  that  will  condemn  the  whole  Bible.  Your  speculations  are 
very  crude.  Your  sentiments  are  self-contradictory,  and  your  half-formed 
conceptions  show  that  you  have  been  too  hasty  in  giving  your  opinions 
to  the  world.  You  must  go  back  or  forward.  Stationary  you  cannot 
remain.  Make  the  best  use  of  your  learning,  but  humble  yourself  before 
God,  and  seek  more  of  the  teaching  of  his  Spirit  in  the  reading  of  his 
Word.  Without  much  learning,  it  is  impossible  to  be  a  Biblical  critic ; 
but  all  the  learning  of  Bentley  will  be  insufficient,  without  that  child-like 
disposition  of  the  wisdom  given  from  on  high,  which  teaches  to  cry, 
'  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth.'  Mary,  the  sister  of  Lazarus,  is 
a  better  model  for  a  Christian  minister  than  Dr.  Haffiier,  the  learned 
Professor  of  Strasburgh." 

There  was  nothing  more  important  in  the  history  of  Mr. 
Haldane^s  labours^  than  what  he  did  to  establish  the  doctrine 
of  plenary  inspiration.  Rather  more  than  two  years  before  his 
deaths  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  welcoming  another  able  defence 
of  that  great  truth  from  the  pen  of  his  friend^  Professor  Graussen^ 
of  Geneva.  In  a  letter  from  that  accomplished  and  eloquent 
divine^  dated  Greneva^  the  26th  of  March^  1840,  he  thus  addresses 
Mr.  Haldane : — 

"  I  would  much  like  to  see  your  '  Strictures  on  Tholuck.'  I  only  know 
Carson  from  his  excellent '  Treatise  on  Inspiration.'  I  have  prepared  for 
publication  on  the  same  subject,  a  volume,  in  which  I  have  applied  myself 
to  the  removal  of  those  objections  which  are  made  to  plenary  inspiiation 

M    M   2 


532  H.  oaussen's  theofneubtia. 

on  the  Continent.  I  will  aendit  to  you.  It  vu  your  writingg  on  that 
•ubject,  whicb^ft  nude  me  feel  the  importance  of  being  Immoveable  on 
that  doctrine,  and  the  more  I  advance,  the  more  am  I  convinced  of  its 
truth." 

In  another  letter,  at  the  end  of  the  same  year,  M.  Gaussen, 
in  Bending  hia  " TfaeopneuBtia,"  observes: — 

"  Allow  me  to  address  to  you  this  volume.  You  will  read  it  with  the 
interest  you  take  in  the  subject,  but  with  that  which  you  have  in  the 
author.  It  was  yourself  vho^rtt  made  him  feel  the  truth  and  the  import- 
ance of  this  doctrine,  and  it  was  your  excellent  hook,  which  kindled  in 
him  the  deiiiv  that  there  might  appear  in  French  some  work  adapted  to 
the  wanta  of  our  Church ;  and  answering  the  objections  which  have  the 
greateat  run  among  us.  I  shall  always  take  a  filial  and  fraternal  interest 
in  hearing  tiding*  of  you,  and  as  to  your  writings,  I  consider  them  aa 
bearing  more  than  any  other  modem  works,  the  character  of  an  accurate 
and  profound  theology.  I  beg  you,  very  particularly,  to  present  to  your 
brother,  Mr,  James  Haldane,  the  eipreasion  of  my  respect,  and  my 
remembrance  of  his  fraternal  reception.  Adieu,  my  dear  Brother,  and 
recrive  my  true  and  lender  regards. 

"  Your  devoted, 

"  L.  Qaussbn." 

M.  Gaussen's  "  Theopneustia,"  or  "  It  is  written,"  became  a 
magaiine  of  sound  argument  and  information,  both  on  the 
Continent  and  at  home.  It  has  also  been  translated  into 
English,*  both  in  Oreat  Britain  and  America,  and  its  popularity 
has  become  deservedly  great.  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  Professor  of 
Theology,  was  wont  to  use  as  class-boolcs  the  Treatises  both 
of  Mr.  Haldane  and  Dr.  Carson,  bo  that,  at  home  and  abroad, 
the  views  on  Inspiration,  which  were,  at  first,  scouted  by  the 
"Eclectic,"  aa  "Mr.  Haldane's  wild  dogma"  have  come  to  be 
taogbt  by  authority,  and  very  generally  received  by  the  soundest 
divines.  There  were,  in  fact,  several  instances  of  learned  Pro- 
fessors who  had  previously  adopted  Dr.  Doddridge's  German 
theory,  who  abandoned  the  erroneous  and  groundless  system 
of  gradations,  and  publicly  acknowledged  the  change.  Thia 
was  the  case  with  the  late  learned  Dr.  Steadman,  the  head  of 
the  Baptist  College  at  Bradford,  who  told  his  students  that, 

■  The  best  tranalation  is  that  by  David  Dundas  ScotI,  Esq.,  published 
by  Mesan.  Johnstone  and  Hunter,  Edinburgli. 


DR.  Gordon's  letter.  633 

in  regard  to  inspiration,  he  had  been  misleading  them,  and 
that  Mr.  Haldane's  work  had  convinced  him  of  his  mistake. 
He,  therefore,  proposed  to  read  and  comment  on  Mr.  Haldane's 
Treatise,  as  a  substitute  for  his  own  former  lectures. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  the  learned  and  Rev.  Dr. 
Gordon,  of  Edinburgh,  is  an  answer  to  those,  who  have  imagined, 
through  ignorance  of  the  subject,  that  in  contending  for  plenary 
verbal  inspiration,  Mr.  Haldane  was  arguing  for  ventriloquism^ 
as  Coleridge  imagined,  or  "  for  mechanical  dictation,^'  as  Others 
have  assumed.  Even  Dr.  Eady,  of  Glasgow,  in  his  own  excel- 
lent little  treatise,  has  fallen  into  this  extraordinary  mistake. 
No  one  who  has  attentively  read  Mr.  Haldane's  book  will 
entertain  such  a  preposterous  notion  : — 

*'  I  really  have  nothing  to  suggest  on  your  chapter  on  Inspiration.  I 
have  perused  it  again,  and  it  appears  to  me  complete,  I  see  that  at 
page  1 38  you  have  the  substance  of  what  I  hinted  the  other  day  about 
the  varieties  to  be  found  in  parallel  accounts  of  the  same  transactions. 
At  the  same  time  I  think  it  might  be  useful  to  enlarge  a  little  upon  it,  as 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  points  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  supporteis  of  degrees  of  inspiration.  It  is  evident  that  the 
variety  militates  no  more  against  plenary  inspiration  than  against  the 
inspiration  of  superintendence,  if  the  Holy  Spirit  sanctioned  variety,  and 
it  might  be  shown  that  such  variety  is  of  essential  importance  in  the 
Gospel  narratives  in  bringing  out  very  interesting  views  which  could  not 
be  exhibited  in  a  single  narrative.  What  would  you  think  of  offering 
something  in  the  way  of  a  definition  of  what  you  mean  by  plenary  inspira- 
tion ?  For  one  of  the  arguments  of  opponents  will  be  to  attach  a  meaning 
to  the  expression  which  you  do  not  attach  to  it.  For  example,  they  will 
assume  that  it  made  the  inspired  writers  mere  mechanical  utterers  of 
sounds,  1  am  aware  that  you  have  met  this  fully  at  page  138,  in  the 
paragraph  beginning,  *  Neither  does  the  difference,'  &c.  But,  perhaps, 
to  enunciate  it  as  a  proposition  might  bring  it  more  clearly  out'' 

Another  of  Dr.  Gordon's  suggestions  which  Mr.  Haldane  so 
justly  valued,  not  only  on  account  of  his  piety,  but  of  his  mathe- 
matical and  logical  turn  of  mind,  relates  to  the  sophism  which 
was  so  often  used  during  the  Apocrypha  controversy,  to  the 
effect  that  the  canon  was  only  a  matter  of  erudition : — 

*'  It  occurred  to  me  that  a  sentence  might  be  inserted,  at  part  mariied 
with  the  cross  x>  somewhat  to.  this  effect:  *That  the  intogrity  of  th« 


634  THE  CLOAK  L£FT  AT  TBOAS. 

canon  is  no  more  a  point  of  erudition  than  the  question  whether  there  be 
a  revelation  at  all.  If  it  be  a  question  whether  the  books  contained  in 
the  Bible  be  those  which  the  Jews  possessed,  and  if  this  question  be 
determined  by  examining  the  unbroken  chain  of  evidence  which  has 
come  down  from  the  time  of  the  Jews  till  the  present  day,  so  it  may  be  a 
question  whether  the  Jews  ever  received  any  such  books ;  and  if  it  be 
lawful  to  doubt  the  former  question,  because  it  may  involve  what  is  called 
a  matter  of  erudition,  in  the  same  way  the  second  may  be  doubted 
without  blame,  or,  in  other  words,  we  are  at  liberty  to  take  as  much  or  as 
little  of  the  Bible  as  we  please.' 

"  I  don't  know  if  you  will  perceive  the  drift  of  my  remark,  nor  am  I 
sure  that  it  would  at  all  add  to  the  strength  of  your  argument 

"  Yours,  ever  truly, 

"  Robert  Gobdon." 

There  is  a  passage  in  Paul's  last  Epistle  to  Timothy  which 
has  often  been  referred  to  as  beneath  the  dignity  of  inspiration, 
that  passage^  namely^  in  which  Paul^  whilst  incarcerated  in  the 
dangeons  of  the  maritime  prison^  and  awaiting  his  martyrdom^ 
sends  for  the  cloak  which  he  left  at  Troas.  Mr.  Haldane's 
exposure  of  the  futility  of  this  objection  is  an  example  of  his 
simple^  yet  forcible  style^  and  of  the  power  of  contrast  in  which 
he  excelled.     After  some  prefatory  remarks^  he  proceeds : — 

"  On  the  approach  of  winter,  in  a  cold  prison,  and  at  the  termination 
of  his  course,  the  Apostle  Paul  appears  here  to  be  a  follower  indeed  of 
Him  who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  He  is  presented  to  our  view  as 
actually  enduring  those  hardships  which  elsewhere  he  describes  in  a 
manner  so  affecting, — *  in  prisons,  in  cold,  in  nakedness.'  He  had  aban- 
doned, as  he  elsewhere  informs  us,  all  the  fair  prospects  that  once  opened 
to  him  of  worldly  advantages,  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  had  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things :  and  in  this  Epistle  we  see 
all  that  he  has  said  on  the  subject  embodied  and  verified.  He  is  about  to 
suffer  death  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus ;  and  now  he  requests  one  of  the 
few  friends  that  still  adhered  to  him  (all  the  others,  as  he  tells  us,  having 
forsaken  him)  to  do  his  diligence  to  come  before  winter,  and  to  bring  to 
him  his  cloak.  Here,  in  his  solemn  farewell  address,  of  which  the  verse 
before  us  forms  a  part,  the  last  of  his  writings,  and  which  contains  a 
passage  of  unrivalled  grandeur,  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  is  exhibited  in 
a  situation  deeply  calculated  to  affect  us.  We  behold  him  standing  on 
the  confines  of  the  two  worlds, — ^in  this  world  about  to  be  beheaded,  as 
guilty,  by  the  Emperor  of  Rome, — ^in  the  other  world  to  be  crowned,  as 
righteous,  by  the  King  of  kings, — ^here  deserted  by  men,  there  to  be 


ANECDOTE   OF   LORD    HAILE8.  685 

welcomed  by  angels, — here  in  want  of  a  cloak  to  cover  him,  there  to  be 
clothed  upon  with  his  house  from  heaven." 

To  assert  or  defend  the  authenticity  of  the  canon  and  the 
plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture^  was  one  of  the  great  objects 
for  which  Robert  Haldane  lived.  To  him  it  mattered  not  by 
whom  the  truth  was  assailed.  In  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Fye 
Smithy  he  was  addicted  to  "  cool  reasoning^'  beyond  most  men, 
and  after  the  calm  study  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  moat 
careful  examination  of  the  subject,  he  had  arrived  at  the  deli* 
berate  conviction  that  the  Bible  was  in  all  its  parts, — in  thought, 
in  meaning,  in  style,  in  expression,  in  every  part,  and  in  the 
strictest  sense, — the  work  and  the  Word  of  God.  Persuaded  of 
this  great  truth,  he  felt  its  power  in  his  heart,  and  laboured 
with  a  zeal  worthy  of  all  admiration  to  beat  down  the  assaults 
of  error  and  clear  away  the  mists  of  prejudice,  doubt,  or  unbelief. 
It  was  this  that  roused  him  to  contend  as  he  did  against  the 
contamination  of  the  holy  Scriptures  by  the  foreign  agents  and 
Continental  Auxiliaries  of  the  Bible  Society.  *'  The  grandeur 
of  the  cause''  sustained  him,  and  that  grandeur  will  be  fully 
appreciated  when  it  is  seen  in  the  light  of  eternity.'*' 


*  There  is  an  interesting  anecdote,  which  was  related  by  the  late  Rev. 
Dr.  Walter  Buchanan,  with  reference  to  one  of  the  means  which  seems  to 
have  been  provided  in  order  to  secure  the  New  Testament  either  from 
interpolation  or  corruption : — 

"  I  was  dining,"  said  Dr.  Buchanan,  ^  some  time  ago  with  a  literary 
party  at  old  Mr.  Abercromby's,  of  Tullibody  (the  father  of  Sir  Ralph 
Abercromby,  who  was  slain  in  Egypt),  and  we  spent  the  evening  together. 
A  gentleman  present  put  a  question  which  puszled  the  whole  company. 
It  was  this :  Supposing  all  the  New  Testaments  in  the  world  had  been 
destroyed  at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  could  their  contents  have  been 
recovered  from  the  writings  of  the  three  first  centuries  P  The  question 
was  novel  to  all,  and  no  one  even  hazarded  a  guess  in  answer  to  the 
inquiry. 

"About  two  months  after  this  meeting  I  received  an  invitation  to 
breakfast  with  Lord  Hailes  (Sir  David  Dalrymple)  next  morning.  He 
had  been  of  the  party.  During  breakfast  he  asked  me  if  I  recollected  the 
curious  question  about  the  possibility  of  recovering  the  contents  of  the 
New  Testament  from  the  writings  of  the  three  first  centuries P     'I 


536    PROGR£SSIV£  KEFOBMATION  OF  THE  BIBLE  SOCIETY. 

The  Annual  Meeting  of  1826  commenced  a  new  era  in  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society^  and  one  of  gradual  reform. 
But  the  change  was  not  at  first  so  clearly  discerned.  On  the 
contrary^  apart  from  the  requisition  to  acknowledge  past  errors, 
to  renounce  Apocryphal  connexions  abroad,  and  to  effect  some 
changes  in  the  personal  administration  of  the  Society,  there 
were  repeated  instances  of  what  at  least  appeared  to  be  a  dispo- 
sition to  revert  to  the  circulation  of  adulterated  Bibles,  and,  at 
all  events,  to  permit  of  an  agency  whose  functions  were  divided 
between  pure  and  impure  Bible  distribution.  This  arose  partly 
from  the  fact  that  the  Society  had  still  on  hand,  in  foreign 
depots,  a  large  number  of  adulterated  Bibles;  that,  at  first, 
there  was  also  a  considerable  stock  of  stereotype  plates,  from 
which  more  copies  might  be  taken  <  at  pleasure  of  the  inter- 
mingled Apocrypha,  and  that  some  of  the  foreigners  in  whose 
custody  they  were,  openly  disapproved  of  the  Anti-Apocryphal 
Resolutions,  and  regarded  them  as,  at  best,  only  prospective  in 
their  operations.  Many  a  warm  discussion  arose  in  the  Com- 
mittee out  of  this  state  of  things,  and  for  several  years  the 
warfare  was  in  Earl-street  carried  on  by  the  Anti-Apocryphists 
with  more  or  less  success,  obtained  through  the  aid  of  privi- 
leged members,  who  occasionally  outvoted  the  elected,  and  once 

remember  it  well,  and  have  thought  of  it  often  without  being  able  to  form 
any  opinion  or  conjecture  on  the  subject.' 

**  *  Well/  said  Lord  Hailes,  *  that  question  quite  accorded  with  the  turn 
or  taste  of  my  antiquarian  mind.  On  returning  home,  as  I  knew  I  had 
all  the  writers  of  those  centuries,  I  began  immediately  to  collect  them, 
that  I  might  set  to  work  on  the  arduous  task  as  soon  as  possible/  Point- 
ing to  a  table  covered  with  papers,  he  said,  *  There  have  I  been  busy  for 
those  two  months,  searching  for  chapters,  half  chapters,  and  sentences  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  have  marked  down  what  I  found,  and  where  I 
have  found  it,  so  that  any  person  may  examine  and  see  for  himself.  I 
have  actually  discovered  the  whole  New  Testament,  except  seven  or 
eleven  verses  (I  forget  which),  which  satisfies  me  that  I  could  discover 
them  also.  Now,'  said  he,  *  here  was  a  way  in  which  God  concealed,  or 
hid,  the  treasures  of  his  word,  that  Julian,  the  apostate  Emperor,  and 
other  enemies  of  Christ  who  wished  to  extirpate  the  Gospel  from  the 
world,  never  would  have  thought  of;  and  though  they  had,  they  never 
could  have  effected  their  destruction.' " 


LEANDER  VAN  ESS.  537 

even  carried  a  Resolution  amounting  to  a  vote  of  censure  on  the 
Secretary. 

The  majority  of  the  Committee  still  placed  unbounded 
reliance  on  Leander  Van  Ess^  although  many  things  had 
occurred  to  shake  their  confidence  in  that  Romish  priest.  The 
fact  that  he  was  a  priest  and  a  Romanist  threw  an  air  of 
romance  over  his  zeal  for  the  book  which  is  ^^  mighty  through 
God  to  the  pulling  down  of  the  strongholds"  of  Popery.  It  would^ 
however^  in  those  days  have  sounded  hke  bigotry  had  any  one 
ventured  to  throw  doubt  on  his  sincerity.  '^  I  would  gladly  ait 
at  the  feet  of  such  a  man  as  Leander  Van  Ess ! "  exclaimed  an 
eloquent  clergyman  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Hibernian  Society^ 
where  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  presided;  and  no  doubt  the 
Noble  Marquis  was  induced  to  believe  that  the  warfare  of 
opposing  sects  was  wearing  out^  and  that  Rome  and  Geneva 
were  about  to  fraternize.  After  a  protracted  struggle^  the 
Philo-Apocryphists  succeeded  in  gaining  permission  for  Van 
Ess  to  receive  grants  of  Bibles  unbound,  on  the  plea  that  the 
restrictive  Resolutions  applied  to  Societies^  and  not  to  individual 
agents.  But  the  delusion  in  regard  to  this  remarkable  priest 
was  not  destined  long  to  survive.  It  was  at  length  clearly 
shown,  that  besides  a  salary  of  300/.  a-year,  and  other  allow- 
ances, to  which  there  was  no  objection  but  their  concealment. 
Van  Ess  had  received  in  money  grants  20,000/.  in  nine  years, 
and  that  all  the  while  he  had  in  his  own  person  united  the 
characters  of  printer,  bookbinder,  and  bookseller.  It  was  there- 
fore clear,  to  say  the  least,  that  he  was  not  the  man  represented 
as  seeking  no  earthly  ^'  treasures  where  moth  and  rust  corrupt.'' 
But,  in  addition  to  all  this,  the  attention  of  the  Committee  was 
pointedly  called  by  one  of  its  elected  members  to  the  startling 
fact,  for  more  than  three  years  known  to  Mr.  Haldane,  Dr. 
Thomson,  and  others,  which  seemed  to  indicate  that  his  practical 
morality  was,  at  all  events,  no  higher  than  that  of  some  of  his 
order.  When  asked  for  an  explanation  as  to  the  lady  whom 
hitherto  he  had  introduced  as  his  sister,  he  pleaded  the  seal  of 
the  confessional  as  an  apology  for  a  continued  mystery.  It  is 
needless  to  add,  that  he  ceased  to  be  an  agent  of  Earl-street, 


688  YAK    ESS ^ANGLICANUS. 

and  thui^  but  not  before  the  year  1829,  one  flagrant  oeeaaion  of 
contention  was  removed.  Happy  would  it  have  been  for  the 
Society  had  this  course  been  taken  in  lS24i,  when  Van  Eaa 
adjured  the  Committee^  by  that  name  which  is  above  every 
name^  to  continue  an  adulterated  Bible^  and,  if  necessary,  to  do 
so  in  a  manner  that  would  have  been  an  evasion. 

The  melancholy  case  of  Leander  Van  Ess  has  been  very  lightly 
touched,  and  it  would  not  have  been  here  touched  at  all,  except 
as  another  historical  fact  illustrating  the  danger  of  alliances  with 
Rome,  and  proving  with  how  Uttle  reason  the  opposition  to  such 
an  agent  had  been  denounced  as  an  example  of  a  bad  spirit. 
Well  might  Mr.  Haldane  exclaim,  '^  What  must  be  thought  <^ 
the  principles  of  those  foreign  coadjutors  who  did  not  deem  it 
necessary  to  communicate  what  they  knew  of  Van  Ess  ! ''  Many 
of  the  most  esteemed  friends  of  the  Bible  Society  were  deceived 
into  a  veneration  of  that  Romish  priest  amounting  ahnost  to 
idolatry,  so  that  to  have  '^  sat  in  his  chair,'^  to  have  '^  seen  his 
study,''  or  to  have  passed  a  day  in  his  presence,  was  published 
as  an  honour  worthy  of  record.  Other  facts  might  be  mentioned 
of  a  similar  purport^  but  for  the  desire  to  avoid  painful  reminis- 
cences. For  this  reason,  the  greater  part  of  the  discussions 
occasioned  by  the  letters  of  Anglicanus,  the  debate  about  the 
Septuagint  and  the  canon  of  Scripture  introduced  by  Mr. 
Gorham,  together  with  other  matters  of  the  same  kind,  may  be 
left,  with  this  passing  notice^  to  sleep  in  obUvion.  In  regard  to 
Anglicanus,  a  few  words  will  suffice.  His  pamphlet  was  pub- 
lished at  the  end  of  1827,  under  a  delusive  namme  de  guerre. 
The  discovery  of  the  editor  was  made  by  one  of  those  singular 
occurrences  which  illustrate  the  adage,  that  truth  is  stranger  than 
fiction.  The  proof  sheets  of  a  pamphlet,  in  which  Dr.  Thomson 
was  the  chief  butt  for  ridicule  and  vituperation^  were  carried,  by 
the  mistake  of  a  printer's  boy,  to  Dr.  Thomson  himself,  and  so 
divulged  the  editor.  It  might  possibly  have  been  better  had  the 
secret  never  transpired,  and  had  both  the  editor  and  author  been 
able  to  preserve  their  incognito.  The  pubUcation  of  Anglicanus 
indicated  the  partial  division  which  had  taken  place  in  Scotland. 
The  unanimity  previously  subsisting  was  broken,  and  a  few 


MR.  haldane's  pamphlets.  689 

of  the  original  Anti-apocryphists  seceded  from  the  Edinburgh 
Committee^  and  formed  first  a  Corresponding  Boards  and  then 
an  Auxiliary^  in  connexion  with  the  London  Society.  Amongst 
the  chief  leaders  were  the  Rev.  Henry  Grey,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Brown,  and  the  Rev.  Edward  Craig.  In  Glasgow  there  was  also 
a  partial  secession,  headed  by  the  distinguished  names  of  Dr. 
Wardlaw,  Mr.  Ewing,  and  Dr.  Dick.  To  the  publications  o! 
Mr.  Orey  and  Dr.  Wardlaw,  as  well  as  to  the  statements  of  the 
Edinburgh  Corresponding  Board  and  the  new  Glasgow  Auxiliary, 
answers  were  successively  written  by  Mr.  Haldane,  in  no  leas 
than  six  distinct  pamphlets,  each  exhibiting  his  usual  uncompro- 
mising steadiness  of  purpose.  Scotland,  upon  the  whole, 
remained  firm  in  its  opposition  to  Earl-street,  and  Dr.  Thomson's 
efforts  to  put  down  everything  that  threatened  the  integrity  of 
the  sacred  canon  were  imwearied  and  astounding.  In  February, 
1829,  after  noticing  a  meeting  at  Dunfennline,  where  he  spoke 
for  four  hours  and  a-half  to  a  crowded  assembly,  who  did  not 
separate  till  past  midnight,  he  writes : — 

"  I  have  no  fear  of  conquering,  if  I  have  time  and  strength.  But  really 
I  am  obliged  to  neglect  some  professional  duties,  and  my  bodily  frame 
begins  to  feel  weariness.  I  sometimes  wonder  that  I  hold  out  The 
grandeur  of  the  cause  animates  me,  and  I  look  to  Him  whose  Word  it  is 
that  we  are  defending  for  the  strength  that  is  necessary." 

The  establishment  of  the  Edinburgh  Corresponding  Board, 
and  the  singular  discovery  of  the  authorship  of  Anglicanus, 
produced  a  great  sensation.  The  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Bible  Society,  in  July,  1828,  was  looked  for  with  intense 
interest.  The  following  is  an  account  from  Dr.  Thomson's  own 
pen: — 

*'  Our  Annual  Meeting  on  Tuesday  went  off  amaringly  welL  I  requested 
your  father  or  your  brother  to  write  you  a  full  account  of  it,  as  I  was  too 
much  engaged  to  get  that  accomplished  so  early  as  you  wished  to  hear  of 
the  affair.  Your  uncle  and  Lockhart  gave  us  excellent  speeches.  The 
crowd  was  immense.  The  interest  seemed  to  be  deeper  than  ever,  and 
there  was  e^ery  conceivable  symptom  of  our  principles  and  our  cause 
being  now  triumphant.  I  opened  a  battery  on  the  Ckxrresponding  Board, 
and  fired  for  three  hours  and  ten  minutes.  I  repudiated  their  laxity  of 
sentiment.    .    .    .    The  complete  sympathy  of  the  audience  followed. 


540  DR.  Thomson's  visit  to  London. 

In  shorty  we  never  had  such  a  glorious  Meeting.  Your  unde  was  so 
much  impressed,  that  though  in  the  course  of  his  own  speech  he  rather 
condemned  the  practice  of  ruffing  (violent  applause,  heating  with  the  feet, 
&c.),  and  is,  you  know,  very  much  against  it,  I  detected  him  more  than 
once  liaing  liis  umbrella  most  vigorously  on  the  platform.  This  is  a  capital 
joke  I  have  got  against  him.  He  was  truly  delighted  with  the  whole 
affair.  The  speeches  were  taken  in  short^hand,  and  are  to  be  published 
by  Whyte.  Of  course,  whenever  they  and  the  Report  appear,  I  will  send 
you  copies  for  yourself  and  our  good  friends." 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  same  summer^  Dr.  Thomson  visited 
London^  and  for  six  Sundays  preached  in  the  Scotch  Chnrch^ 
Regent-square.  He  also  held  a  pubUc  Meeting,  at  which  he 
gave  an  account  of  the  reasons  for  the  continued  rupture  between 
the  Northern  and  Southern  Bible  Societies.  During  this  visit 
many  of  the  prejudices  against  him  vanished,  and  those  who  had 
pictured  to  themselves  a  son  of  the  desert,  stem  and  bigoted  in 
his  zeal,  were  agreeably  surprised  to  find  him  bland  and  engaging 
in  his  manners,  full  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  with  all  the 
generosity  superadded  to  the  boldness  of  the  hon.  Amongst 
others,  he  was  welcomed  by  the  venerable  John  Simons,  of 
Paul's-cray.  It  was  Mr.  Simons  to  whom  Mr.  Haldane,  in  his 
first  review,  alludes  as  a  much  respected  Rector,  who  said  he  had 
'^come  to  town  on  purpose  to  bear  his  testimony  against  the 
horrible  idea  of  man's  attempting  to  bolster  up  the  Word  of  the 
living  God  by  a  lie.  Granted,  that  Romanists  will  not  receive 
the  Bible  without  this  false  book  being  appended  to  it ;  and  let 
all  the  priests  array  themselves  to  oppose  it;  let  t^ere  be  a 
pitched  battle,  and  see  whether  God  or  man  will  prevail.  Can 
He  who  gave  that  Word  not  open  a  door  for  its  reception  f  Or 
has  the  Society  the  presumption  to  imagine  that  God  will  go 
forth  to  battle  with  such  miserable  aid  to  secure  his  victory  ?  " 

When  Mr.  Simons,  therefore,  heard  of  Dr.  Thomson's  being 
in  town,  he  invited  him  to  pay  a  visit  at  his  Rectory,  and  wel- 
comed him  as  the  champion  of  the  pure  Bible,  and  the  assailant 
of  Neologian  alliances.  The  venerable  old  man  came  out  of  his 
Rectory  to  the  lawn  to  meet  him  and  his  friends,  as  soon  as  their 
carriage  stopped,  and  after  a  fashion  pecuhar  to  himself,  bringing 
with  him  bread  and  wine,  he  blessed  them  in  the  name  of  the 


DR.  THOMSON    AT   PAUL's-CRAY.  341 

Lord.  The  blessing  Dr.  Thomson  gladly  accepted^  but  he 
declined  the  offer  of  the  bread  and  wine^  thinking  that  it 
betokened  a  reference  too  sacred  and  sacramental.  In  the  evening 
Dr.  Thomson^  who  was  passionately  fond  of  music^  accompanied 
a  relative  of  Lord  Bexley^s  on  the  organ,  whilst  the  great  Pres- 
byter himself  sung  and  chanted  some  of  the  Psalms  to  the  fine 
old  Scottish  tunes,  which  are  endeared  to  Scotland  by  the 
memory  of  the  sufferings  of  their  ancestors,  from  Hamilton,  the 
first,  to  Renwick,  the  last  of  the  martyrs.  It  was  one  of  those 
sunny  days,  leaving  behind  bright  recollections  always  to  be 
fondly  cherished.  Shortly  afterwards,  in  one  of  his  letters,  as 
usual  full  of  life  and  vivacity.  Dr.  Thomson  thus  recals  his  visit 
to  Paul's-cray : — 

*'  So  Captain  Atchison  is  to  be  married  to  Miss  Simons.  Give  my  best 
Christian  wishes  to  both.  How  is  the  old  gentleman  ?  I  remember  him 
with  a  sort  of  romantic  affection.  He  is  like  no  other  human  being  I  ever 
met  with.  The  perpetual  outpouring  of  his  thoughts  and  feelings,  the 
giving  of  the  sacrament  on  the  circular  plot  of  grass,  the  innocent  pecu- 
liarities of  the  dinner  table,  the  marvelling  that  I  should  not  speak  when 
he  would  not  listen,  the  approbation  of  the  organ  and  the  Scotch  Psalms, 
&c.,  I  have  more  than  once  recalled  to  my  recollection,  with  melancholy 
mirth,  Qood  old  man !  I  love  him^  Give  my  filial  reverence  when  you 
see  him.  I  beg  my  very  best  remembrances  to  my  demi-semi  Apocryphal 
friend,  Mrs.  Haldane,  who  must  have  been  greatly  shocked  at  the  affair  of 
Scions  Bible  and  the  attempted  concealments  of  June  2." 

In  another  of  his  letters,  July  5,  1828,  Dr.  Thomson  exhibits 
the  same  buoyant  elasticity  of  spirit : — 

**  Give  my  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Haldane,  for  though  we  differed 
somewhat  on  the  manner,  I  think  we  agreed  throughout  on  the  matter ,  of 
our  great  controversy.  Accept  of  my  best  thanks  for  all  your  kind  and 
unremitting  attentions  during  my  residence  in  your  metropolis.  I  do 
think  and  shall  always  think  of  my  visit  with  feelings  of  great  satisfaction 
and  pleasure.  I  wish  I  could  have  stayed  three  months. — Your*s  sincerely 
and  affectionately, 

"  Andkew  Thomson." 

There  were  those  who  had  predicted  that  it  would  be  found 
impossible  for  two  such  uncompromising  chiefs  as  Dr.  Thomson 
and  Mr.  Haldane  to  persevere  in  harmony.  Their  opponents 
watched  for  their  halting,  and  tried  to  separate  them.     But  they 


642  FRIENDSHIP    WITH    DR.  THOMSON. 

were  disappointed;  for  the  secret  of  their  union  consisted  in  this^ 
that  they  were  not  acting  a  part,  but  were  thoroughly  in  earnest 
in  the  same  cause.  In  particular,  Aliquis  reprinted  Mr.  Hal- 
dane's  rebuke  to  the  editor  of  the  ^'Edinburgh  Instructor^'' 
published  in  1830,  and  jocosely  foretold  another  chastisement 
for  the  editor's  more  recent  misdemeanours  in  the  way  of 
levity  in  the  Bible  Society  controversy.  Dr.  Thomson  noticed 
this,  and  observed,  with  equal  magnanimity  and  good  sense,  that 
the  attempt  to  sow  strife  between  brethren  would  not  succeed ; 
that  Mr.  Haldane  had  given  the  *' Instructor"  some  very  sound 
advice,  from  which  he  trusted  he  had  printed.  In  fact,  his 
affection  and  admiration  both  for  Mr.  Haldane  and  his  brother, 
*'  for  the  truth's  sake,"  increased  as  they  went  on  harmoniously 
together.  He  would  sometimes  use  the  homely  Scotticism, 
which  betokened  his  own  humility  and  his  panting  after  more  of 
conformity  to  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  that  they  had  ''  got 
further  ben"  than  himself;  meaning  that  they  had  penetrated 
further  into  the  interior  of  the  heavenly  mansion.  Often  would 
he  relate  with  pleasure  little  traits  exhibited  by  Mr.  Haldane,  of 
that  social  hilarity  in  which  he  himself  so  much  delighted,  and 
would  tell  how  welcome  were  some  of  the  unlooked-for  evening 
visits  to  his  house  of  his  venerable  friend,  and  how  the  hearts  of 
his  children  had  been  won  by  little  acts  of  kindness  and  atten- 
tion. In  a  letter  written  in  1829,  he  says :  **  Your  uncle  has 
been  ailing,  but  is  now  getting  better,  and  the  doctor  assures  me 
he  is  in  no  danger.     May  his  valuable  life  long  be  spared  ! 


ji 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

KISE  OF  IRVINQISM— BEV.  EBWABD  IRVINa— MR.  J.  A.  HAL- 
BANE'S  KEFUTATION  OP  THE  EBEONEOUS  DOCTRDirES— 
DISCUSSION  WITH  MB.  DEUMMOND— DE.  THOMSON'S  LET- 
TEE  AS  TO  THE  GIFT  OF  TONOUES— ME.  J.  E.  OOSDON— 
DEATH  OF  DR.  THOMSON  — HIS  CHARACTER  BY  DR. 
CHALMERS  AND  DR.  M*CRIE— DR.  THOMSON'S  FAREWELL 
SPEECH— CAPTAIN  J.  E.  <K)RDON— ANNUAL  MEETINa  OF 
THE  BEITISH  AND  FOREION  BIBLE  SOCIETY,  1881— INSTI- 
TUTION AND  FAILUBE  OF  THE  TRINITARIAN  BIBLB 
SOCIETY— PAMPHLETS  OF  MB.  SCOTT,  MB.  J.  J.  OUBNEY, 
AND  OTHEBS,  ANSWEBED  BY  MB.  HALDANE— MB.  WILSIS 
ACCUSES  BOL  HALDANE  OF  BEINa  THE  AUTHOB  OF  A 
FUBIOUS  THEOLOOICAL  WAB  IN  SWITZEBLAND— MR. 
HALDANE'S  ANSWER— CHARACTER  OF  MR.  HALDANE'S 
PAMPHLETS— PROORESSIVE  PURIFICATION  OF  THE  BIBLE 
SOCIETY— MB.  BICKEBSTETH'S  MOTION— <K)OD  EFFECTS 
OF  THE  CONTBOVEBSY. 

[1828—1833.] 

In  the  midst  of  the  debates  relative  to  the  certainty  of  the 
canon  and  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  there  arose 
a  more  ephemeral  but  still  an  important  discussion,  in  which 
Mr.  James  Haldane  took  a  prominent  part.  It  related  to 
the  pretensions  to  miraculous  powers,  and  the  gift  of  tongues, 
assumed  by  the  followers  of  Edward  Irving.  These  assumptions 
were  connected  with  metaphysical  speculations  on  the  humanity 
of  our  Lord,  which  Mr.  Irving  and  his  followers  were  not 
disposed  to  regard  as  that  ^'  holy  thing  ^'  spoken  of  in  Scripture. 
They  described  our  Lord^s  humanity  not  merely  as  fallen,  but 


644     LETTER   OF    MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE    ON    IRVINOI8M. 

actually  sinful.  With  many  of  the  Irvingites^  there  ia,  however, 
no  doubt  that  there  was  more  of  metaphysical  confusion  than  of 
wilful  heresy  mixed  up  with  these  unprofitable  and  dangerous 
speculations.  Almost  from  the  beginning  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane 
descried  the  peril,  and  sounded  the  alarm.  The  following  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  dated  11th  August,  1827,  addressed  by 
him  to  his  eldest  daughter  : — 

**  I  have  always  been  afraid  of  the  system  of  the  prophets,  from  the 
moment  I  first  heard  of  .it  It  has  always  struck  me  as  being  a  snare 
of  Satan  to  lead  believers  away  from  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  Christ, 
to  what  is  at  best  but  a  speculation.  I  remember  when  I  was  a  child 
asking  Lord  Duncan,  who  was,  as  I  saw,  much  taller  and  stouter 
than  other  men,  and  of  whose  great  strength  I  had  formed  a  high 
opinion,  whether  he  thought  he  was  as  strong  as  the  devil?  And 
I  asked  the  question  in  all  seriousness.  He  told  me  he  was  not,  and 
I  believed  him.  Now,  if  I  thought  myself  as  strong  as  the  devil,  I  should 
be  less  afraid  of  quitting  the  plain  ground  of  Scripture,  and  embarking  in 
speculative  inquiries,  but  as  I  do  not  think  so,  I  am  like  one  who  will  not 
venture  into  a  dark  wood  with  a  person  whom  he  distrusts.  I  believe  the 
prophets  to  be  excellent  men,  but  I  dread  the  subtlety  of  Satan,  and  am 
much  afraid  he  will  in  some  way  get  an  advantage  over  them,  although 
he  may  be  transformed  into  an  angel  of  light  We  all  require  to  watch 
and  pray,  and  then  we  need  not  fear  him." 

But  the  first  development  of  the  error  respecting  the  sinful 
humanity,  is  thus  alluded  to  in  the  following  letter,  written 
nearly  a  year  later : — 

<'  Edinburgh,  Idth  June,  1828. 

"  Captain  Tait  will  tell  you  of  the  dreadful  accident  at  the  church 
of  Kirkaldy,  where  Mr.  Irving  was  to  have  preached,  of  which,  however, 
you  have  probably  already  heard.  Every  one  here  complains  of  the  want 
of  the  Gospel  in  Mr.  Irving*s  lectures,  and  even  of  a  want  of  practical 
application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  .  .  .  No  one 
will  question  the  importance  of  the  belief  of  the  personal  reign,  if 
it  be  true,  but  Mr.  Irving  has  told  us  it  was  a  subject  of  which  the 
apostles  were  ignorant,  and  I  am  less  afraid  of  erring  in  company  with 
apostles  than  with  Mr.  Irving.  It  is  quite  different  from  election,  for  the 
knowledge  of  election  is  essential  to  just  views  of  the  Gospel  of  man's  lost 
estate,  and  the  riches  of  the  grace  of  God.  The  apostles  could  not  have 
been  ignorant  of  election.  Doubtless,  a  man  may  depend  on  Christ  for 
salvation,  while  election  is  to  him  a  bugbear,  but  every  one  who  holds  thai 
aU  good  ie  from.  Ood,  and  all  evU  firom  ourselves,  virtually  holds  eloetionj 


LETTER   OF    MR.  J.  A.  IIALDANE    ON    IRVINGISM.     545 

and  this  is  the  case  with  all  Christians,  however  they  may  express  them- 
selves. Mr.  Irving  lately  brought  forward  a  very  pernicious  sentiment, 
that  the  flesh  of  Christ  was,  like  ours,  disposed  to  sin,  although  he 
was  preserved  from  sin  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  This  was 
inserted  in  the  newspapers,  in  the  account  of  his  lecture.  I  preached 
in  consequence  on  Luke  i.  35,  not,  of  course,  referring  to  him.  I  after- 
wards dined  with  him  at  a  large  party  at  your  uncle's,  and  the  subject 
was  introduced,  not  by  your  uncle  or  me,  for  we  were  both  against 
its  being  spoken  of.  Mr.  Lrving  became  rather  warm, — at  least,  seemed 
hurt  I  was  sorry  for  it,  as  he  has  had  a  great  deal  of  labour.  I  liked 
his  conversation  on  the  whole,  although  he  feels  himself  too  much  like  an 
oracle.  But  perhaps  the  discussion  may  be  useful  to  him,  for  it  is  a  most 
pernicious  error.  He  rested  on  the  wAds,  "  being  tempted  in  all  things 
as  a  man."  This,  like  many  other  declarations,  is  true  in  one  sense,  and 
not  in  another.  For  every  man  is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his 
own  lust  and  enticed.  This  was  not  the  case  with  Christ,  for  the  prince 
of  this  world  found  nothing  in  him,  no  lust  on  which  his  temptation  could 
operate.  Objects  of  temptation  were  presented,  but  like  a  thing  perfectly 
incombustible,  on  which  the  fire  makes  no  impression,  so  was  the  holy 
mind  of  Jesus.  Considering  Christ's  human  nature  as  having  no  personal 
subsistence,  but  subsisting  in  the  person  of  the  Son  of  God,  two  distinct 
natures  in  one  person,  the  idea  of  anything  verging  to  unholiness  in 
Christ's  human  nature  is  absurd." 

This,  however,  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  evil,  and  when 
Mr.  Irving  afterwards  advanced  language  which  seemed  sub- 
versive of  the  doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness,  and  of  the 
foundations  of  the  Oospel,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  published  a 
''  Refutation  of  the  heretical  Doctrine  promulgated  by  the  Rev. 
Edward  Irving,  respecting  the  Person  and  Atonement  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ/^  Rejecting  the  metaphysical  speculations 
of  the  Irvingites,  and  bringing  their  bold  but  contradictory 
statements  into  the  light  of  God's  revealed  Word,  the  pamphlet 
is  written  in  a  spirit  altogether  becoming  the  disciple  of  his 
Master;  but  as  the  danger  has  passed  over,  it  is  imnecessary 
minutely  to  enter  into  the  question.  The  name  of  Edward 
Irving  will  remain  to  all  time  a  monument  of  the  folly  of  a 
proud  reliance  upon  self,  and  of  the  danger  of  popular  applause. 
His  genius,  his  talents,  his  eloquence,  and  his  eccentricities^ 
were  a  snare  to  him,  and  but  for  the  grace  of  (rod,  would 
assuredly  have  proved  his  ruin.      He  borrowed  his  doctrine 

N  N 


546  EDWARD    IRVING. 

of  the  sinful  humanity  from  others^  and  whilst  the  language 
which  he  used  was  awful^  and  on  some  occasions  bordering  even 
upon  blasphemy^  it  is  only  charitable  to  believe  that  his  heresies 
consisted  in  the  unadvised  words  of  his  lips^  not  in  the  actual 
rebellion  of  his  heart.  Many  were  led  by  him  to  deny  the 
imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness^  and  finally  to  stumble  for 
ever  on  the  dark  mountains.  But  although  a  cloud  rests  upon 
the  closing  scenes  of  Edward  Irving's  life,  there  is  ground 
to  believe  that  amidst  the  flickering  light  of  bewildered  reason 
he  was  discovering  his  errors,  and  was  at  last  foimd  resting 
on  that  rock  which  is  Christ.  Mr.  James  Haldane's  refutation 
was  the  first  decided  blow  struck  at  these  novelties.  It  was 
followed  by  some  able  reviews  in  the  "Edinburgh  Christian 
Instructor/'  and  afterwards  by  the  masterly  work  of  the  Rev. 
Marcus  Dods,  on  the  "  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Word/' 
Mr.  H.  Drummond,  without  adopting  all  of  Mr.  Irving's 
heretical  language,  came  to  his  rescue  in  what  he  rather 
facetiously  termed,  "  A  Candid  Examination  of  the  Controversy 
between  Messrs.  Irving,  Andrew  Thomson,  and  James  Haldane.'^ 
Mr.  Drummond's  acuteness  of  intellect,  acquaintance  with  litera- 
ture,  and  smartness  of  repartee,  were  enough  to  render  his 
apology  both  clever  and  specious.  It  was,  to  say  the  least, 
a  diversion  in  favour  of  his  friend,  and  a  carrying  of  the 
war  into  the  enemies'  camp,  by  splitting  hairs  in  metaphysics^ 
detecting  the  inconsistencies,  real  or  supposed,  of  his  opponents, 
and  wringing  from  their  language  a  meaning  which  they  never 
entertained.  But  the  character  of  his  mind  was  not  adapted  for 
the  details  of  that  patient  investigation  which  the  great  subject 
in  debate  demanded.  He  was  too  daring  in  his  flight,  and 
too  eager  to  exercise  himself  with  things  too  high  for  finite 
man.  He  knew  much  of  theology,  but  although  his  perceptions 
were  quick,  and  his  reading  varied,  he  had  not  studied  it  as  a 
science,  in  its  comprehensive  principles,  its  consistent  propor- 
tions, or  its  historical  illustrations.  Hence,  it  is  no  matter  of 
surprise  that  he  did  not  always  distinguish  between  essential 
truth  and  the  errors  grafted  on  it  by  human  fancy,  between 
*'  the  deep  things  of  God "  and  the  felse  and  deceitful  lights 


DISCUSSION    WITH    MR.  DRUMMOND.  547 

which  emanate  from  "the  depths  of  Satan/'  Hence  the 
inconsistency  of  his  extraordinary  career^  during  which  he  has 
been  at  one  time  claimed  by  Greneva^  and  at  another  ahnost 
welcomed  by  Rome.  Hence  his  support  of  those  wild  vagaries 
which  made  Edward  Irving  pass  away  like  a  blazing  meteor, 
instead  of  shining  as  a  fixed  star  of  the  first  magnitude. 

Mr.  James  Haldane's  answer  to  the  Candid  Examination, 
published  by  Mr.  Drummond  in  a  volume  of  two  hundred  and 
seventy-seven  pages,  was,  as  Dr.  Thomson  said,  not  only  able, 
acute,  and  well-timed,  but  for  ever  settled  the  question  between 
the  two  combatants.  The  collision  was  to  be  regretted,  but 
Mr.  Drummond  was  the  assailant. 

**  1  wrote,"  says  Mr.  James  Haldane,  "  to  Mr.  Drummond  with  kindness, 
privately,  according  to  the  feeling  of  my  heart,  but  I  will  not  mince  matters 
in  regard  to  any  man  when  I  think  the  truth  of  God  is  concerned.  I  am 
sorry  for  it,  but  the  truth  will  prevail.  It  is  my  prayer  that  both  he  and 
Irving  may  find  mercy  of  the  Lord  in  that  day.  I  am  not  called  on 
to  judge  of  their  state  as  believers,  or  otherwise,  nor  do  I  intend  to  do  so. 
I  shall  endeavour  to  reply  to  his  charges,  and  I  trust  the  Lord  will  enable 
me  to  do  it  as  I  ought"  Again :  "  I  am  not  puzzled  in  replying  to  any 
of  Mr.  Drummond*s  arguments,  and  this  is  a  guarantee  against  personal 
irritation.  He  is  a  clever  man,  but  his  position  in  life,  especially  connected 
with  his  peculiar  cast  of  mind,  is  a  great  snare.  May  the  Lord  grant  that 
he  may  find  mercy  in  that  day ! " 

Mr.  Dnimmond^s  "  Supplement  to  the  Candid  Examination  '^ 
displayed  more  of  mortified  feeling  than  it  was  wise  to  exhibit, 
and  drew  forth  another  rebuke  from  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  against 
whom,  in  association  with  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  the  weapons  of 
misplaced  ridicule  were  all  pointed  in  vain.  The  painful  discus- 
sion died  a  natural  death,  along  with  the  dangerous  novelties 
in  which  it  originated.  At  this  period  Mr.  James  Haldane 
writes: — 

"  I  think  Mr.  Drummond  has  acted  improperly,  and  he  has  given  me 
just  cause  of  ofience ;  but,  so  far  as  I  know  myself,  I  can  say,  forgive  my 
trespasses  as  I  fully  and  freely  forgive  this.  .  .  .  Were  I  to  meet  him 
to-morrow  I  should  do  so  with  as  perfect  good  will  as  formerly,  and 
could  laugh  with  him  over  all  of  the  smart  things  he  has  said  of  me 
personally.  But  I  think,  with  grief,  that  he  has  forsaken  the  right  way, 
and  it  is  my  prayer  that  God  may  give  him  repentance." 

N  n2 


548  MR.  J.  E.  GORDON. 

At  the  distance  of  ten  years  from  that  time^  Mr.  James 
Haldane^  in  travelling  near  Albury,  unexpectedly  met  Mr. 
Drummond^  then  supposed  to  be  absent  on  the  Continent. 
They  shook  hands  with  mutual  and  hearty  good  will^  like 
Christians  and  gentlemen,  as  if  nothing  had  occurred  to  inter- 
rupt their  cordiality;  and,  although  this  brief  meeting  was  to 
be  their  last  in  this  world,  it  was  to  both  a  source  of  gratifica- 
tion that  they  had  again  met  and  parted  with  the  expression  of 
friendly  feeling. 

The  Irving  controversy  scarcely  interrupted  the  progress  of 
the  discussions  respecting  the  certainty  of  the  Canon  of  Scrip- 
ture and  the  foreign  agencies  of  the  Bible  Society.  But,  just 
at  the  time  when  the  confusion  occasioned  by  the  doctrinal 
errors  and  miraculous  pretensions  seemed  to  render  hopeless  the 
prospect  of  forming  a  pure  Bible  Society,  a  gallant  effort  was 
made,  which  was  ultimately  crowned  with  success,  although  not 
in  the  establishment  of  a  new  Institution.  The  visit  of  Mr.  J. 
E.  Gordon  to  Scotland,  in  April,  1830,  stirred  his  spirit  to 
make  this  attempt,  in  the  face  of  all  opposition.  His  appear- 
ance in  Edinburgh,  on  that  occasion,  is  noticed  in  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter  of  Dr.  Thomson  : — 

"  You  have  heard,  I  suppose,  of  the  doings  in  the  west  of  Scotland. 
Mary  Campbell  (afterwards  Mrs.  Caird),  &c  ,  have  got  the  gift  of  tongues. 
Mary  speaks  and  writes  in  foreign  languages  which  nobody  can  interpret. 
I  have  seen  a  specimen  of  one  of  them.  It  looks  like  the  Chinese 
character,  but  it  is  arrant  nonsense.  The  folks  are  actually  mad.  In 
this  marvellous  thing  many  believe, — a  writer  to  the  signet,  an  advocate, 
Thomas  Erskine  himself,  Rev.  Mr.  Campbell,  of  Row,  it  is  said,  and 
foolish  girls  and  old  women  innumerable.  Is  not  all  this  most  melan- 
choly P  The  tumour  has  not  come  to  a  head  (as  they  say),  and  must  be 
laid  open  and  discussed.  We  have  formed  an  auxiliary  here  to  the 
Reformation  Society.  And  what  is  more,  we  had  discussion  for  three 
nights  in  St.  George's  Church.  The  scene  was  somewhat  ludicrous. 
There  was  a  solicitor-at-law,  with  a  brown  surtout,  standing  in  my  pulpit 
and  preaching  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  of  Rome!!!  But  Captain 
Gordon  demolished  him  nobly.  He  reasoned  very  powerfully  and  success- 
fully, and  altogether  managed  his  argument  so  skilfully,  and  was  so  much 
an  overmatch  for  his  antagonist, — and  twenty  such, — that  none  of  us 
ministers  had  any  the  least  reason  for  interfering.    The  crowds  were 


DEATH    OF    DR.  THOMSON.  649 

immense,  and  I  hope  good  is  done.    Our  Society  will  now  take  active 
measures  against  Popery." 

The  ability  of  Captain  Grordon^  which  so  much  attracted  the 
admiration  both  of  Dr.  Thomson  and  his  firiends^  before  it  was 
displayed  in  Parliament^  induced  them  to  urge  that  gallant 
champion  of  Protestantism  to  appear  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society^  in  May,  1831,  as  the  advo- 
cate of  a  purer  system  of  management,  which  should  exclude 
from  membership  Socinians  at  home  and  Neologians  or  Infidels 
abroad.  But,  in  the  interval,  and  before  Captain  Grordon's 
protest  could  be  made,  a  sudden  arrest  was  laid  upon  Dr. 
Thomson,  and  he  who  was  ever  foremost  in  the  battle-field, 
instinct  with  buoyant  life  and  vigour,  the  asserter  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  became,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  suddenly 
'^  locked  in  the  insensibility  of  death/' 

Dr.  Thomson's  character  has  been  pourtrayed  by  two  illus- 
trious writers.  That  by  Dr.  Chalmers  is  one  of  the  happiest 
exhibitions  of  his  own  eloquence.  That  by  Dr.  M'Crie  is  worthy 
of  the  historian  of  Knox  and  Melville.  Both  agree  that  "  truth 
and  piety  and  ardent  philanthropy''  formed  the  basis  of  his 
moral  constitution.  Both  agree  in  their  estimate  of  the  colossal 
grandeur  of  his  intellect,  the  simplicity  of  his  nature,  the 
tenderness  of  his  domestic  affections,  and  what  Dr.  Chalmers 
terms  the  ^*  dauntless  and  direct  and  right-forward  honesty  that 
needed  no  disguise  for  itself,  and  was  impatient  of  aught  like 
dissimulation  or  disguise  in  other  men."  Hence,  in  the  Apo- 
crypha controversy,  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  righteous 
indignation  that  kindled  at  the  diplomacy  which  could  fraternize 
with  Cheneviere  or  Levade,  in  Switzerland,  look  coldly  upon 
Malan,  or  refuse  Bibles  to  Henri  Pyt  or  Felix  Neff;  which 
could  pay  court  to  the  haughty  Neologian  of  Strasburg,  and 
frown  upon  the  humble  and  persecuted  Bost.  There  are  some 
who  think  only  of  the  vehemence  with  which^  in  his  stormy 
moods^  he,  Luther-like,  assailed  even  good  men,  when  he  found 
them  in  the  paths  of  error.  But  it  is  right,  as  Dr.  Chalmers 
says,  to  discriminate  between  the  vehemence  of  passion  and  the 
vehemence  of  sentiment.     "  His  was  mainly  the  vehemence  of 


'^ 


1 


.1 

I 


550         CHARACTER  OF  DR.  THOMSON. 


sentiment,  which^  hurrying  him^  where  it  did,  into  what  he 
afterwards  felt  to  be  excesses,  was  immediately  followed  up  hy 
the  relentings  of  a  noble  nature.^' 

His  power  over  the  public  mind  was  great.     His  sermons 
on  the  immorality  of  the  stage,  for  a  time  almost  ruined  the 
Edinburgh  theatre ;  and  his  discourses  on  Infidelity  alike  pros- 
trated the  pride  of  the  sceptic  and  gave  confidence  to  the  timid 
I  believer. 

Dr.  Chalmers^  description  of  his   energy  in  public   life  if 
striking : — 


"  And  when  one  thinks  of  the  vital  energy  by  which  every  deed  and 
every  utterance  were  pervaded, — of  that  prodigious  strength  which  bul 
gambolled  with  the  difficulties  that  would  have  depressed  and  overborne 
other  men, — of  that  prowess  in  conflict  and  that  promptitude  in  counse] 
with  his  fellows, — of  that  elastic  buoyancy  which  ever  rose  with  the 
occasion,  and  bore  him  onward  and  upward  to  the  successful  termination 
of  his  career, — of  the  weight  and  multiplicity  of  his  engagements,  and 
yet,  as  if  nothing  could  overwork  that  colossal  mind  and  that  robust 
fbimework,  the  perfect  lightness  and  facility  wherewith  all  was  executed, 
— when  one  thinks,  in  the  midst  of  these  powers  and  these  performances, 
how  intensely  he  laboured,  I  had  almost  said,  how  intensely  he  lived,  in 
the  midst  of  us,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge  that  death,  in  seizing  upon 
him,  hath  made  full  proof  of  a  mastery  that  sets  all  the  might  and  all  the 
prowess  of  humanity  at  deflance." 

His  last  great  speech,  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Edinburgh  Bible 
Society,  in  1830,  had  in  it  something  both  striking  and 
prophetic.  It  might  have  been  intended  as  a  farewell  to  the 
controversy.  He  had  spoken  for  nearly  three  hours  and  a  half 
to  a  crowded  and  listening  audience,  when  he  closed  by  claiming 
the  indulgence  of  the  Meeting  whilst  he  alluded  to  himself: — 

"  For  the  part  I  have  taken  in  this  great  and  honourable  cause,  in 
which  we  are  all  deeply  concerned,  and  to  which  I  profess  m3rself  cordially 
and  unalterably  devoted,  I  need  not  tell  you  I  have  suffered  much 
reproach.  .  .  .  But  I  have  been  comforted  under  the  pressure  of  that 
evil  by  many  considerations,  and  I  trust  that,  through  the  grace  of  God, 
I  shall  be  able  to  sustain  and  triumph  over  it  all.  (Cheers.)  I  am  quite 
aware  that  I  have  sometimes  spoken  unadvisedly  with  my  lips,  and  been 
provoked  to  say  things  which  I  sincerely  wish  that  I  had  never  uttered. 
I  have  been  tempted  to  print  animadversions  and  expressions  which  I 


DR.  Thomson's  farewell  speech.  551 

earnestly  wish  could  now  be  wholly  and  for  ever  obliterated.  But  let 
justice  be  done  even  here,  and  let  me  not  be  made  the  victim  of  idle  and 
iniquitous  clamour.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that  while  the  things  I  have 
alluded  to  as  the  subject  of  my  unfeigned  and  perpetual  regret,  are 
altogether  distinct,  immeasurably  separate,  from  the  real  merits  of  the 
momentous  question  that  we  have  been  agitating,  the  original  assailants 
were  on  the  other  side;  this  is  a  matter  of  historical,  undeniable  fact. 
Before  I  had  penned  a  single  sentence  on  the  topics  of  dispute,  with  the 
exception  of  the  '  Second  Statement,'  which  I  was  earnestly  requested  to 
draw  up  by  the  Edinburgh  Committee,  which  \^as  adopted  by  that 
Committee  as  their  own,  after  a  careful  revisal,  which  was  approved  of 
and  sanctioned  even  by  some  of  them  who  are  now  bitterest  in  the 
revilings  I  have  been  exposed  to,  and  to  the  preparing  of  which  I  will 
ever  look  back  with  gratitude  and  satisfaction — ^I  say,  Sir,  that  before  I 
had  written  another  sentence  in  reference  to  the  Apocrypha  controversy, 
I  was  dragged  before  the  public,  individually  and  by  name,  and  loaded 
with  vituperations  of  the  grossest  and  most  vulgar  kind.  ...  I  say.  Sir, 
that  I  was  subjected  to  persecutions  that  would  have  irritated  the  temper 
and  called  forth  the  retaliations  of  better  and  wiser  men  than  I  can 
pretend  to  be.  And,  though  I  confess  the  error  and  deeply  bewail  it,  I 
cannot  admit  that  my  severity  of  style,  which  has  been  so  sincerely 
regretted  by  some  and  so  malignantly  denounced  by  others,  has  the 
aggravation  of  being  either  wanton  or  undeserved.  Sir,  I  have  fought 
for  myself;  I  have  been  called  to  do  so;  having  withstood  to  the  face 
and  sharply  rebuked  and  relentlessly  exposed  the  desecrators  of  Qod's 
Holy  Word,  I  was,  for  that  service,  defamed  in  my  character  and  wounded 
in  my  feelings.  And  I  really  think,  that  if  there  had  been  much  of 
Christian  charity  among  those  who  have  branded  me  with  the  accusation 
of  violating  it,  their  forbearance  and  their  forgiveness  would  have  come 
close  upon  the  heels  of  my  alleged  fault,  instead  of  lagging  so  far  behind, 
or  never  coming  up  at  all.  I  have  fought  also  for  my  brethren, — my 
clerical  brethren,  who  were  as  much  interested  in  the  cause  of  the  pure 
Bible  as  I  was,  and  who  ought,  in  duty  and  in  kindness,  to  have  given 
me  their  support ;  but  not  a  few  of  them  have  traduced  me  for  my  oppo- 
sition to  the  London  Committee  and  lavished  all  their  sympathies  and 
praises  on  the  adulterators  of  the  Word  of  life,  and  where  no  such  violence 
has  been  shown,  there  has  been  too  often  equivocal  attachment  or  cold 
desertion.  I  have  fought  for  my  brethren,  and,  verily,  from  such  I  have 
had  my  reward.  But,  Sir,  I  have  fought  for  the  Bible,  the  book  of  Ood, 
the  record  of  saving  faith,  the  foundation  on  which  rest  all  our  hopes  for 
eternity.  I  have  fought  for  the  Bible,  and  there  is  a  reward  for  that; 
there  is  a  reward  for  it  here  (pointing  to  his  breast) ;  there  is  a  reward 
for  it  yonder  (pointing  to  heaven) ;  and  that  is  a  reward  which,  be  he 
friend  or  be  he  foe,  no  man  taketh  from  me." 


552       MR.  HALDANe's   tribute   to   dr.  THOMSON. 

£very  sentence  of  the  concluding  remarks  was  received  with 
immense  cheering. 

His  death  created  a  profound  and  universal  feeling  of  pun- 
gent regret.  Men  of  all  parties  combined  to  do  honour  to  his 
memory.  To  his  family  a  pension  was  granted  by  the  Crown, 
and  a  subscription,  which  amounted  to  nearly  ten  thousand 
pounds,  was  raised  by  the  public.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  com- 
paratively small  sums,  excepting  a  few  contributions  from  Dr. 
Thomson's  immediate  friends,  amongst  whom,  as  donors  of 
100/.,  were  the  names  of  Lord  Moncrieff  and  Mr.  Haldane. 

At  the  next  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society^ 
he  bore  a  strong  testimony  to  the  Christian  worth  of  his  departed 
friend.  In  simple,  strong  words,  he  described  the  many  rare 
and  valuable  qualities  of  Dr.  Thomson,  and^  whilst  glancing 
at  those  faults  which  had  been  so  much  exaggerated,  he  observed 
that,  looking  to  the  whole  tenor  of  his  course^  it  might  still  be 
said,  that  he  had  ''  adorned  the  profession  of  Christianity  by  a 
life  and  conversation  becoming  the  Gospel.'^  Of  his  great  services 
in  defence  of  the  canon  of  Scripture,  he  remarks : — 

"  From  the  midst  of  the  contest,  which  he  thus  maintained  for  the 
purity  of  the  Divine  word,  he  was  not  removed  till  he  saw  the  great 
cause  so  far  triumphant,  the  eyes  of  a  large  body  of  Christians  in  this 
country  opened,  the  delusion  dispelled  under  which  they  had  so  long 
laboured,  and  their  hearts  animated  as  to  the  primary  objects  of  Bible 
Societies,  to  circulate  the  Scriptures  in  their  original  purity." 

He  then  alluded  to  the  close  of  the  speech,  in  which  Dr. 
Thomson  seemed^  as  it  were,  to  take  leave  of  the  field  of  his 
arduous  struggles,  emphatically  adding : — 

**  And  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  in  the  moment  when  he  was 
suddenly  called  away,  and  his  spirit  returned  to  him  who  gave  it,  he  was 
admitted  to  appear  among  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect ;  and  that 
as  he  had  before  enjoyed  on  earth  the  testimony  of  his  conscience,  he  then 
received  the  anticipated  reward  of  grace." 

The  fall  of  his  illustrious  coadjutor  was  like  that  of  a 
standard-bearer  in  the  field  of  battle,  but  it  did  not,  for  a 
moment,   shake   the   calm  determination  of  Robert   Haldane. 


ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  BIBLE  SOCIETY  IN  1831.    553 

He  felt  the  loss,  but  remarked,  "The  cause  for  which  he 
contended  will  not  be  lost.  It  is  the  cause  of  truth,  the 
success  of  which  depends  not  on  any  man,  or  body  of  men,  but 
on  God/' 

The  death  of  Dr.  Thomson  did  not  interfere  with  Captain 
Gordon's  determination  to  bring  the  matters  in  discussion 
before  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  in  May,  1831.  But  dropping  all  reference  to  the 
Apocrypha  and  other  topics,  which  had  been  so  fiercely  con- 
troverted, he  determined  to  propose  a  resolution  on  general 
Christian  principles,  which  should  exclude  Socinians  from  the 
management  of  the  Bible  Society.  That  Meeting  became  famous, 
for  what  has  been  justly  termed  "the  noble  and  intrepid 
stand,''  made  by  Captain  (xordon,  and  an  interesting  and 
graphic  account  of  it  was  given  by  Robert  Paul,  Esq.,  of 
Edinburgh,  and  afterwards  published.  At  first  Captain  Grordon 
was  heard  with  attention,  and  the  cheering  indicated  that  he 
had  in  his  favour  the  sympathy  and  support  of  a  large  body 
of  the  subscribers.  But  when  he  came  to  talk  of  Socinianism, 
and  to  make  references  to  Scripture,  he  was  assailed,  from 
various  quarters,  by  a  storm  of  hissing  and  confusion.  At  last 
the  Noble  Chairman,  Lord  Bexley,  ruled  that,  as  the  Society 
was  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  Bible  without  note 
or  comment,  so  he  could  not  permit  any  one  to  expound  or 
preach  from  the  Bible,  on  the  platform  of  the  Meeting.  Mr. 
Paul  then  states,  that  Captain  Gordon  having  ^'entered  his 
solemn  protest  against  the  doctrine,  that  in  a  Bible  Society,  the 
Bible  was  not  to  be  appealed  to,  was  forced  to  conclude  amidst 
a  scene  of  tumult  and  disorder,  which  might  almost  baffle  belief, 
and  defies  description."  His  seconder,  the  Hon.  and  Rev. 
Baptist  Noel,  was  not  much  more  successful.  Afterwards  the 
Rev.  Rowland  Hill,  although  opposed  to  Mr.  Gordon's  motion, 
and  approving  of  the  Society's  acting  with  men  of  all  opinions, 
while  they  confined  themselves  to  the  diffusion  of  the  authorized 
version  of  the  Scriptures,  rebuked  the  disorderly  conduct  of  the 
interrupters,  ^^  which  he  characterised  as  being  more  suitable  to 
a  bear-garden  than  a  Bible  Society,"  and  then  quoting  the  text. 


554  TRINITARIAN    BIBLE   SOCIETY. 

"  Lift  up  holy  bands  without  wrath  and  doubting,''  he  added 

somewhat  to  this  effect : — 

'*  I  have  seen  many  hands  held  up  here  this  day,  but  can  I  think  that 
they  are  holy  hands  ?  without  wrath.  I  greatly  fear  that  this  cannot  be 
said — far  less  without  douhting,  for  that  means  without  disputing.  So! 
as  I  consider  the  Society  to  be,  by  its  conduct,  this  day,  virtually  dissolved, 
I  shall  take  French  leave  of  you,  and  be  off." 

It  would  be  tedious  to  pursue  the  history  of  the  attempt  to 
form  another  Society,  with  which  neither  Mr.  Haldane  nor  his 
brother  took  part,  or  to  detail  the  very  obvious  causes  of  its 
failure.     It  is  enough  to  say,  that  without  due  deliberation^  the 
helm  was  seized  by  parties  who  had  known  little  of  the  previous 
contest,  and  were  not  much  qualified  for  the  part  they  had 
assumed.     It  would  have  been  wiser  had  Captain  Grordon  and 
his  associates  declined  to  act  with   them,  until  the   basis   of 
union  was  more  firmly  laid.    Still  the  new  Society  was  launched 
under  a  name  which  many,  and  amongst  others  both  the  Hal- 
danes,  deemed  objectionable,  and  the  Trinitarian  Bible  Society 
held  a  successful,  and  rather  a  brilliant  Meeting  in  Exeter  Hall. 
The  Rev.  Henry  Melvill,   the  Rev.   Mr.  Brown,  Mr.  Grordon^ 
and  others,  spoke  in  a  manner  that  produced  a  considerable 
impression.      But   when  one  member   after  another,   holding 
views  approximating,  more  or  less,  to  those  professed  by  Mr. 
Irving,  was  proposed  to  the  Committee,  and  it  was  discovered 
that  the  Rev.  Washington  Phillips,  the  Clerical  Secretary,  was 
himself  bewildered  in  doubtful  speculations  about  the  miraculous 
gifts,  and  fallen  humanity,  divisions  followed,  and  it  seemed 
needful  to  adopt  some  measure  to  stay  the  mischief.     Thus  it 
was  that,  on  the  question  of  Irvingism,  the  Trinitarian  Bible 
Society  made  shipwreck  before  it  reached  the  ocean.     The  vessel 
was  subsequently  refitted,  and  with  the  Rev.  A.  S.  Thelwall  as 
its  Clerical  Secretary,  and  several  able  and  distinguished  laymen 
and  clergymen  amongst  its  Directors,  it  has  done  some  good 
service.    But  it  never  regained  the  confidence  of  the  pubhc,  and 
has  moved  in  a  comparatively  limited  sphere. 

All  this  was,  no  doubt,  wisely  ordered  for  the  purification 
of  the  old  Society,  without  its  destruction.     The  Rev.  Charles 


PUEIFICATION    OF   THE   BIBLE    SOCIETY.  555 

Bridges,  the  Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth,  Rev.  J.  Haldane  Stewart, 
and  others,  combined  in  a  protest  against  the  absence  of  prayer, 
and  the  alliance  with  Socinians.  The  excitement  produced  by 
Captain  Gordon^s  effort  in  1831,  and  the  statements  made  at 
the  Meetings  of  the  Trinitarian  Bible  Society's  early  meetings, 
brought  into  the  field  several  new  defenders  of  Earl-street. 
Amongst  these  were  the  Rev.  John  Scott,  of  Hull,  who  had  all 
along  favoured  Apocryphal  circulation,  and  the  celebrated  Mr. 
John  Joseph  Gumey,  of  Norwich,  whose  learning  and  talent, 
and  Christian  devotedness,  rendered  him  the  ornament  of  the 
Society  of  Friends.  Finally,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wilks,  editor  of 
the  "Christian  Observer,'^  devoted  nearly  two  entire  nimibers 
of  that  magazine  to  a  cause  which  would  have  been  better 
served  by  a  frank  confession  of  the  evil  consequences  of  an 
alliance  with  Neologians  and  persecutors,  than  by  acrimoni- 
ous personalities,  and  the  clever  evasions  of  charges  that 
could  not  be  openly  encountered.  To  each  of  these  writers 
Mr.  Haldane  fully  replied  in  distinct  pamphlets,  and  if,  at  the 
distance  of  so  many  years,  any  candid  inquirer  may  think  it 
worth  while  to  refer  to  them,  he  will  at  least  be  struck  with  the 
fairness,  the  truthfulness,  and  the  fulness  of  the  statements, 
as  well  as  the  high  standard  of  Christian  principle,  to  which 
Mr.  Haldane  uniformly  appeals.  In  the  answer  to  Mr.  Scott, 
he  powerfully  demonstrates  that  the  errors  of  the  Bible  Society 
might  be  traced  to  their  regarding  the  circulation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures as  an  end  instead  of  a  means.  If  ever  any  justification 
could  have  been  made  for  Coleridge,  when  he  tried  to  fasten 
on  the  Evangelicals  of  Great  Britain  the  nickname  which  he 
borrowed  from  the  Infidel  writings  of  the  German  Lessing,  it 
might  have  been  justifiable  to  charge  as  bibliolatry,  the  sin  of 
separating  the  distribution  of  the  Bible  from  its  proper  object. 

"  In  all  efforts,**  says  Mr.  Haldane, "  to  distribute  the  Bible,  it  ought  to  be 
kept  in  view,  that  the  Bible  itself  cannot  bless  the  world  without  the  imme- 
diate energy  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  therefore  our  chief  reliance  ought 
to  be  placed  on  the  presence  of  God,  accompanying  the  Bible.  When 
the  contrary  course  is  pursued,  the  people  of  God  will  be  under  tempta- 
tion to  keep  silence  with  respect  to  the  end  of  the  Bible  Society  to  save 


L 


&5G  REVIVAL  OF    RBLIOION   IN   BWITZBILLAHD. 

•innera."  ...  "If  Ood  b  to  be  overlooked,  if  Christ  is  to  be  fi 
then  let  ui  fratemiH  with  Papists  and  Socinians.  But  if  all  hope  n*ti 
on  Hie  bicMing  of  God,  then  let  us  look  to  the  Lord  Jeaus,  and  trwt  in 
hix  declaration,  '  AU  power  is  given  unto  me,  in  heaven  and  in  eaiQi.' " 

Mr.  Scott  had  rather,  in  the  old  style  of  exultation,  spoken 
of  the  aucccas  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  as 
■oiiirthiiig  cxcrcding  what  had  "  ever  been  seen  since  the  cessa- 
tion of  inirHclcs."  Mr.  Haldanc  quietly  recommends  Mr.  Scott, 
when  indulging  in  such  flights  of  fancy,  to  reflect  on  what 
l)ii>lio|>  AVilsoD  had  said,  "  I  am  sure  we  have  little  idea  in 
Knglnntl  of  the  state  of  things  abroad.  fVe  amazingly  overrate 
thr  nmiimmtivc  amount  of  good  effected  by  our  Societies."  But 
turning  to  actual  fact,  he  calls  attention  to  the  revival  of  religion  in 
Switii-rlund,  which  had,  beyond  all  doubt,  been  effected  not  only 
without  the  aid  of  the  Bible  Society,  but  in  spite  of  the  leading 
RKunbei^  of  its  "  kindred  institutions,"  such  as  Pictet,  Chene- 
viere,  Curtat,  and  Lcvade.  He  contrasts  the  state  of  Switzer- 
land as  it  was  when  the  Secretary  visited  that  coimtry,  and 
its  appearance  when,  eight  years  afterwards,  the  Rev.  Francis 
Cunningham,  another  agent,  was  filled  with  admiration  at  "  the 
advancement  in  piety,"  which  was  then  so  conspicuous. 

"  And  what,"  exclaims  Mr.  Haldane,  "  what  have  been  the  means  by 
wliicii  thin  happy  change  has  been  effected?  Has  it  been  produced  by 
those  to  court  whose  favour  and  alliance  the  agent  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Uible  Society  ■  broke  through  a  hedge,'  and  was  guilty  of  so 
great  an  outrage  on  Christian  principles.  No !  God,  in  producing  it,  has 
wrought  it,  exclusively,  by  means  of  his  despised  followeTs.  He  has  done 
more,  he  has  not  only  wrought  it  txclaatmly  hy  means  of  his  own  people, 
and  Ktthoitt  the  co-operation  of  the  Auxiliaries  of  the  Earl-street  Com- 
mittee in  Geneva,  but  absolutely  in  spite  of  them — in  spite  of  their  efibrta 
to  the  contrary,  seconded,  loo,  by  the  malignant  enmity  to  his  cause,  of 
the  'kindred  institutions'  at  Neufchatel  and  Lausanne,  and  its  Bible 
translators  there!!!  'My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are 
your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord.'  '  Where  is  the  wise  P  Where  is  the 
*eril>e?  Where  is  the  disputer  of  this  world?  Hath  not  God  made 
foolish  the  wisdom  o£  this  world?'  Such,  reader,  and  for  thine  instruc- 
tion mark  it  well,  has  been  the  sequel  of  one  of  the  greatest  sacrifices  of 
Christian  principles,  that  is  to  be  found  in  Christian  records." 

It  was  with  reference  to  these  solemn  facta,  that  the  late 
Rev.  William  Howels,  of  Long-acre  Chapel,  himself  an  early 


SP££CU    OF    MR.  HOWELS.  557 

and  ardent  supporter  of  the  Bible  Society,  beautifully  spoke, 
at  a  Meeting,  at  Exeter  Hall,  on  the  20th  of  December,  1831. 
After  stating  that  the  acknowledgment  of  Grod  in  prayer  would 
have  been  the  most  eflFective  test  of  membership,  he  proceeds  : — 

*'  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  would  then  have  breathed 
the  atmosphere  of  heaven.  Jehovah  himself,  with  all  the  shields  of  truth, 
would  have  surrounded  it,  and  Socinians  never  would  have  had  sufficient 
temerity  to  force  themselves  into  it.  But,  having  forgot  Qod,  when  they 
begun  the  work,  mark  the  consequence !  He  has,  in  judgment,  left  them 
to  commit  an  act  of  suicide,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  universe. 
The  army  of  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts  has  opened  its  bosom,  and  invited 
traitors  into  it !  There  is  nothing,  I  repeat  it,  parallel  to  this  suicidal  act. 
.  .  .  All  this  the  penetrating  eye  of  truth  ought  to  have  foreseen,  and 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  would  have  been  at  this  moment 
one  happy  band— the  orthodox  of  every  name  and  denomination,  march- 
ing hand  in  hand  towards  the  heavenly  Canaan,  treading  the  path  of  life 
themselves,  and  inviting  others  to  follow  therein ;  placing  the  Word  of 
God  in  the  hands  of  their  fellow- sinners,  as  they  passed  them  by ;  bequeath- 
ing to  them  the  gracious  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light." 

The  answer  to  Mr.  Wilks  was  the  last  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
Bible  Society  pamphlets.  It  was  addressed  to  the  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  (Dr.  Burgess),  to  whom  Mr.  Wilks  had  dedicated  his 
letters,  and  it  is  written  with  all  the  respect  due  to  his  Lord- 
ship^s  position,  and,  in  fact,  in  a  tone  which  drew  out  the  grave 
remonstrance  of  some  of  his  Covenanting  neighbours  in  the 
vicinity  of  Auchingray,  to  whom  the  idea  of  owning  Lordship 
in  a  Prelate  seemed  a  dereliction  of  principle.  Mr.  Wilks  had 
been  bold  enough  to  defend  some  of  the  worst  acts  of  the 
agents  of  the  Society,  particularly  in  regard  to  the  persecuted 
Christians  at  Geneva ;  and  whilst  he  intimates  his  pity  for  "  the 
victims,  some  of  the  now  sainted  victims  of  ecclesiastical  perse- 
cution,^^ he  intimates  that  much  allowance  was  to  be  made  for 
the  feelings  of  the  Swiss  authorities,  '^  irritated  by  the  spirit 
displayed  by  certain  British  travellers  and  agents,  and  which 
certainly  was  not  according  to  the  meekness  that  is  in  Christ.'^ 

Having  thus  offered  a  shabby  apology  for  the  persecutions,  in 
the  garb  of  a  most  groundless  insinuation  against  Mr.  Haldane^s 
conduct,  Mr.  Wilks  also  observed,  that  ^^in  the  recent  revival 


558  MR.  S.  WILKS's    PAMPHLET. 

of  religion  in  Switzerland^  there  are  those  who  are  far  removed 
from  the  excesses  either  of  Mr.  Haldane's  party  or  the  Creneveae 
Pastor's  party.  Such  men,  for  instance,  as  M.  Gaussen,  of 
Satigny,  are  truly  the  salt  of  the  earth  in  that  country/' 

This  allusion  to  one  of  Mr.  Haldane's  dearest  and  most 
devoted  friends,  as  a  contrast  to  ^'Mr.  Haldane's  party,''  was 
indeed  an  instance  of  the  recklessness  of  controversy.  In  the 
same  month,  M.  Gaussen  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  James  Haldane : — 
"  We  are  going,  in  a  few  days,  to  lay  the  foxmdation  of  a  temple 
consecrated  to  the  preaching  of  the  truth.  It  is  not  far  from 
where  your  honoured  brother  expounded  the  Scriptures.  It  was 
he,  in  fact,  who,  under  God,  laid  the  first  stone."  The  slightest 
inquiry  would  have  satisfied  Mr.  Wilks  that  no  man  had  more 
strongly  approved  than  M.  Gaussen  of  the  singular  prudence  and 
judgment  with  which  Mr.  Haldane  had  conducted  himself.  He 
would  have  also  found  that  M.  Gaussen,  viewing  Mr.  Haldane  as 
the  instrument  by  whom  the  Lord,  according  to  his  sovereign 
good  pleasure,  had  been  pleased  once  more  to  introduce  the  light 
of  the  truth  into  that  benighted  place,  had  been  affectionately 
accustomed  to  denominate  him  the  second  father  of  the  Church 
of  Geneva, — "  Le  second  Phre  de  VEglise  de  Genhe" 

In  noticing  Mr.  Wilks's  charge  of  fomenting  "  a  furious 
theological  war,"  Mr.  Haldane  calmly  replies : — 

"  A  short  time  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  M.  Gaussen  at  my 
house  in  the  country,  where,  during  his  short  stay  in  Scotland,  he  came 
twice  to  visit  me.  I  then  inquired  how  it  happened  that  the  pastors 
of  Geneva,  who  were  so  much  irritated,  did  not  prevent  the  students  from 
attending  me  in  the  way  I  have  described  in  my  *  Letter  to  Cheneviere  ?  > 
Respecting  the  cause  of  their  irritation,  he  replied,  that  my  proceedings 
at  Geneva  gave  the  first  blow  to  the  pastors  that  they  had  received,  and 
that,  as  to  preventing  the  attendance  of  the  students,  they  found  it  was 
beyond  their  power,  unless  they  had  dismissed  the  whole  of  them.  Such 
was  the  commencement  of  that  '  furious  theological  war '  which  Mr. 
Wilks  speaks  of  as  *  raging'  in  Switzerland,  evidently  intending,  by  the 
phraseology  he  employs,  to  place  it  in  an  odious  light,  '  which,'  says  he, 
*  Mr.  Haldane  was  one  of  the  chief  instruments  in  promoting.'  This  war 
has  gone  on  and  increased  to  the  present  hour,  and  for  the  part  in  it  that 
the  Lord  graciously  honoured  me  to  take  I  humbly  bless  his  name,  and 
to  Him  be  all  the  glory  \^ 


ESTIMATE   OF    MR.  HALDANe's    LABOURS.  559 

The  Bible  Society  controversy  formed  too  important  a  passage 
in  the  history  of  Robert  Haldane  to  be  lightly  passed  over.  In 
November,  1830,  Dr.  Thomson,  less  than  two  months  before 
his  ovm  death,  in  one  of  the  last  of  his  writings  thus  described 
Mr.  Haldane^s  anti- Apocryphal  writings  and  labours : — 

"  During  the  whole  course  of  the  Bible  Society  controversy,  Mr.  Hal- 
dane has  shown  himself  an  able  and  indefatigable  contender  for  the  faith. 
And  in  the  pamphlet  which  is  now  before  us,  he  exhibits  the  same  zeal 
for  the  purity  of  Scripture,  the  same  accurate  and  comprehensive  power 
of  stating  the  facts  that  enter  into  the  history  of  this  question,  the  same 
acuteness  in  detecting  the  sophistry  and  disingenuousness  of  his  oppo- 
nents, the  same  talent  for  expounding  and  arguing  every  position  that  he 
undertakes  to  establish  against  them,  and  the  same  high-toned  principles 
respecting  the  sacredness  of  God's  Word,  and  the  character  of  its  professed 
circulators,  which  he  has  all  along  displayed  in  his  anti-Apocryphal 
career.  There  are  not  a  few  who  have  laboured  strenuously  in  this  good 
cause,  but  we  know  not  one  to  whom  the  Christian  world  are  more 
indebted  for  supporting  and  upholding  it  amidst  the  apostasy,  or  indiffer- 
ence, or  hostility  with  which  it  has  had  to  struggle,  than  Mr.  Haldane." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  desperate  struggle,  before  which  most  men 
would  have  quailed,  and  although  he  did  not  contend  for  a 
personal  triumph,  he  looked  back  upon  its  fruits  with  deep 
thankfulness.  If,  as  he  said.  Dr.  Thomson  was  not  removed 
from  the  scene  of  combat  until  he  saw  the  cause  for  which  he 
laboured  in  some  measure  triumphant,  he  himself  was  privi- 
leged to  witness  that  triumph  still  more  decidedly  marked. 
One  by  one  the  Strasburg,  the  Paris,  the  Lausanne,  the  (Jeneva, 
and  other  Socinian  or  Neologian  Auxiliaries,  dropped  off,  and  left 
the  Parent  Society  more  and  more  disencumbered  of  enemies  of 
the  Gospel.  A  well-known  clergyman,  who  acted  as  a  deputy 
from  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  on  the  Continent  in 
1826,  reported  on  his  retun^  that  the  mischief  was  incurable, 
that  *^  Neologists  had  been  placed  on  a  vantage-ground,^'  and 
^^  our  connexion  with  them  was  a  matter  of  necessity  more  than 
of  choice/'  M.  Blumhardt,  the  head  of  the  Missionary  Insti- 
tution at  Basle,  himself  a  strong  Arminian,  declared  that  ^'  the 
Socinian  party,  which  continues  very  strong,  was  particularly 
interested''   in   maintaining   the   Apocrypha  for  the   sake  of 


560  PURIFICATION    OF    THE    BIBLE    SOCIETY. 

"  enveloping  in  obscurity ,  and  lowering  the  idea  attached  to 
inspiration,*^  But  when  the  means  of  thus  contaminatiiig  the 
Word  of  God  were  curtailed,  and  their  own  services  superseded 
by  the  employment  of  a  more  Christian  agency,  the  Neologians 
found  their  influence  weakened  and  their  own  treachery  prac- 
tically rebuked. 

Still  more,  in  1850,  a  Resolution  was  passed,  on  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  loyal-hearted  and  lamented  Edward  Bickersteth,  that 
the  meetings  should  henceforth  begin  with  prayer ;  and  although 
the  method  of  carrying  out  that  Resolution  was  clogged  by  Mr. 
Brandram's  steady  and  consistent  opposition,  stiU  the  principle 
has  been  admitted,  and,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  more  fiilly  carried 
out.      The  true  character  of  the  Bible   Society   is    becoming 
known  as  a  religious,  and  not  a  mere  bookselling  Institution, 
— as  a  rallying  point  for  'Hhe  orthodox  of  every  name  and 
denomination." 

Whatever,  then,  may  be  said  of  the  evils  of  that  controversy, 
it  had,  as  Dr.  M'Crie  remarks,  the  effect  of  ''  purifying  the 
moral  atmosphere,  and  freeing  it  from  much  of  the  selfishness 
and  duplicity  and  time-serving  with  which  it  was  overcharged." 
In  this  view,  the  language  with  which  Dr.  Thomson  closed  his 
last  speech  against  slavery  may  be  quoted,  not  only  for  the 
eloquence  which  it  breathes,  but  for  the  truth  which  it  con- 
veys : — 

"  Give  me  the  hurricane  rather  than  the  pestilence.  Give  me  the 
hurricane,  with  its  thunder  and  its  lightning  and  its  tempest.  Qive 
me  the  hurricane,  with  its  partial  and  temporary  devastations,  awful 
though  they  be.  Give  me  the  hurricane,  with  its  purifying,  healthful, 
salutary  effects.  Give  me  that  hurricane  infinitely  rather  than  the 
noisome  pestilence,  whose  path  is  never  crossed,  whose  silence  is  never 
disturbed,  whose  progress  is  never  arrested  by  one  sweeping  blast  from 
the  heavens, — which  walks  peacefully .  and  sullenly  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  breathing  poison  into  every  heart,  and  carrying 
havoc  into  every  home,  enervating  all  that  is  strong,  defacing  all  that  is 
beautiful,  and  casting  its  blight  over  the  fairest  and  happiest  scenes  of 
human  life,  and  which  from  day  to  day  and  from  year  to  year,  with 
intolerant  and  interminable  malignity,  sends  its  thousands  of  hapless 
victims  into  the  ever  yawning  and  never  satisfied  grave.** 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THEOLOGICAL  SEBONABY  IN  PABIS  —  PUBLICATION  AD- 
DBESSED  TO  THE  BEV.  DANIEL  WILSON— PBEPABATION 
OP  HIS  EXPOSITION  OP  BOMANS— MB.  JAMES  HALDANE'S 
ENGAGEMENTS— HIS  LETTEBS— BESPECTING  BEV.  EBENB- 
ZEB  BBOWN'S  SEBMON  BEPOBE  LOBDS  BBOUGHAM  AND 
DENMAN  — BESPECTING  DB.  COLQUHOUN  AND  MINIS- 
TEBIAL  POPULABITY— BESPECTING  DB.  STUABT'S  DEATH 
—BESPECTING  THE  BOW  DOCTBINE  OF  UNIVEBSAL  PAB- 
DON  — MB.  JAMES  HALDANE'S  PBEACHING  TOUBS  IN 
1829-30— DEATH  OF  HIS  ELDEST  SON,  JAMES— DB.  M'CBIE'S 
APPBOVAL  OP  MB.  JAMES  HALDANE'S  DOCTBINE  OP 
PEBSONAL  ASSUBANCB— MB.  HOWELS'  DEATH— MB.  AIK- 
MAN'S  DEATH,  AND  BOWLAND  HILL'S. 

[1824—1833.] 

The  Bible  Society  controversy^  reckoning  from  its  origin  in 
1821,  may  be  said  to  have  extended  over  twelve  years.  During 
that  period,  including  his  letter  to  M.  Cheneviere,  and  his 
volume  on  Inspiration,  Mr.  Haldane  published  no  less  than 
fifteen  elaborate  pamphlets,  in  which  there  is  much  that  is  of 
lasting  importance,  and  worthy  to  be  rescued  from  the  oblivion 
of  passing  time. 

Meanwhile,  the  winters  and  summers  were  very  equally  divided 
between  his  town  house.  No.  10,  Duke-street,  Edinburgh,  and 
his  country  residence  at  Auchingray.  When  in  Edinburgh,  he 
never  allowed  any  matter  connected  with  the  management  of  his 
estate  to  absorb  his  attention,  if  it  could  be  avoided  or  post- 
poned. When  at  Auchingray,  his  mornings  were  devoted  to 
prayer,  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  preparation  of  his 
work,  but  the  latter  part  of  the  day  was  occupied,  both  before  and 

o  o 


502  MR.  HALDANE    IN    PRIVATE    LIFB. 

after  dinner,  which  was  at  five  o'ttlock,  with  sacfa 
might  require  coDsideration  in  regard  to  his  tezumts^  his  pbnta- 
tioDS,  or  other  country  business.   His  evenings^  after  ei^t  o'dod^, 
were  spent  in  the  drawing-room,  where  he  usaallj  sat  in  m  large 
chair,  with  a  little  table  by  his  side,  and  a  newspaper  or  hock  in 
his  hand,  so  that  he  could  either  read,  listen,  or  converse  at  his 
pleasure.     There  were  few  who  could  be  more  agreeably  or  eren 
fascinating,  when  he  found  himself  in  congenial  society.     The 
urbanity  of  his  manners  gave  little  indication  of  the  stenuMss 
with  which  he  confronted  error ;  and  when  he  was  in  Gompaoy 
with  those  he  liked,  or  whose  knowledge  or  information  be 
valued,  his  flow  of  conversation  was  at  once  easy,   graceful, 
interesting,  and  instructive.     It  was  never  idle  or  frivolous.     He 
could  for  a  time  talk  of  the  ordinary  topics  of  the  day, — its 
politics,  its  remarkable  occurrences,  its  prospects.     He  had  a 
good  memory,  and  a  great  fund  of  anecdote  connected  with  his 
own  times,  the  eminent  persons  he  had  known,  the  scenes  which 
he  had  witnessed,  and  the  generation  that  was  passing  away. 
But  it  was  on  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  things 
pertaining  to  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  that  both  he 
and  his  brother  chiefly  delighted  to  dwell.     On  those  matters 
their  conversation  was  at  once  cheerful,  animated,  and  full  of 
edification.     There  was  no  constraint,  no  conventional  talk  about 
religion,   no   merely   sanctimonious   phraseology.      It  was  the 
utterance  of  the   heart,   the   expression  of  real  feeling,  never 
indicating  any  approach  to  that  Pharisaic  style  of  communication 
which  equally  chills  the  doubting  heart  of  the  humble  Christian 
and  repels  the  man  of  the  world. 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  Mr.  Haldane  was  wholly 
absorbed  with  public  matters  connected  with  the  Apocrypha 
controversy,  and  the  defence  of  the  authenticity  or  the  integrity 
of  the  Bible  and  its  plenary  inspiration.  There  were  many  other 
important  matters  which  occupied  his  thoughts.  When  MM. 
Olivier,  Chavannes,  Rochat,  Juvet,  and  other  pious  ministers, 
became  the  victims  of  persecution,  and  were  banished  from  the 
Canton  de  Vaud,  he  placed  at  Paris,  under  the  care  of  the  two 
MM.  Olivier,  twelve  young  men,  whom  he  educated  for  the 


REV.  DANIEL   WILSON.  568 

ministry  in  France.  The  superintendence  of  their  studies, 
although  carried  on  by  correspondence^  engrossed  a  good  deal  of 
his  attention ;  whilst  he  was  accustomed  to  observe  opportunities 
where  letters  or  presents  of  books  might  be  useful  in  enlight- 
ening the  views  or  encouraging  the  hearts  of  his  old  pupils,  or 
other  foreign  preachers,  whether  in  France  or  Germany. 

In  1829,  partly  as  connected  with  the  Bible  Society 
controversy,  and  partly  with  the  hidden  evils  it  disclosed,  he 
published  a  little  volume,  addressed  to  an  eminent  clergyman, 
justly  respected  for  his  talents  and  piety,  who  is  now  also 
the  MetropoUtan  of  India.  It  was  as  a  public  man, 
and  a  standard-bearer  in  the  Church,  that  the  Rev.  Daniel 
Wilson  was  singled  out.  Mr.  Wilson  was  a  leader  in  the  Bible 
Society,  and  although  not  personally  implicated  in  many  of 
the  transactions  which  originated  the  painful  controversy,  yet 
he  was  one  of  its  most  zealous  advocates,  and  thus  became  mixed 
up  with  the  defence  of  its  most  questionable  proceedings.  He 
was  also  an  influential  member  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
and  Mr.  Haldane  longed  for  an  opportunity  of  publicly  calling 
attention  to  the  evil  of  selecting  missionaries  out  of  a  German 
Swiss  Institution  at  Basle,  where  he  personally  knew  that  the 
theology  taught  was  then  deeply  tainted  with  Arminianism,  and 
by  no  means  free  from  the  poison  of  Infidel  Rationalism.  Mr. 
Wilson  had  just  published  two  volumes  of  Letters  from  the  Con- 
tinenty  which  seemed  to  present  a  very  superficial  and  mitigated 
view  of  the  Neology  and  anti-Christian  spirit  that  prevailed 
in  places  with  which  Mr.  Haldane  was  himself  intimately 
acquainted.  The  Letters  were  the  result  of  a  hasty  summer^s 
ramble,  and  should  never  have  been  published  with  the  weight 
of  Mr.  Wilson^s  name.  It  was  against  the  system  of  worldly 
policy  and  false  expediency  which  had  grown  up  in  the  Church, 
that  Mr.  Haldane  wrote, — a  system  which  never  in  his  eyes 
appeared  so  dangerous  as  when  it  sanctioned  the  desecration  of 
the  Bible  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  gldry  of  its  Almighty 
Author.  The  views  which  he  now  published  were  not  hastily 
adopted. '  In  fact,  he  had  been  long  persuaded  that  the  temporizing 
spirit  fostered  by  some  of  the  most  illustrious  Evangelical  laymen 

o  o  2 


564    TRACTS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE  SOCIETY. 

had  far  exceeded  the  limits  of  Christian  simphcity.    He  conceived 
that  Mr.  Wilberforce  himself,  and  what  has  been  termed  ''  the 
Clapham  sect/'  had  associated  too  much  with  Socinians  and 
ungodly  men,  as  well  as  with  mere  worldly  poUticians,  for  the 
purpose  of  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  other  objects 
of  philanthropy.     When,  therefore,  Mr.  Haldane  saw  the  same 
spirit  of  compromise  pervading  plans  designed  to  promote  the 
Grospel  of  Christ ;  when  he  saw  those  of  whom  the  world  was 
not   worthy   either   disowned,    or  their  persecutions   unjustly 
palliated  by  the  convenient  charge  of  imprudence  on  the  part  of 
the  defenceless  victims ;  when  in  the  same  pages  he  saw  their 
ungodly  persecutors  held  up  to  pubUc  esteem,  his  spirit  was 
roused  within  him  publicly  to  expose  the  evil,  and  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  Lord's  people  to  what  he  considered  to  be  the 
unfaithfulness  of  which  they  were  unconsciously  guilty.     These 
were  his  views,   and  it  was  not   against  individuals  that  his 
pungent  remonstrances  were  pointed.     Throughout  the  whole 
volume  there  is,  as  might  be  expected,  much  valuable  matter, 
both  as  it  regarded  the  state  of  the  Continent,  the  duty  of 
exposing  error,  and  the  necessity  of  bringing  forward  all  the 
doctrines  of  revelation  in  their  proper  place,  regardless  of  the 
offence  which  they  may  occasion.     The  signal  and  continued 
blessing  that  had  accompanied  his  own  labours  entitled  him  to 
speak  with  some  authority  as  to  the  advantage  of  dealing  faith- 
fully and  without  compromise. 

The  character  of  the  Tracts  circulated  by  the  Society  for 
promoting  Christian  Knowledge  was  another  topic  which  he 
urged  on  the  attention  of  the  Evangelical  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  England.  His  language  is  strong,  sometimes  even  severe ; 
but  it  is  the  language  of  a  man  of  Ood,  who  had  in  view  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ  rather  than  the  opinion  of  the  world, — 
of  one  who  loved  the  praise  of  God  more  than  the  praise  of 
men, — of  one  who  was  in  earnest,  and  wrote  not  to  wound  but 
to  correct,  not  to  gratify  personal  feehng,  but  to  vindicate  that 
truth  to  which  he  himself  adhered  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child 
and  the  courage  of  a  warrior. 

There  is  a  reminiscence  indicating  the  spirit  in  which  he  con- 


ANECDOTE    OP    MR.  H ALDAN E.  665 

ceived  and  executed  this  publication.  It  was  late  on  a  Saturday 
night  at  Auchingray,  in  the  winter  of  1829,  that  he  finished  it. 
Just  before  he  retired  to  rest,  he  found  himself  suddenly  attacked 
by  an  internal  hemorrhage,  which  at  his  time  of  life  he  con- 
ceived to  be  an  indication  of  approaching  dissolution.  In  the 
morning  he  informed  Mrs.  Haldane  that  he  wished  a  mes- 
senger to  be  sent  to  West  Craigs  for  post  horses  to  take  him  to 
Edinburgh.  Surprised  at  the  announcement,  she  observed  that 
she  supposed  he  had  forgot  that  it  was  the  Lord's-day.  He 
replied  that  he  was  unwell,  and  required  medical  advice,  although 
he  believed  that  his  work  was  done.  He  added,  that  he  had  not 
slept  during  the  night,  but  had  been  meditating  on  the  prospect 
of  closing  his  earthly  labours,  and  entering  on  the  rest  of  an 
eternal  Sabbath.  Under  these  impressions,  he  committed  to 
her  care  the  manuscript  he  had  just  finished,  with  a  solemn 
charge  to  publish  it  in  the  event  of  his  death,  as  he  was  firmly 
persuaded  that  the  matters  there  discussed  were  of  deep  import- 
ance to  the  Church  of  Christ.  He  said  that  he  had  written  in 
no  bad  spirit,  as  had  often  been  alleged,  but  that  it  had  been  his 
earnest  desire  to  recal  the  Lord's  people  to  the  wisdom  of 
depending  more  simply  on  their  Master's  strength,  and  to  the 
folly  of  trying  to  help  on  the  cause  of  an  almighty  and  holy  God 
by  the  feeble  and  faithless  aids  of  a  worldly  policy.  Happily  his 
ilhiess,  although  the  first  premonition  of  the  taking  down  of  his 
earthly  tabernacle,  passed  away,  and  the  result  proved  that  his 
'^work  was  not  done,''  but  that  much  good  service  was  still 
reserved  for  him  on  earth. 

Connected  with  Mr.  Haldane's  strictures  on  Mr.  Wilson's 
proceedings  in  the  three  great  Societies,  there  is  an  anecdote 
beautifully  characteristic  of  the  late  Edward  Bickersteth.  That 
admirable  and  simple-hearted  clergyman  was  dining  in  company 
with  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  when  some  one  jocularly  alluded  to 
the  public  admonition  he  had  received  from  Mr.  Haldane.  It 
was  remarked  that  its  severity  must  defeat  its  own  aim,  when 
Mr.  Bickersteth  exclaimed,  "  Ah,  brother,  that  rebuke  will  do 
you  and  me  far  more  good  than  all  the  pleasant  compliments  we 
are  accustomed  to  receive."    Five  years  afterwards,  Mr.  Haldane 


566  ON    CONTEOVERSY. 

publicly  expressed  his  satisfaction  that  Bishop  Wilson  had  been 
called  to  a  station  of  so  much  usefulness  in  India^  and  he  listened 
with  pleasure  to  every  instance  which  he  heard  of  that  distin* 
guished  Prelate^s  zeal  to  banish  error  and  defend  the  tmth. 
One  extract  from  this  treatise  shall  be  given.  Mr.  Wilson  had 
said^  that  in  order  to  do  good  abroad  ^'all  controversy  about 
Churches^  I  had  almost  said  about  different  doctrines,  must  be 
avoided/'  To  this  Mr.  Haldane  replies^  that  he  does  not  wonder 
that  Mr.  Wilson  faltered  in  his  recommendation. 

"  If,"  he  adds,  "  all  controversy  about  different  doctrines,  and  on  the 
way  of  salvation,  ought  either  *  almost '  or  altogether  to  be  avoided,  then 
the  apostles  were  firebrands,  instead  of  heralds  of  the  Gospel  of  peace. 
Their  whole  ministry,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Lord  himself,  was  one  con- 
tinued discussion.  The  Lord  Jesus,  instead  of  concealing  his  disapproba- 
tion of  the  corruption  of  the  truth  by  the  Pharisees,  exposed  all  their 
errors,  and  declared  that  every  plant  which  his  heavenly  Father  had  not 
planted  must  be  rooted  up.  The  apostles  never  spared  the  false  teachers, 
nor  shunned  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  lest  the  blood  of  sinners 
should  be  on  their  heads.  Instead  of  enjoining  on  those  who  proclaim 
the  Gospel  to  avoid  all  controversy,  they  make  it  an  essential  qualification 
in  pastors  to  be  able  to  convince  the  gainsayers.  If  another  and  more 
effective  method  of  spreading  and  defending  the  truth  is  now  discovered, 
it  must  establish  itself  on  the  ruin  of  the  character  of  the  apostles." 

Mr.  James  A.  Haldane  fully  sympathized  in  the  same  objects 
which  occupied  his  brother^s  energies^  although  he  was  not 
usually  so  much  engaged  in  the  heat  of  controversy,  but  was, 
for  the  most  part,  quietly  labouring  with  equal  zeal  in  the  vine- 
yard of  the  same  Master,  to  whom  they  had  both  devoted  them- 
selves in  early  manhood.  In  one  of  his  letters,  Mr.  James 
Haldane  remarks  :  ^'  I  see  many  evils,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
which  I  hope  the  Lord  will  correct ;  but  I  do  not  see  anything 
which  I  can  do,  unless  it  be  to  live  near  to  God,  and  to  preach 
His  Gospel  where  I  am  placed  in  the  course  of  His  providence.^' 
He  had  supreme  confidence  in  the  declaration,  ''  My  word  shall 
not  return  unto  me  void.'^  Instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  he 
was  always  at  his  post,  and  without  ever  dreaming  of  rest  on 
this  side  of  the  grave,  continued  as  much  as  ever  to  delight  in 
sounding  abroad  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel.     He  was  not 


FLOATING    CHAPEL.  667 

often  absent  from  his  own  churchy  but  occasionally  he  was 
enabled  to  preach  to  the  sailors  in  the  floating  chapel  at  Leith, 
where  his  sermons^  as  coming  from  an  old  seaman^  were  always 
welcomed  by  his  hearers.  At  an  earlier  period^  and  before  the 
introduction  of  steam  navigation^  he  was  on  one  occasion  crossing 
from  Kirkaldy  to  Leith^  and^  according  to  his  manner^  entered 
into  religious  conversation  with  some  of  the  boat's  crew.  He 
observed  that  seamen  were  very  apt  to  neglect  the  concerns  of 
eternity.  One  of  them  objected  to  this  assertion,  and  boldly 
challenged  him  to  produce  an  instance  of  a  better  Christian 
than  Captain  Haldane.     In  a  letter,  he  observes,  "We  dined 

yesterday  at .     Lord  Decies  was  there,  and  he  told  me  that 

as  I  am  to  preach  next  Lord's-day  at  the  floating  chapel,  his 
relative,  the  Admiral  on  the  station  (Sir  Robert  Otway)  is  coming 
to  hear  me  as  an  old  sailor."  The  elder  brother  of  Lord  Decies 
had  been  a  school-fellow  of  both  the  Haldanes,  and  lived  with 
them  at  Dr.  Adam's.  His  Lordship  was  himself  frequently  a 
hearer  of  Mr.  J.  Haldane  during  the  winter  he  resided  in 
Edinburgh. 

His  correspondence  with  his  absent  children  was  always 
delightful,  and  a  collection  of  his  letters  would  form  another 
interesting  cardiphonia  of  experimental,  doctrinal,  and  practical 
reUgion.  The  following  contains  an  interesting  account  of  a 
sermon  preached  by  the  venerable  Ebenezer  Brown,  before  the 
future  Lord  Chancellor  and  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England. 
The  letter  is  dated  October,  1823,  and  was  written  soon  after 
his  return  from  a  little  tour  which  he  made,  through  Normandy 
to  Paris  and  Brussels,  with  one  of  his  sons  and  the  late  Mr. 
Alfred  Hardcastle : — 

**  You  saw,  in  the  newspapers,  that  Brougham  and  Denman  heard 
Ebenezer  Brown  preach  at  Inverkeithing.  It  was  not,  as  we  supposed, 
owing  to  any  quarrel  of  James  Stuart's  (of  Duneam)  with  the  established 
minister.  They  asked  him  if  he  could  give  them  a  specimen  of  the 
old  Presbyterians.  He  carried  them  to  Mr.  Brown's,  who  knew  nothing 
of  their  coming,  but  was  told,  as  he  went  into  the  pulpit,  that  two 
gentlemen  of  high  rank  were  to  be  his  hearers.  As  usual,  he  spoke  from 
the  psalm  which  was  to  be  sung,  and  lectured  {expounded),  and  then 
preached.    The  subject  of  the  lectiue  was  Aets  xyi.  20 — 3i.    The  senrica 


568  REV.  £BEN£Z£R   BROWN. 

was  long,  but  they  did  not  tire ;  and,  I  understand,  were  highly  gratified 
by  his  simplicity  and  earnestness.  Dr.  Stuart  wrote  to  him  for  an  account 
of  the  lecture,  and  read  to  me  his  reply,  in  which  its  substance  was  given. 
It  consisted  of  observations  drawn  from  the  passage,  such  as,  that  in  every 
situation  God's  people  have  access  to  Him ;  that  the  presence  of  scoffers 
and  ungodly  men  should  not  prevent  them  from  expressing  their  depend- 
ence on  God  in  the  ways  of  his  appointment ;  that  He  is  able  to  deliver 
them  in  every  situation ;  and  that  they  may  be  assured  that  He  will  do 
80  at  the  proper  time.  This,  you  will  seey  is  a  different  doctrine  from 
that  taught  by  our  friend  whom  we  heard  (at  the  Ambassador's  chapel) 
in  Brussels.  From  what  I  heard  of  the  discourse,  I  should  think  it  more 
calculated  to  be  useful  to  them  than  Mr.  Irving's  orations,  Mr.  Brown 
writes,  that  when  he  heard  who  had  been  present,  he  had  been  led  to 
earnest  prayer  that  they  might  obtain  a  blessing." 

When  the  Bible  Society  controversy  arosej  his  supreme 
reverence  for  the  Word  of  Grod  induced  him,  like  his  brother, 
warmly  to  espouse  the  cause  of  those  who  were  contending  for 
the  integrity  of  the  canon  and  the  full  inspiration  of  Scripture. 
Except  as  an  active  member  of  the  Committee,  he  did  not^ 
however,  deem  it  necessary  to  take  any  very  prominent  part  in 
the  public  discussion,  and  he  was,  consequently,  saved  from  the 
pain  of  all  personal  warfare.  At  the  General  Meetings  his 
unction  in  prayer  frequently  pointed  him  out  as  one  to  be  asked 
either  to  open  or  to  close  the  proceedings.  But  in  the  progress 
of  the  controversy  he  took  a  deep  interest,  and  more  especially 
after  it  came  more  decidedly  to  turn  upon  the  integrity  of  the 
canon  and  the  plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture.  On  the  17th 
of  October,  1826,  he  writes : — 

<*  Br.  Thomson  mentioned,  yesterday,  at  the  Committee,  that  Mr.  , 

of  Glasgow,  had  publicly  said  that  the  canon  of  Scripture  was  not  yet 
settled.  Br.  Stewart,  of  Liverpool,  asked  him,  among  what  denomination 
of  Christians  the  canon  was  not  yet  settled.  I  trust  that  He  who  ultimately 
rules  all  for  his  own  glory  will  bring  much  good  out  of  this  controversy,  and 
that  many  will  be  led  to  entertain  juster  views  of  the  glory  and  excellency 
of  the  Scriptures.  I  preached  yesterday  on  Rev.  ii.  17 ;  and  gave  as  one 
reason  for  the  expression,  hidden  manna,  that  it  was  covered  with  the 
dew,  and  only  found  when  the  dew  was  gone  up.  The  manna  was  a 
figure  of  Christ,  the  true  bread ;  and  as  the  manna  in  the  wilderness  was 
given  with  the  dew  in  which  it  was  enveloped  (Ex.  xvL  14 ;  Num.  xi.  9), 
so  is  Christ,  the  true  bread,  given  to  his  people  in  the  Word  of  God 


THE   HIDDEN    MANNA.  569 

(Rom.  X.  17;  Oal.  iii.  2,  5,  6),  to  which  the  dew  is  compared  (Beut. 
zxxii.  2;  Ps.  Ixxii.  6;  Isa.  Iv.  10,  11).  The  hidden  manna  promised  in 
the  text  is  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  Christ  bestowed  on  his  people 
in  the  path  of  duty  (Acts  ix.  31),  as  well  as  the  full  enjoyment  of  Him  in 
glory  (1  John  iiL  2).  The  white  stone  refers  to  the  justification  of 
believers.  Stones  are  said  to  have  been  used  in  judgment  as  black  and 
white  balls  still  are.  On  the  stone  a  new  name  was  vrritten.  This  is  an 
allusion  to  God's  changing  the  names  of  his  people  on  certain  occasions. 
Abraham  was  the  first  who-  got  a  new  name  (Gen.  vii.  5),  so  did  Sarah 
and  Jacob.  Isaac  did  not,  because  his  name  was  given  him  by  God, 
before  his  birth,  and  as  the  child  of  promise  (Gal.  iv.  28) ;  he  was  a 
remarkable  type  of  Him  who  is  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever. 
(Heb.  xiii.  8.)  A  new  name  was  always  connected  with  special  privileges, 
of  which  it  was  descriptive ;  and  here  it  is  said  to  be  written  on  the  white 
stone,  denoting  the  acceptance  of  the  people  of  God,  through  faith,  with 
which  is  inseparably  the  sanctification  of  their  natures,  or  their  being 
created  anew.  (Tit  iii.  5;  £ph.  ii.  10.)  This  new  name,  which  all 
believers  receive  (Isa.  Ixii.  2 ;  and  Ivi.  5),  is  the  name  of  Christ  written 
upon  them.  (Rev.  iii.  12.)  They  are  united  to  him  in  body  and  spirit 
(Eph.  V.  30;  1  Cor.  vi.  17) ;  and,  in  virtue  of  this  union,  stand  in  a  new 
relation  to  God,  and  have  a  new  character  and  new  feelings.  This 
privilege  is  hidden  from  the  world.  (1  John  iii.  7 ;  and  1  Cor.  ii.  14.) 
The  change  of  character  is  ascribed  to  hypocrisy  or  delusion,  but  the 
spirit  of  adoption,  in  consequence  of  their  union  with  Christ,  is  felt  only 
by  themselves.  (Rom.  viii.  15, 16;  Gal.  iv.  4.)  The  promise  of  the  white 
stone  with  name  is  parallel  with  Eph.  i.  1 3 ;  2  Cor.  i.  22.  These  were 
some  of  the  ideas  which  occurred  to  me  on  this  passage.  It  is  my  prayer 
that  you  may  enjoy  much  nearness  to  God  and  have  much  experience  of 
the  power  of  his  grace  on  your  heart" 

In  another  letter^  written  a  fortnight  later^  he  alludes  to  a 
dissension  which  had  taken  place  in  the  Church  of  his  venerable 
friend^  Dr.  Colquhoun^  of  Leith,  the  author  of  the  valuable 
work  on  spiritual  comfort^  whom  both  he  and  his  brother  were 
accustomed  to  regard  with  much  esteem  and  took  much  delight 
in  visiting : — 

"  It  is  a  pity  that,  in  the  Doctor's  old  age,  such  a  dispute  should  have 
arisen,  but  I  hardly  ever  saw  it  fail,  when  people  looked  up  in  an 
extraordinary  degree  to  a  minister  (as  I  believe  his  congregation  did  to 
him),  that  something  did  not  arise  to  sweep  away  their  idolatrous  attach- 
ment I  have  frequently  seen  the  same  thing  in  individual  members  of 
our  Church ;  so  much  so,  that  now  I  never  see  any  person  who  appean 
peculiarly  ardent  in  expressions  of  admiration,  but  I  lay  my  account  that 


O70  THB   REV.  DR.  COLQUHOUN. 

a  complete  revolution  will  ere  long  take  place.  It  is  the  purpose  of  Ood 
to  stain  the  pride  of  human  glory,  and  his  purpose  shall  stand.  The 
nearer  we  live  to  Him  the  more  we  are  engaged  in  contemplating  his 
glory,  his  love,  and  his  grace  to  us,  the  more  willing  shall  we  be  that  He 
alone  should  be  exalted ;  and,  as  He  is  infinitely  exalted  above  all  created 
conception,  so  the  happiness  of  the  whole  obedient  and  intelligent  creation 
will  arise  and  continue  through  eternity  in  beholding  his  glory.  Did  we 
perceive  more  of  it,  it  would  hide  pride  from  our  eyes ;  but,  as  when  the 
sun  is  withdrawn  the  stars  are  bright,  so,  when  our  minds  are  turned 
away  from  Ood,  we  hold  ourselves  and  the  persons  of  our  fellow-creatures 
in  admiration,  because  of  some  real  or  supposed  advantage  over  others." 

This  extract  exhibits  the  habitual  frame  of  his  mind ;  and  his 
observation  on  the  mutability  of  ministerial  admiration  natu- 
rally calls  up  the  recollections  of  his  old  friend^  Dr.  Stuart^  of 
Duneam.  He  had^  at  one  time^  entertained  an  almost  over- 
weening admiration  of  the  preaching  and  character  of  Mr.  James 
Haldane.  He  had  written^  that  to  see  him  a  Baptist  would  be 
^'the  consummation  of  his  earthly  felicity/'  His  wish  had 
been  granted^  and  with  it  had  come  disappointment  and  change. 
He  was  one  of  those  who  had  thus  taught  Mr.  J.  Haldane  the 
lesson  which  he  says  he  had  learned.  Stilly  nothing  had  ever 
occurred  to  interrupt  their  mutual  friendship^  and  Dr.  Stuart 
continued  to  the  last  to  express  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude  for 
the  spiritual  obligations  received  from  his  former  pastor^  whose 
attentions  were  as  great  as  if  Dr.  Stuart  had  stiU  been  one  of 
his  ardently  attached  congregation : — 

"  JEdinburffh,  ^th  May,  1826. 
**  Dr.  Stuart  died  last  LordVday,  very  suddenly.  I  saw  him  on  Friday, 
and  had  some  very  pleasant  conversation  with  him.  While  I  was  there 
his  son  John  was  announced.  He  had  just  been  telling  me  how  very 
kind  John  had  been  since  his  illness.  I  got  up  to  go  away,  that  he  might 
see  his  son.  He  said,  he  wished  there  had  been  time  for  me  to  have 
prayed.  I  said  there  would  be  time,  and,  without  any  intention  or  suspi- 
cion that  it  would  be  the  last,  I  thanked  God  for  his  kindness  to  him,  in 
having  kept  him  in  the  truth,  and  expressed  confidence  that  he  would 
perfect  that  which  concerned  him,  and  then  went  away.  On  Saturday  I 
asked  at  the  door  how  he  was,  and  heard  that  he  was  better,  but,  as 
Robert  was  with  me,  did  not  go  in.  After  the  evening  sermon,  your  aunt 
told  me  that  he  had  died  that  day.  I  went  over  to  George's-square,  and 
found  that  he  had  taken  his  breakfast  better  than  usual.    Mr.  White,  the 


DEATH    0¥   DR.   STUART.  571 

surgeon,  called,  to  whom  he  said,  he  was  sorry  he  had  come  that  day,  as 
he  was  so  much  better  that  it  was  unnecessary.  He  was  so  well  that  his 
daughter  only  kept  one  servant  at  home,  sending  the  others  to  church. 
About  half-past  three  he  came  down  stairs  and  took  a  turn  in  the  drawing- 
room,  then  walked  up  stairs  again,  and  having  sat  down,  asked  for  his 
dinner.  His  daughter  went  down  to  hasten  it,  and  returned  to  tell  him 
it  was  ready  in  the  next  room.  He  got  up  from  his  chair,  and  gave  a 
kind  of  sigh  and  fell  back  into  her  arms.  She  prevented  his  head  £Edling 
on  the  floor,  but  could  not  support  him.  A  medical  man  was  soon 
obtained,  but  he  was  gone,  I  have  no  doubt  to  be  with  Christ.  I  never 
had  before  said  anything  in  prayer  with  him  about  his  being  kept  in  the 
truth,  but  it  has  often  been  in  my  mind,  considering  Dr.  Stuart's  temper, 
his  love  of  novelty,  and  his  constant  study  of  commentators,  many  of  them 
German  Socinians,  &c.  I  have  often  admired  the  Lord's  goodness  to  him, 
that  he  was  never  suffered  in  any  measure  to  swerve  from  the  truth ;  and 
it  was  remarkable  that,  on  that  day,  I  expressed,  in  his  hearing,  my 
feelings  on  that  subject  for  the  first  and  last  time.  No  one  took  a  deeper 
interest  in  all  that  was  going  on  for  the  promotion  of  the  Gospel  than  he 
did.  He  had  strong  prejudices,  but  he  was  truly  a  lover  of  good  men, 
and  deeply  under  the  influence  of  the  truth.  May  we  be  followers  of 
those  who,  through  faith  and  patience,  inherit  the  promises." 

Dr.  Stuart  had  first  conceived  the  idea  of  the  Gaelic  School 
Society^  and  Mr.  James  Haldane^  along  with  Dr.  MCrie  and 
Mr.  Christopher  Anderson^  had  been  with  Dr.  Stuart  the 
originators  of  that  useful  institution.  At  its  next  public 
meetings  Dr.  M^Crie  pronounced  a  beautiful  oration  with 
reference  to  their  departed  friend^  which  is  now  published 
in  the  appendix  to  his  life^  written  by  his  son^  who  inherits 
much  of  the  talent  of  his  father.  One  sentence  must  suffice. 
"  In  Dr.  Stuart/'  says  Dr.  M'Crie,  "  I  always  found  the  honour- 
able feelings  of  the  gentleman^  the  refined  and  liberal  thinking 
of  the  scholar^  and  the  unafiected  and  humble  piety  of  the 
Christian.^' 

In  the  summers  of  1829-30^  Mr.  James  Haldane  made  two 
short  preaching  tours^  the  first  in  Ayrshire^  and  the  second 
in  the  North  of  Scotland.  The  following  are  extracts  from 
a  letter  to  his  eldest  daughter^  from  the  same  place  from  which 
twenty-five  years  before  the  account  of  a  former  journey  was 
addressed  to  her^  then  a  little  girl.  Her  health  was  already 
much  impaired^  although  she  survived  many  years : — 


672  TOUR   TO    THE    NORTH. 

"  Elffin,  6th  Jufy,  1830. 
**  Dearest  Elizabeth, — I  was  very  happy  to  hear  on  Saturday 
that  you  were  all  well,  and  that  you  are  continuing  better.  I  have  made 
out  my  journey  remarkably  well,  and  have  had  many  opportunities  of 
preaching,  and  the  people  have  come  out  to  hear  very  well  indeed. 
There  is  a  great  desire  to  hear  in  all  the  parts  of  the  country  through 
which  we  have  passed." 

He  then  mentions  ten  sermons  which  he  had  preached  in  one 

week^  between  Insell  and  Elgin,  where  he  spent  the  following 

Lord's-day,  and  where  he  preached  three  times.     He  adds, — 

"  We  intended  to  go  to  Fochabers  to-day,  but  it  was  proposed  that 
there  should  be  a  Meeting  of  the  Bible  Society  to-night,  and  I  agreed  to 
stay.  By  this  means  we  shall  not  preach  at  Fochabers,  but  it  was  doubtful 
whether  we  should  get  a  place,  and  I  have  not  preached  in  the  open  air. 
I  am  afraid  of  losing  my  voice,  as  I  did  in  Ayrshire.  We  are  to  be  next 
Lord's-day  at  New  Pitsligo,  and  the  following  one  at  Aberdeen.  The 
weather  has  been  tolerable,  although  cold,  and  sometimes  showery.  On 
the  whole,  we  have  been  very  comfortable,  and  I  trust  the  Lord  will  make 
the  journey  useful." 

His  voice  continued  powerful  even  beyond  the  limits  of 
fourscore,  but  it  appears  from  this  letter,  that  even  as  a 
sexagenarian  he  found  it  no  longer  equal  to  the  prodigious 
exertions  which  distinguished  the  first  ten  years  of  his  active 
career.  The  last  time  that  he  was  known  to  speak  in  the  open 
air  seems  to  have  been  in  Ayrshire,  in  1829.  Two  years  before, 
he  deUvered  a  very  striking  and  solemn  address  in  the  new 
Calton-hill  cemetery,  over  the  grave  of  Mr.  John  Stirling,  one 
of  his  most  attached  people,  and  long  a  deacon  of  his  church. 
Mr.  Stirling  held  a  public  office  under  the  Town  Council,  and 
was  much  and  generally  respected.  He  was  ''an  Israelite 
indeed,  in  whom  was  no  guile;''  and  when  Mr.  James  Haldane 
saw  the  crowd  that  had  assembled  to  do  honour  to  the  departed^ 
he  seemed  to  feel  an  impulse,  which  induced  him,  without 
premeditation,  to  address  them.  He  began,  ''  My  friends,  you 
are  standing  around  the  grave  of  a  man  of  God  I''  and  after 
dwelling  on  the  meaning  of  that  lofty  title,  he  spoke  of  the 
power  of  the  Grospel  to  save  and  to  sanctify,  with  an  energy  and 
a  feeling  that  imposed  the  deepest  silence,  and  seemed  to  produce 
a  powerful  impression. 


PREACHING   IN   THE   OPEN    AIE.  573 

The  beginning  of  the  year  1831  was  saddened  by  the  death 
of  his  eldest  son^  James^  a  young  man^  whose  vigorous  constitu- 
tion but  a  little  while  before  promised  a  long  continuance  of 
life  and  health.  For  some  time  he  had^  however^  complained  of 
what  appeared  to  be  rheumatism  in  the  head,  but  the  disorder 
suddenly  assumed  a  more  serious  character,  and  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  his  skilful  physician,  Dr.  Abercrombie,  he  died  on  the 
24th  January,  after  a  short  illness.  His  end  was  peace;  and 
although  he  was  unable  to  speak  much,  yet  he  told  his  father 
that  he  had  full  confidence  in  Jesus,  and  entertained  no  fear  of 
death.  In  a  letter  dated  five  years  before,  his  father,  in  writing 
to  his  next  son  in  London,  expresses  the  gratitude  with  which  he 
had  first  discerned  a  work  of  grace  in  the  heart  of  him  whom 
in  1831  he  followed  to  the  grave  : — 

**  Edinburgh,  2Sd  August,  1826. 
"  I  have  had  great  pleasure  in  seeing  James.    He  seems  to  be  under 
the  influence  of  the  truth.    It  is  an  unspeakable  cause  of  thanksgivings 

that  so  many  of  you  have  been  brought  to  the  Lord.    Pray  that 

may  be  made  to  taste  that  He  is  gracious,  so  that  the  whole  may  be 
enabled  to  look  forward  to  a  blessed  meeting  with  your  dear  mother,  and 
with  each  other  in  the  mansions  of  bliss.  The  first,  Catherine,  is,  I  have 
no  doubt,  there  already ;  and,  oh !  what  an  unspeakable  blessing  would  it 
be,  should  we  all,  without  one  being  left,  be  brought  with  joyful  hearts  to 
the  presence  of  Christ,  and  dwell  with  him  for  ever !  Such,  I  trust  in  hit 
love  and  power  and  goodness,  will  be  the  case.  It  is  my  daily  prayer  for 
you  all,  that  you  may  walk  worthy  of  God,  rejoicing  in  his  salvation ;  nor 
do  I  forget  to  mention  your  dear  Emma,  and  little  Anne.  May  all  be 
bound  up  in  the  bundle  of  life  with  the  Lord." 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  death  of  his  eldest  son,  he 
lost  an  infant  boy,  by  his  second  marriage,  Oeorge-Oswald. 
Shortly  afterwards,  his  fifteenth  and  youngest  child  was  bom^ 
whom  he  named  James,  in  memory  of  him  whom  he  had 
lost.  It  was  shortly  after  these  events  that  he  wrote  his 
''Observations  on  Universal  Pardon,  the  Extent  of  the  Atone- 
ment, and  Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation/'  It  is  like  all 
his  writings,  full,  as  it  has  been  said,  ''of  the  marrow  of 
the  Grospel;''  and  the  ability  with  which  the  subject  is  handled 
received  the  approving  testimony  of  one  of  the  ablest  divines. 


674   DR.  m'crie  on  MR.  J.  A.  haldank's  doctrine. 

Dr.  M'Crie  had  received  from  Mr.  Robert  Haldane  a  copy  of  his 
brother's  *' Observations  on  Universal  Pardon/'  and  wrote  on 
the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  he  received  it,  his  "  unqualified 
approbation  of  the  last  part,  respecting  the  assurance  of  personal 
salvation.^'  The  Doctor  observes,  that  he  "  turned  it  up  firsts 
and  could  not  stop  till  he  had  finished  it.''  He  adds,  '^  The  point 
is  of  vast  importance,  both  in  relation  to  the  doctrine  of  grace 
and  practical  religion,  and  I  am  soriy  to  say  it  is  ill  understood 
by  many  of  the  opponents  of  universal  pardon,  both  within  and 
out  of  the  Establishment.''  Dr.  M^Crie  concludes  by  requesting 
Mr.  Robert  Haldane  to  express  to  his  brother  without  delay 
his  "  acknowledgments  for  having  so  much  refreshed  his  spirit," 
and  tio  tell  him,  that  from  the  summing  up  of  the  argument  in 
the  conclusion,  he  has  ^^no  doubt  he  will  be  equally  gratified 
with  the  discussion  of  the  other  topics." 

In  the  following  letter  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  alludes  to  the 
death  of  Rev.  William  Howels,  of  Long-acre,  in  London : — 

«  Edinburgh,  29th  October,  1832. 

^  Mr.  Howels'  death  will  make  a  great  blank,  but  the  Lord  liveth,  and 
is  carrying  on  his  eternal  purpose,  and  everything,  little  or  great,  is  sub- 
servient to  its  accomplishment  Humanly  speaking,  however,  the  death 
of  an  influential  man,  who  opposed  the  heresies  and  errors  of  the  day  so 
steadily,  is  a  great  loss.  The  Lord  has  been  very  merciful  to  this  country ; 
he  has  still  a  goodly  number  of  his  people  here,  and  in  answer  to  their 
prayers,  I  trust  he  will  be  gracious  to  the  land,  although  the  aspect 
of  things  is  not  bright.  We  are  sure  that  the  judgments  which  are 
impending  will  issue  in  good,  in  the  promotion  of  the  glory  of  God,  and 
in  the  salvation  of  his  redeemed,  but  no  one  can  say  how  much  the  people 
of  God  may  be  called  upon  to  sufier.  They  have  been  as  sheep  for  the 
slaughter  under  the  Heathen  Roman  Empire,  under  Mahometanism,  and 
under  the  Papacy,  and  perhaps  they  may  have  to  go  through  a  real  sea 
of  afflictions  under  the  reign  of  Infidelity.  But  it  will  be  short.  Still  we 
know  that  it  shall  be  well  with  the  righteous ;  and  in  the  prospect  of  the 
fierce  anger  of  the  Lord  coming  upon  the  nations,  they  are  exhorted 
to  seek  righteousness,  to  seek  meekness,  yet  they  have  no  security  in 
regard  to  escaping  affliction.  '  It  may  be  ye  shall  be  hid  in  the  day  of 
the  Lord's  anger.'  But,  says  the  apostle,  we  are  always  confident,  knowing 
that  whilst  we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent  from  the  Lord." 

In  1833,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  visited  his  eldest  surviving  son 


DEATH    OF    MR.  AIKMAN.  575 

in  London,  and  as  usual  availed  himself  of  every  opportunity 
that  oflFered  of  preaching  the  Gospel,  both  in  the  great  Metro- 
polis and  the  neighbourhood,  as  well  as  on  board  the  steamer. 
In  particular  he  enjoyed  some  pleasant  intercourse  with  his  old 
associate,  Mr.  John  Campbell,  of  Kingsland,  and  preached  in 
his  pulpit  to  crowded  congregations,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Burder,  at  Hackney,  and  of  the  Rev.  James  H.  Evans, 
in  John-street  Chapel. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1834,  the  following  letter  to 
Mr.  Campbell,  announces  the  death  of  Mr.  Aikman,  who 
was  the  first  called  to  receive  the  reward  of  grace  of  those 
who  in  1797  went  forth  to  proclaim  to  their  fellow-sinners  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ :  — 

"  My  dear  Friend, — I  embrace  the  opportunity  of  ray  son  Robert 
going  to  London  with  his  sister  Catherine,  on  her  way  to  India,  to  write 
you  a  few  lines,  and  to  thank  you,  in  Mrs.  Haldane's  name,  for  your  little 
book,  which  she  received  with  much  pleasure,  both  as  coming  from  you, 
and  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  value.  I  have  also  to  communicate  to  you 
what  you  will  have  heard  probably  before  this  reaches  you,  that  our  old 
friend  John  Aikman  fell  asleep  in  Jesus  last  night  at  seven  o'clock.  You 
know  he  was  very  ill  when  he  was  in  England,  and  his  health  did  not 
improve  after  his  return.  About  three  weeks  or  a  month  ago  he  was 
seized  with  breathlessness,  which  he  never  had  had  before.  I  saw  him 
after  it  came  on,  and  he  considered  it  to  proceed  from  asthma.  However, 
it  rapidly  grew  worse,  and  his  nights  were  very  painful.  Having  heard 
that  he  had  become  much  worse,  I  called,  and  saw  him  on  a  sofa  in  the 
dining-room,  where  his  bed  had  been  removed.  He  was  very  weak,  and 
spoke  with  difficulty.  The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  two  days  afterwards, 
when  he  was  in  bed  and  very  feeble.  I  said,  I  hoped  the  Lord  was 
with  him.  He  replied,  he  had  every  reason  to  trust  him,  and  repeated 
Ps.  cxix.  92 :  *  Unless  thy  law  had  been  my  delights,  I  should  then  have 
perished  in  mine  affliction.'  He  was  very  weak,  and  it  was  a  great  exer- 
tion to  speak.  I  never  saw  him  again.  His  mind  afterwards  wandered  a 
good  deal.  I  understand  he  sent  for  Mrs.  Aikman  yesterday  morning, 
and  took  leave  of  her,  and  prayed.  He  has  been  a  very  consistent 
character,  and  will  be  much  missed.  But  his  work  is  done,  and  he  is 
now,  I  doubt  not,  with  the  Lord.  It  is  a  very  long  time  since  we  used  to 
meet  together  in  Mr.  Black's,  but  if  the  night  is  far  spent,  and  the  day 
is  at  hand,  we  have  no  reason  to  sorrow  for  the  lapse  of  time.  Mrs.  Hal- 
dane  unites  in  kind  love  to  you  and  Mrs.  CampbelL    All  my  family  join 


570  DEATH    OF   MR.  AIKMAN. 

ua.    Catherine  is  just  going  to  her  sister,  Mrs.  Eckibrd,  in  India.    Pnj 
ftwr  her.  **  Yours  yery  truly, 

'*  J.  A.  Haldake. 

**  I  do  not  know  if  you  will  see  Catherine,  ai  her  stay  is  to  be  ao  short, 
but  her  sister  Margaret  and  Kobert,  I  hope,  will  see  you.'' 

Mr.  Kinniburgh^  in  his  '' Historical  Survey^''   thus  notioet 

Mr.  Aiknian's  departure : — 

**  Mr.  .\ikman  died  on  the  6th  of  February,  1934,  in  the  aixty-fotirth 
year  of  his  age,  and  thirty-seventh  of  his  ministry.  On  the  Idtb  he  was 
buritnl  under  the  communion-table  of  the  chapel,  which  he  had  buih. 
Mr.  Jamen  Hiildane,  at  the  request  of  the  Church  and  the  reladTea  of  the 
dtH^eiUHiHi,  delivered  on  the  occasion,  from  1  Thess.  iv.  13—18,  an  able, 
aolomn,  and  scriptural  address  to  the  large  company  and  congregation  of 
mournon.  in  the  course  of  which  he  bore  a  just  and  honourable  testimony 
to  the  faithfVil  companion  of  his  early  labours,  and  which  was  heard  with 
th<»  div)H'«t  attention  by  all  present** 

It  \xn»  tho  first  time  Mr.  J.  Haldane  had  preached  in  that 
rhaiH"!  ainct'  the  period  of  the  disruption  of  the  original 
(Muiivhc»,  But  it  was  honourable  both  to  him  and  Mr. 
Aiktuat^  that  nothing  had  occurred  to  interrupt  the  harmony 
of  thoir  Christian  friendship.  The  substance  of  the  account 
which  Mr.  J.  Haldane  delivered  at  his  funeral  was  published  in 
tho  **  Qtiartrriy  Christian  Magaiine/'  which^  daring  the  three 
Vt>ara  of  its  existence^  was  conducted  by  him^  and  contained 
luanv  interesting  and  valuable  papers.  The  narrative  thus 
ciuicUules : — 

*'  'I1iu«  has  our  departed  brother  finished  his  course.  Through  grace 
he  kept  the  (kith,  and  during  upwards  of  forty  years  maintained  an 
unblemishetl  |u^^l<«iuon  of  the  truth.  Few  men  appeared  to  live  more 
habituaUv  under  its  influence,  or  more  steadilv  to  view  the  hand  of  Ood 
in  all  things,  lie  was  an  acceptable  preacher,  and  firmly  maintained  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  He  had  a  natural  aptitude  for  the  aoqui> 
aitiiui  of  languages,  and  having  been  accustomed  to  speak  French  in  the 
West  Indies,  he  was  for  some  time  engaged  in  preaching  weddy  to  the 
French  prisi>ner»  at  Pennycuik.  He  was,  indeed,  ready  to  every  good 
Wixrk,  and  his  lo«s  will  be  much  felt.* 

He  was  the  fir^t  to  be  removed  of  those  who  went  forth 
in  17t)7  to  the  highways  and  hedges  to  proclaim  the  nnsearch- 


DEAJH    OP    ROWLAND    HILL.  677 

able  riches  of  Christ.  Mr.  Campbell  himself  survived  six  years 
longer.  Mr.  Rate  followed  next^  and  last  of  all^  Mr.  James 
Haldane.  Rowland  Hill  died  in  the  year  preceding  Mr.  Aik- 
man^  but  his  first  mission  to  Scotland  was  a  year  after  the 
itinerancy  to  the  north,  in  1797.  The  following  is  an  extract 
from  a  letter^  dated  23d  April,  1833,  referring  to  Mr.  HiU^s 
death : — 

"  Rowland  Hill  has  finished  his  course.  His  life  has  been  very  long, 
and  he  has  maintained  a  most  consistent  character.  Everything  here  is 
fleeting  and  transitory.  The  vanity  to  which  all  things  are  subjected  is 
modified  by  circumstances,  and  assumes  various  appearances,  but  still  it 
is  but  vanity.  Creation  is  travailing  in  pain  for  that  glorious  day  when 
the  mystery  of  God  shall  be  finished,  when  his  children  shall  be  mani- 
fested, and  his  righteous  judgment  revealed.  The  cloud  now  spread  over 
creation  by  the  introduction  of  sin  will  then  be  dispersed,  or  rather,  it 
will  form  the  shade  which  shall  give  prominence  to  the  picture.  It  will 
no  longer  appear  a  blot  upon  the  Divine  workmanship,  but  will  be  seen 
to  have  been  the  occasion  of  the  grandest  display  of  the  wisdom,  power, 
and  goodness  of  God,  and,  consequently,  to  have  in  the  highest  degree 
advanced  the  happiness  of  all  his  obedient  creatures.  Satan  had  estab- 
lished a  kingdom  whose  foundations  appeared  immoveable.  Mankind 
had  come  under  the  curse,  and  the  immutability,  as  well  as  the  truth  and 
justice  of  God,  seemed  to  preclude  the  possibility  pf  its  reversal;  but 
Satan  was  taken  in  his  own  snare,  his  usurpation  was  overturned,  and  he 
himself  made  the  unwilling  instrument  of  exhibiting  the  manifold  wisdom 
of  God.  The  angels  now  desire  to  look  into  the  mystery  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, but  then  the  curtain  will  rise,  and  the  glory  of  the  consummated 
plan  of  redemption,  in  all  its  unrivalled  splendour,  will  burst  upon  the 
universe.    May  we  live  under  the  influence  of  this  animating  prospect ! 

"  Give  my  kindest  love  to  Emma  and  the  children.  I  hope  no  plague 
will  be  permitted  to  come  nigh  your  dwelling.  Mrs.  H.,  and  all  here, 
unite  in  kindest  love  to  you  and  yours. 

**  Most  afiectionately  yours, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 


p  ? 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

MR.  HALDANS  PUBLISHES  AN  ENLARGED  M)mON  OF  HIS 
"  EVIDENCES  "—ANECDOTE  OF  DAVID  HUME'S  DSATHBED 
--ANECDOTE  OF  ADAM  SMITH— PUBLICATION  OF  «  EXPO- 
SITION OF  ROMANS"— DB.  CHALBiERS*  OPINION  OF  THE 
WORK— LETTERS  TO  DR.  JOHN  BROWN  ON  HIS  REFUSAL 
TO  PAT  THE  ANNUITY-TAX— LETTER  TO  MR.  MACAHLAY 
ON  HIS  SPEECH  ON  THE  BALLOT  —  LETTER  TO  THE 
"EDINBURGH  CHRISTIAN  INSTRUCTOR "  — COMMENCES 
mS  LAST  LABOUR. 

[1834—1840.] 

It  wbb  one  charaeteristic  of  Robert  HaUbne  that  he  seldom  did 
anything  in  haste^  and  never  attempted  to  effect  two  objects  at 
the  same  time.  This  was  the  more  remarkable  on  account  of 
the  energy  with  whidi  he  pushed  forward  atty  design  up<m 
which  be  had  fully  and  finally  decided.  His  plans  were  seldom 
formed  without  mtich  deliberation^  but^  when  once  resohed, 
nothing  stopped  him.  Re  ^'  spared  no  arrows/^  and  it  might 
be  said^  that  whatever  his  hand  was  put  unto^  ^'  he  did  it  with 
all  his  might.^^  His  work  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity 
was  first  published  in  1816.  Soon  after  his  return  from  the 
Cofntinent  a  second  edition  was  called  for^  bat  ^' other  engage- 
ments/' as  mentioned  in  his  piefi&ce^  interfered.  These  engage- 
ments were  the  discussions  connected  with  the  Bible  Society^ 
and  the  defence  of  the  canon^  so  that  it  was  not  till  1834  that 
the  second  edition  appeared.  The  enlargements  were  truly 
valuable.     Several  new  chapters  were  added.*     The  introduc- 

•  The  following  contains  the  table  of  contents  of  the  Third  Edition : — 
"  The  Evidence   and  Authority  of  Divine  Revelation."     By  Robert 
Haldane,  Esq.    In  two  vols.     Pages  1026.    Third  Edition,  price  12«. 

"  Heads  of  Chapters : — 
"  VoL  I. — 1.  Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation.    2.  Persecuting  Spirit 


ENLARGED    EDITION    OF    THE    "EVIDENCES.  579 

tion  was  remodelled,  and  "the  conclusion"  expanded  into 
three  chapters,  under  the  titles  of  "  the  Gospel/'  '^  the  various 
Effects  of  the  Gospel/'  and  "  the  State  of  the  Heathen  World 
without  the  Gospel/'  If  the  new  edition  had  contained  nothing 
besides  the  full  and  striking  view  of  the  doctrines  of  grace  there 
exhibited,  it  would  have  been  more  than  wcnrth  all  his  addi- 
tional labour. 

As  an  appendix,  there  are  subjoined  some  learned  authorities 
in  favour  of  the  plenary  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scripture. 
Many  of  these  were  furnished  by  his  friend,  the  learned  Pro- 
fessor Faxton,  of  Edinburgh,  who  was  desirous  to  rebuke  the 
ignorance  of  those  who  spoke  of  it  as  a  novel  doctrine.  But 
whilst  Mr.  Haldane  admits  this  list  of  witnesses  in  favour  of 
plenary  inspiration,  he  carefully  explains,  that  "they  are  not 
given  in  the  way  of  authority,"  none  being  admissible  on  such 
a  subject  except  that  of  the  Bible  itself. 

There  is  a  chapter,  also,  embracing  a  branch  of  evidence 
with  reference  to  the  truth  of  Scripture,  which  had  been  almost 
entirely  overlooked.  It  relates  to  the  harmonies  of  times  and 
the  coincidence  of  events,  many  of  which,  as  collected  by  the 
celebrated  French  Protestant,  Jean  Despague,  •are  certainly  very 
remarkable.  But  it  is  a  subject  that  requires  to  be  handled 
with  great  caution,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  one  so  little 
disposed  as  Mr.  Haldane  to  indulge  in  what  is  fanciful,  should, 

of  Paganism.  3.  Credibility  of  Miracles.  4.  Canon  of  the  Scriptures. 
5.  Their  Genuineness  and  Authenticity.  6.  Their  Inspiration.  7.  History 
of  the  Old  Testament.    8.  Miracles.    9.  Tvks.     10.  Prophecies. 

"  VoL  II. — 1.  Review  of  the  Evidence  from  History,  Miracles,  Types, 
and  Prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament.  2.  Expectation  of  the  Messiah. 
3.  Appearance  of  the  Messiah.  4.  Testimony  of  the  Apostles.  5.  Testi- 
mony of  the  first  Christians.  6.  No  Contradictory  Testimony.  7.  Admis- 
sions of  Opposers.  8.  Testimony  of  Jewish  and  Heathen  Historians,  and 
Public  Edicts  of  Roman  Government  9.  From  Tradition.  10.  From 
Success  of  the  Gospel.  11.  From  the  Opposition  it  has  encountered. 
12.  Prophecies  at  present  Fulfilling.  13.  Evidence  from  Chronological 
Harmonies,  and  remarkable  Coincidences  in  Scripture.  14.  Gospel.  15. 
Various  effects  produced  by  the  GospeL  16.  Internal  Evidence  of  the 
Scriptures.    Conclusion." 

p  p  2 


r^^  vmi   xJ^    ujuirvf^ 


sjuni  cditini 
be  denied, 


Vjia  u:  TEST  «r  niwn  ti  ^wrrm  m.  -ait  ErufaxxsL  Ik  ore- 
Tul'*  T^Tatt  «"«*aL  if  Tic  iiii«"  rmntfn:  ^Hfftn»r  -wgekx^  faaaoh 

i  *  KiiaL  Till  L ^'  jni£  fiTJihc'i  Tw^mI^I 
:^-*riinixui!Tiiiiiif'  ^lua.  3k-  lEsnes  heme  to 
R  «rricmr  ^  Amps  mc  Iter^f  H7]^H^  as  u 
-EBomie  ET  "ae  iiil^  if  iwam^  3-3miil  %cvTm£  is»  li  f  iijimh 
urmms.   ■xit  iRasrmir  'Sk    ainiijnB>  fnmnm^  ^  ^  darkened 

-voiuit. '   «^  ^uhk,    '  jf>  &  ^uubf.   hi  -»!■»■■■■■.    «&  iacnlicabk 

'ziti  iiiL*T  ys»ut  It  rar  3umc  anrraos  -ibi"!!!.!!-*  ctaBeeesiiie  thb 
taniKgTL '  jz  js^  k  m^aEOiShiir  mntwaiinu  imc  caunudk  to  Ami 
rnut  iiy  if  Bxy  nnnim"  .r  TTinirmc  suiiL     Box:  Hcbm^s  fiiendi 

cnnxmini  nmi  ujn  ^ai^  i^'jc  nKkseak.*^  3ifc  <izlr  wkfcoot  fear, 
be  accishtT  -rxi  smfiTT.  T!u»  -vn»  ^  -xaxasKGr  of  Adam 
Satii.  Tie  Hiciiir  :f  Tai*  •*  Tifticy  re  MnriL  SattiSKats^*'  wbo 
ajsc  «:c.^a&Era£  Hxiiiif  ^  a»  BorracLux  as  anrh-  to  ibe  idea  of 
a  ^naittzrr  wst  cxii  T-jrriiiiis  3bbl  ssw  ^iahas«w  tike  natmr  cf 
k-TTair  ixInT  wIL  r«Entn-~  Wisi  A.iiaL  SucL  thus  wrote, 
he  karsr  taa:  H^z^  ^ai  iz.  ks  I3eci=De  pab&bed  an  essav 
fiDdxatisz  s^ixide.  wiLikc  ia  the  ccrrespeodaMe,  published 
BDee  hi»  deazh,  be  ii||^  (XiiT  j^x«c:ifs.  bvi  ewn  eomnicnda 
adnherr.  Had  the  psccnre  drawn  ot  the  last  days  of  the  dying 
phikiaopbcr  been  a  true  one.  h  wocld  still  have  been  nnspeak- 
abhr  melancholr,  and  it  manen  Uctk  to  the  &ith  o(  the  true 
Chmtian  hoir  an  nnbelierer  dies.  Mr.  Haldane  has,  however, 
itated  enoo^  to  throir  some  doabc  upon  these  representations. 
The  authority  for  his  statements  is  not  mentioned,  but  it  was  his 
neighbour  in  the  country,  Mr.  Abercromby,  of  Tullibody.  He 
detaik  are  curious  and  worth  preserving.  It  happened  in  the 
autumn  of  1776,  very  shortly  after  Mr.  Hume's  death,  that  Mr. 


htjme's  death-bed.  631 

Abercromby  was  travelling  to  Haddington  with  two  other  friends, 
in  one  of  those  old-fashioned  stage-coaches  which  Sir  Walter 
Scott  has  so  graphically  described  at  the  commencement  of  the 
*^  Antiquary."  The  conversation  during  the  tedious  journey 
turned  on  the  death-bed  of  the  great  philosopher,  and  as  Mr. 
Abercromby^s  son-in-law,  Colonel  Edmonstone,  of  Newton,  was 
one  of  Hume^s  intimate  friends,  he  had  heard  from  him  much 
of  the  buoyant  cheerfulness  which  had  enlivened  the  sick  room 
of  the  dying  man.  Whilst  the  conversation  was  running  on  in 
this  strain,  a  respectable-looking  female  dressed  in  black,  who 
made  a  fourth  in  the  coach,  begged  permission  to  offer  a  remark. 
''  Gentlemen,''  she  said,  "  I  attended  Mr.  Hume  on  his  death- 
bed, but  I  can  assure  you  I  hope  never  again  to  attend  the 
death-bed  of  a  philosopher"  They  then  cross-examined  her  as 
to  her  meaning,  and  she  told  them,  that  when  his  friends  were 
with  him,  Mr.  Hume  was  cheerful  even  to  frivolity,  but  that 
when  alone  he  was  often  overwhelmed  with  unutterable  gloom, 
aud  had,  in  his  hours  of  depression,  declared  that  he  had  been 
in  search  of  light  all  his  life,  but  was  now  in  greater  darkness 
than  ever.  The  anecdote  has  been  told  by  those  who  probably 
had  it  from  some  of  the  other  travellers.  Mr.  Haldane's  version 
is  substantially  the  same,  and  Mrs.  Joass  often  repeated  the 
circimistances  as  related  by  her  venerable  father. 

Other  testimonies  indicate  that  the  philosopher's  own  friends 
did  not  themselves  possess  that  confidence  which  they  attri- 
buted to  their  hero  on  his  death-bed.  One  of  those  anecdotes 
which  rendered  Mr.  Haldane's  convgsation  so  interesting,  and 
which  generally  depended  on  originar  and  authentic  informa- 
tion,  related  to  Adam  Smith.  It  was  one  fully  believed  by  those 
who  knew  the  political  economist.  Speculating  as  to  ''the 
great  darkness,''  the  philosopher,  at  the  request  of  Adam 
Smith — a  request  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Strachan's  pub- 
Ushcd  letter — promised,  if  it  were  in  his  power,  to  meet  his 
friend  in  the  shady  avenue  of  "  the  Meadows,"  behind  George- 
square,  and  "  tell  the  secrets  of  the  world  unknown."  Probably 
the  promise  was  made  and  received  during  the  last  days  of 
David  Hume,  with  the  same  levity  as  the  conversation  which 


582  EXPOSITION    OF   ROMANS. 

Adam  Smith  has  actually  recorded  about  Charon  and  his  boat 
But  such  was  its  effect  on  the  author  of  the  ^^  Theory  of  Honl 
Sentiments''  and  the  '*  Wealth  of  Nations^''  that  no  persuaaaa 
would  induce  him  to  walk  in  the  meadows  after  sunset. 

No  sooner  had  Mr.  Haldane  published  the  second  editioD  <rf 
his  '^  Evidences/'  than  he  bent  all  his  energies  to  the  comple- 
tion of  his  great  work^  '*  The  Exposition  of  the  Epist]^  to  tlie 
Bomans/'     Upon  this  he  had  been  more  or  less  engaged  for 
nearly  thirty  years.     Its  doctrines  had,  at  once^  taught  him  the 
sovereignty  of  (jod^  the  corruption  of  num^  and  the  perfection 
of  that  righteousness^  which  is  provided  and  appointed  for  the 
salvation  of  believers.     When  Mr.  Haldane  went  to   Genera, 
he  had  selected  this  portion  of  Scripture,  as  furnishing  the 
most  systematic  view  of  Christian  doctrine,  in  opposition  to  the 
Pelagian^    Arian,   and   Neologian   heresies   of  the    Y^ieraUe 
Company.     In  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Ualdane's  proceedings  st 
Geneva^  some  account  has  been  given  of  the  manner  in  whidi 
he  there  laboured  in  the  Exposition  of  the  Romans.      He  did 
the  same  during  two  years  at  Montauban,  where  he  published 
a  Commentary,  of  which  two  thousand  copies  have  been  circu- 
lated in  France.     It  contained  a  variety  of  interesting  doctrinal 
disquisitions  suitable  to  the  low  state  of  reUgious  knowledge  in 
France,  and  arising  out  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Epistle,  but 
not  necessarily  connected  with  it.      He  also  Claused  it  to  be 
translated  into  German,  and  a  large  edition  was  printed  in  that 
country.     But  the  more  he  sounded  the  depths  of  that  portion 
of  the  Word  of  Grod,  the  more  he  discovered  of  its  unfathom- 
able riches :  and,  before  publishing  his  Commentary  in  English, 
he  determined  to  obtain  all  the  additional  light  in  his  power, 
for   the    elucidation    of    the    general   purport    and    minutest 
words   of  this  remarkable  Epistle.     With  this  view  he  read 
and  weighed  every  Commentary,  ancient  and  modem,  whether 
in   Latin,  French,   or  English,   which  threw  light  upon  the 
subject,  comparing  one  with  another,  and  pondering  all  with 
much  of  meditation  and  prayer  for  the  illuminating  influences 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.     In  the  next  place,  he  made  the  Romans 
the  subject  of  a  succession  of  evening  lectures  on  the  Ijord's- 


MR.  HALDAN£   AS   AN    SXPOSITOE.  583 

days^  to  his  brother's  congregation,  and  continaed  them,  at 
intervals,  for  two  or  three  years.  They  were  listened  to  with 
great  interest,  and  were  frequently  attended  by  some  of  the 
most  eminent  ministers,  and  literary  or  metaphysical  professors. 
Each  lecture  or  exposition  was  the  fruit  of  intense  study,  and 
when  he  went  to  the  country,  the  same  portions  of  Scripture 
were  frequently  again  selected  for  a  different  congregation.  His 
friends  eagerly  pressed  him  to  publish  an  exposition,  whidi 
seemed  to  them  so  fully  matured,  but  he  still  sought  new  light 
on  every  passage  that  was  either  dark  or  doubtful.  With  refer- 
ence to  what,  in  the  jarg(m  of  German  pedantry,  is  termed  the 
Hermaneutics  and  exegesis,  or  what,  in  plain  English,  may  be 
called  critical  interpretation  of  the  language  of  the  Epistle,  he 
knew  his  own  deficiency  in  the  higher  branches  of  Greek  scholar- 
ship, and  he  was  rejoiced  to  have,  in  Dr.  Carson,  a  philologist 
and  critic  of  the  highest  character,  whose  views  of  doctrine  were 
truly  scriptural.  He,  therefore,  invited  Dr.  Carson's  counsel  on 
those  points  where  his  philology  and  critical  skill  were  calculated 
to  throw  light  on  the  Epistle,  and  he  found  his  assistance  very 
useful.  There  was  no  man  who  ever  had  a  happier  art  of  laying 
under  tribute,  for  objects  which  he  deemed  important,  the 
talents  and  learning  of  other  men.  Never  sparing"  himself,  he 
was  as  little  careful  about  sparing  trouble  to  his  friends.  None 
who  enjoyed  his  intimacy  were  allowed  to  leave  any  talent  they 
possessed  imemployed.  He  was  either  pointing  out  fields  which 
they  might  occupy  themselves,  or  matters  in  which  they  might 
co-operate  with  himself.  He  lived  as  the  servant  of  Christ,  and 
he  frequently  warned  others  of  the  danger  of  Uding  their 
Lord's  mcmey.  But  in  regard  to  smy  aid  which  he  sought  or 
obtained  in  the  elaboration  of  his  writings,  such  was  his  discri- 
mination and  independence  of  thought,  such  the  force  of  his 
master  mind,  that  whatever  aid  he  thus  borrowed,  he  was  enabled 
to  assimilate  so  as  to  make  it  substantially  his  own.  ^Not 
used,''  ''to  be  considered,"  "to  be  returned,"  ''partly  used," 
or  "adopted,"  were  endorsements  on  papers,  which  were  &«:»• 
nished,  at  his  request,  by  Dr.  Carson,  and  a  few  learned  divines. 


584  CHARACTER   OF    HIS    EXPOSITION. 

With  his  brother  and  another  relation  he  conversed  and  oorres- 
ponded  as  to  every  part  of  the  work,  in  all  its  stages^  first  when 
in  manuscript,  and  afterwards  in  its  passage  through  the  press. 
In  regard  to  all  his  counsellors  he  consulted  them  as  he  would 
a  dictionary  or  a  commentator,  and  adopted,  modified,  or  rejected 
their  suggestions,  with  the  confidence  of  one,  who  was  at  home 
in  his  subject,  and  stood  in  need  of  no  foreign  aid.  Hia  own 
words  in  his  preface  run  thus : — 

**  In  the  following  exposition,  I  have  availed  myself  of  all  the  assistance 
I  could  obtain,  from  whatever  quarter.  Especially,  I  have  made  use  of 
everything  that  appeared  to  be  most  valuable  in  the  Commentary  of 
Claude,  which  terminates  at  the  twenty- first  verse  of  the  third  chapter. 
I  have  also  had  the  advantage  of  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Carson,  whose 
profound  knowledge  of  the  original,  and  critical  discernment,  peculiarly 
qualify  him  for  rendering  effectual  aid  in  such  a  work." 

His  object  was  not  fame,  but  usefulness.  Hence,  notwith- 
standing the  value  he  attached  to  minute  criticisms,  they  were 
for  the  most  part  laid  aside  in  his  publications,  where  there  is 
little  of  critical  or  philological  learning,  except  the  results.  These 
results  were,  however,  most  valuable,  whilst  he  himself  sticks 
close  to  the  text,  and  makes  it  his  business,  by  means  of -all 
the  aids  within  his  reach,  and  by  the  exercise  of  his  own  judg- 
ment, to  bring  out  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle  with  fulness  and 
precision.  In  him,  as  it  has  been  said  of  Calvin,  there  was 
found  "  the  exemplary  union  of  a  severe  masculine  understand- 
ing, with  a  profound  insight  into  the  spiritual  depths  of  the 
Scriptures.^'  Hence  his  writings  are  particularly  calculated  to 
be  useful  in  counteracting  the  erroneous  tendencies  of  an  age, 
w^hen,  on  the  one  hand,  we  are  threatened  with  an  inundation 
of  Romanizing  and  Patristic  mysticism;  and,  on  the  other,  by 
the  still  more  dangerous  Rationalism,  which  seeks  to  erect  a 
tower  by  which  men  shall  scale  the  heavens,  without  being 
compelled  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  as  little  children. 

The  ^'Exposition  of  the  Romans''  was  published  in  three 
volumes.  The  first,  containing  five  chapters,  appeared  in  1B35, 
and  he  Uved  to  see  it,  within  seven  years,  in  a  fifth  edition. 


CHARACTER   OF    HIS    EXPOSITION.  585 

The  second  volume  came  out  in  1837,  and  the  third  in  1839. 

Each  edition  of  this  and  every  succeeding  volume  underwent  a 

careful  and  laborious  revision. 

The   "Presbyterian  Review,"  in  an  able  article,  in  1840, 

observes : — 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and  useful 
expositions  of  one  of  the  most  difficult  portions  of  Scripture,  has  Mr.  R. 
Haldane,  a  layman,  for  its  author — and  that  one  of  the  most  copious  and 
not  least  satisfactory  treatises  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity  proceeded 
from  the  same  able  hand." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Halley,  whose  early  death,  closed  a  brief 
career  of  bright  promise  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  was  the 
author  of  another  and  elaborate  review  of  the  first  volume  of  the 
Exposition  in  the  same  journal.     The  following  is  an  extract : — 

**  We  took  up  this  volume  with  no  ordinary  expectations.  Its  author's 
works  on  the  Evidence  of  Christianity  and  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
have  proved  him  to  be  so  able  a  maintainer  and  defender  of  the  truth,  and 
have  been  so  distinguished  for  comprehensive  and  vigorous  thinking, 
that  an  announcement  of  a  comment  on  Romans,  from  his  pen  was 
identified  in  our  mind  with  the  promise  of  a  bold  and  successful  vindica- 
tion of  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  Our  anticipations  have  been 
more  than  realized.  There  is,  in  this  Exposition,  all  his  usual  simplicity 
and  terseness  of  statement,  and  all  his  usual  firmness  and  faithfulness  of 
adherence  to  Evangelical  doctrine,  with  even  more  than  his  usual  grasp 
and  compass  of  thought.  Occasioned  principally  by  the  republication  in 
this  country,  under  high  auspices,  of  Professor  Stuart's  work  on  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  it  has  especial  reference  to  the  errors  of  that  calm  and 
unimpassioned,  but  inaccurate  and  dangerous  writer :  while  it  contains 
many  most  just  and  useful  animadversions  on  the  subdued  Neology  of 
Tholuck,  and  the  frigid  criticism  and  strange  perversions  of  Macknight. 
On  all  the  topics  of  great  and  fundamental  moment,  which  meet  us  in  the 
first  five  chapters  of  the  Epistle,  it  presents  us  with  the  largest  and  loftiest 
views.  It  holds  forth  the  genuine  doctrines  of  grace  in  their  due  promin- 
ence, and  unfolds,  with  singular  beauty  and  effect,  the  way  in  which  every 
part  of  the  Divine  dealings  with  man  contributes  to  their  illustration. 
And  although,  being  chiefly  intended  as  a  counteractive  to  doctrinal 
errors,  and  being  founded  on  a  purely  doctrinal  part  of  the  Epistle,  its 
main  character  is  that  of  a  work  in  dogmatic  theology, — still  Mr.  Haldane 
has  never  fallen  into  the  too  common  mistake  that,  in  order  to  be  rational, 
we  must  be  cold — that,  in  order  rightly  to  investigate,  we  must  cease  to 
feel — that,  in  order  to  ascertain  what  the  mystery  of  Christ  imports,  we 


586  DB.  CHALMSRS'S   OPINION. 

most  set  a«ide,  lor  a  time,  its  warm  and  living  influence  on  the  actiTe 
principles  of  the  inner  man.    On  the  contrary,  amid  much  of  dear  and 
toimd  statement,  of  acute  analysis,  and  of  strong  and  energetic  contro- 
Yersial  writing,   we  meet,   not  unfrequently,    with    profound    practical 
iiemarks,  with  glowing  and  ardent  descriptions  of  Oospe!  blessings,  with 
those  gentle  breathings  of  sweetness,  which  show  how  fragrant  to  iJle 
mind  of  the  writer  is  the  message  of  mercy  which  is  engaging  hia  medita- 
tions.   .  .  .    Although  we  love  philology  in  itB  own  place,  we  can  imagine 
nothing  more  refreshing  than,  after  being  engaged  for  a  time  on  the  dry 
discussions  of  Tholu^,  or  the  still  more  sterile  pages  of  Stuart,  to  turn  to 
the  rich  and  fertile  veins  of  thought  which  are  opened  up  in  the  ¥okimet 
of  Calvin  and  Haldane.    ...    Of  the  learning  which  appears  in  Stuart 
and  Tholuck,  it  (Mr.  Haldane*s  work)  embodies  the  resuhs,  while  it  wants 
the  ostentation.    In  ingenuity,  it  is  equal  to  Turvetiae;  in  theological 
accmracy,  superior.    Equally  sound  with  Brown  of  Wamphray,  it  haa  none 
of  its  wearisomeness.    It  ii  at  least  as  judicious  as  Scott ;  and  more  terse, 
pointed,  and  discursive.    The  only  Commentary  of  Romans  that  we  have 
read  which  it  does  not  excel,  is  that  of  Calvin.    Had  Melancthon  been 
less  scholastic,  and  on  some  points  more  decided,  his  comment,  with  its 
noble  prolegomena,  might  have  held  as  high  a  place  as  any.    But  as  the 
case  is,  Calvin  and  Haldane  stand  alone—  the  possessors,  as  expositors  of 
this  Epistle,  of  nearly  equal  honours.     .  .  .    The  two,  taken  together, 
will  come  near  our  conception  of  a  perfect  commentary ;  and  the  reader, 
who  wishes  completely  to  master  the  doctrine  of  justification  as  developed 
by  Paul,  we  strongly  recommend  to  study  them  both." 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  the  first  volume^  in  December, 
1835,  he  sent  a  copy,  together  with  his  "  Evidences/^  to  Dr. 
Chalmers.     The  following  is  his  reply : — 

**  My  dear  Sib, — I  return  you  my  best  thanks  for  the  much- valued 
present  of  your  works,  which  I  very  highly  esteem,  and  for  nothing  more 
than  the  noble  stand  you  have  made  at  aU  times  for  the  purity  and  fulness 
of  Divine  truth.    Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  &c., 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  RohL  Haldane,  Esq,** 

Dr.  Chalmers  styled  it  **  a  well-built  commentary/^  and 
strongly  recommended  it  to  the  students  of  theology.  In  hia 
Sabbath  Readings/'  for  1836,  under  date  June  12,  he  writes : 
I  am  reading  Haldane's  'Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans/  and  find  it  solid  and  congenial  food."  He  also 
specially  acknowledged  the  light  be  had  himself  obtained  from 
the  exposition  of  the  fifth  chapter,  with  reference  to  ^'  the  two 


u 
tt 


MACKNIQHT,  STUART,  AND  THOLUCK.      687 

Adams/'  who  are  there  contrasted^  and  intimated  that  he  intended, 
when  opportunity  occurred,  to  give  publicity  to  the  fact.  Other 
testimonies  to  the  value  of  the  ''  Exposition ''  were  borne  by  some 
of  the  ablest  divines,  suck  as  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Cooke,  of  Belfast,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Duff.  In  England  the  Rev. 
J.  Harington  Evans  characterized  it  as  '^  a  rich  kgacy  to  the 
Church  of  Christ ; ''  and  the  late  venerable  Mr.  Biddulph,  of 
Bristol,  '*  blessed  God  that  he  had  lived  to  see  so  faithful  a 
development  of  Christian  doctrine.^'  The  Rev.  Dr.  Duff,  before 
leaving  Britain  for  the  scene  of  his  noble  warfare  in  India,  thus 
closes  a  letter  to  Mr.  Haldane : — 

*<  It  has  long  been  an  ardent  wish  on  my  part,  that  I  might  be 
privileged  with  the  pleasure  and  the  profit  of  an  interview  with  one 
whom  I  sincerely  admire  and  esteem  and  love  as  a  father  in  Christ ;  and 
if  the  Lord  will,  I  trust  that  privilege  and  profit  is  yet  in  store  for  me 
before  I  finally  quit  these  shores. 

**  Tours,  most  sincerely  and  gratefully, 

"  Alkcandee  Duff." 

In  the  course  of  the  ''Exposition'^  Mr.  Haldane  specially 
called  attention  to  the  grievous  errors  of  three  other  commen- 
tators, namely,  Macknight,  Moses  Stuart,  and  Tholuck;  the 
first  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  the  second  an  American  Independ- 
ent, and  the  third  a  German  Lutheran.  With  reference  to 
Macknight,  he  was  an  able  critic,  but  evidently  neither  intel- 
lectually knew,  nor  experimentally  felt,  the  truths  about  which 
he  was  occupied.  It  is  not,  then,  wonderful  that  ''audaciouA 
heterodoxy,'^  as  has  been  justly  said,  should  pervade  hifl  works. 
Professor  Moses  Stuart,  in  his  ''  Commentary  on  the  Romans,'' 
disclaimed  ''a  sermonizing  commentary;"  but  Mr.  Haldane 
observes, — "There  is  no  complaint  with  respect  to  the  pro- 
priety of  confining  himself  to  the  work  of  a  critic  and  translator. 
The  complaint  is,  that,  by  false  criticism,  he  has  misrepresented 
the  Divine  testimony  in  some  of  the  most  momentous  points  in 
the  scheme  of  Christianity."  In  an  i^pendix  to  his  third 
volume,  Mr.  Haldane  points  out  consecutively  the  great  and 
fundamental  errors  of  this  Professor,  and  yet  there  was  a  time 
when,  even  evangelical  divines,  attracted  by  the  appearance  of 


588  PROFESSOR   THOLUCK. 

critical  research^  had  been  induced  to  recommeDd  his  writingi. 
A  late  admirable  clergj'man^  the  Rev.  Francis  Goode,  ackiiow- 
ledged  his  obligations  to  Mr.  Haldane,  for  having  caDed  his 
attention  to  the  dangers  of  a  commentary  which  he  had  himaeH 
been  induced  to  recommend^  in  consequence  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  had  been  reviewed. 

Next  to  Moses  Stuart  comes  Professor  Tholuck^  of  HaDe, 
who  at  one  time  obtained  considerable  credit  by  his  exposure  of 
the  Pantheism  of  Strauss  and  other  German  Infidels.  But  his 
own  views,  as  to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Scriptures^  were 
lamentably  deficient ;  and  the  want  of  reverence  for  the  written 
Word  totally  unfitted  him  for  the  office  of  its  interpreter.  In 
fact,  his  writings  abound  with  false  doctrine  and  startling 
Neology,  as  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  another  appendix  to 
Mr.  Haldane's  "  Exposition." 

With  regard  to  Tholuck,  he  was  induced  to  publish  two 
successive  and  elaborate  pamphlets,  the  one  ^'  For  the  Consider- 
ation of  the  Church  of  Scotland,"  and  the  other,  "  Further 
Considerations,"  &c.  The  first  of  these  pamphlets  was  occa- 
sioned by  the  translation  into  English  of  Tholuck's  commentary^ 

i  by  the  Rev.  W.  Menzies,  a  minister  of  the  Scottish  Church. 

The  second  was  a  rejoinder  to  that  gentleman's  reply. 
Independently  of  false  doctrine.  Professor  Tholuck's  want  of 
reverence  for  the  Word  of  God  is  deplorable.  He  unscru- 
pulously charges  the  Apostle  Paul  with  various  errors,  arising 
from  "  forgetfulness ; "  with  "  making  a  false  construction ;  " 
and  apologizes  for  supposed  blunders  by  "  imagining  that  Paul 
was  here  called  away,  and  that,  upon  resuming  his  pen,  he 
supposed  that  he  had  begun  a  new  sentence."  Still  more 
flagrant  examples  are  given,  as  in  the  case  of  the  apostle  and 
evangelist  Matthew,  whose  writings  he  does  not  fear  to 
blaspheme,  by  applying  to  them  several  opprobrious  names^ 
such  as  *'  so  contemptible  a  Gospel."     ''  Thus,"  says  Mr.  Hal- 

I  dane,  "  every  idea  of  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  is  exploded  by 

Mr.  Tholuck.  Here  is  Neology  in  its  very  root.  No  words 
can  express  the  abhorrence  that  ought  to  be  felt  at  such  liberties 
taken  with  the  Word  of  God." 


I. 


ANNUITY-TAX.  589 

Yet  deep  and  burning  as  is  the  indignation  with  which  Mr. 
Haldane  repelled  these  profane  attacks  upon  the  Scriptures,  for 
Mr.  Tholuck  personally,  he  showed  much  kind  feeling,  making 
allowance  for  the  awful  school  of  infidelity  in  which  he  had 
been  educated ;  and  willing  to  encourage  the  hope  that,  amidst 
deep  spiritual  blindness,  and  in  spite  of  his  partial  infidelity,  he 
might  still  be  numbered  amongst  those  who  '^  see  men  as  trees 
walking/' 

At  the  end  of  1837  a  public  discussion  arose,  with  reference 
to  the  duty  of  paying  tribute.  His  antagonist  in  this  case  was 
a  very  learned  minister  of  the  United  Secession  Church,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Brown,  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Brown,  of 
Whitburn,  and  grandson  of  the  venerable  compiler  of  the  well- 
known  Family  Bible.  The  Apocrypha  controversy  had  left  Dr. 
Brown  one  of  the  minority  in  Scotland.  But  the  question 
which  now  arose  between  them  was  one  on  which  Mr.  Haldane 
was  enabled  to  appear  with  great  effect,  as  he  did  not  himself 
belong  to  the  Established  Church,  and  could  not  be  suspected 
of  interested  motives  when  he  enforced  the  scriptural  duty  of 
paying,  without  a  murmur,  the  tax  by  which  the  ministers  of 
"  the  State  Church  "  in  Edinburgh  were  supported. 

This  tax,  commonly  called  the  annuity-tax,  had  subsisted  for 
200  years.  It  must  be  allowed  to  be  an  ill-arranged  and 
obnoxious  impost,  especially  for  times  when  the  community  is 
divided  between  an  Established  and  Secession  Church,  and  one 
which  ought  to  be  modified  or  changed.  But  those  who  first 
banded  together  to  resist  its  payment,  were,  as  Mr.  Haldane 
states,  '^  men  immersed  in  the  politics  of  the  world,  who  cared 
little  for  Christianity.''  Others,  "  of  whom  better  things  might 
have  been  expected,"  were  influenced  to  join  in  the  agitation; 
and  in  October,  1838,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Brown  stood  forward 
at  a  Public  Meeting,  and  read  a  written  declaration,  pledging 
himself  to  suffer  any  penalty,  even  to  the  extent  of  bonds  and 
imprisonment,  rather  than  pay  a  tax  which  contributed  to  the 
support  of  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church.  Such  was  the 
extent  of  the  mischief,  that  the  clergy  were  threatened  with 
the  total  loss  of  their  incomes,  and  warrants  of  distress  were 


690  ANNUITT-TAX. 

itsoed  against  no  leas  than  1,960  recosants    in    EdmlMrr^ 
incliKUng  Dr.  John  Brown  bimaelf. 

It  was  under  these  circamstanoes  that  Mr.  Haldane  pubUshed, 
in  one  of  the  Edinburgh  newspapers,  a  short,  bat  pointed,  letter 
to  Dr.  Brown,  not  entering  into  any  elaborate  ai^^nment,  bol 
citing  the  first  seven  verses  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Bomansy 
as  conclusive  evidence  that  a  refusal  of  tribute  was  rebeDioa 
against  Christ. 

This  letter  produced  a  great  sensation  in  Edinburgh.     No 
less  than  14,000  copies  were  printed  by  the  clergy  and  circohted 
from  house  to  house.     Dr.  Brown  repUed  in  a  manner  Aat 
proved  how 'little  he  had  calculated  on  the  difficulties  of  his 
positiatt.     The  shaft  was  winged  with  truth,  and  yet  Dr.  Brown 
was  naturally  indignant  at  the  charge  of  rebellion  against  Chnst, 
•ad  di'iclared  that  he  would  make  no  farther  reply.     But  Mr. 
Haldant'^s  rejoinder  was  producing  too  strong  and  general  an 
impression  to  be  safely  left  unanswered.     Dr.  Brown,  tberefbre, 
prrached  two  elaborate  discourses  on  civil  ^)edience  and  the 
duty  of  paying  tribute,  which  were  afterwards  published,  with 
copious  notes,  in  a  formidable  octavo  volume.     Unable  to  meet 
the  direct  scriptural  argument,  he  tried  to  evade  its  force  by 
explaining  away  the  apostolic  injunction,  as  if  it  were  only  local 
and  temporary.     The  attempt  to  qualify  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  by  the  theory  of  a  double  code  of  morality,  one  for 
the  Jews  and  another  for  Christians,  has  been  attended  witii 
very  evil  consequences ;  but  a  theory  that  would  limit  the  New 
Testament  precepts  to  primitive  times  would  Jbe  still  more  fatd. 
Mr.  Haldane  shows  that  Dr.  Brown's  argument  would  exculpate 
the  duellist  or  the  polygamist,  who  might,  with  equal  plausi- 
bility, adopt  the  same  line  of  apology.     In  eleven  successive 
letters,  in  the  newspi4>er8,  Mr.  Haldane  pursued  the  question, 
until  the  judgment  of  the  public  seemed  so  entirely  to  go  along 
with   his   argument,   that   the   agitation   against  the  tax  was 
abandoned,  and  Dr.  Brown  himself  removed  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Royalty  of  Edinburgh,  within  which  alone  the  obnoxious 
tax  was  payable. 

The  ability  of  Mr.  Haldane's  letters  was  noticed  in  the  daily 


ANNUITY-TAX.  591 

London  papers^  and^  more  than  two  years  afterwards^  they  were 
thus  alluded  to  widi  reference  to  Church-rates : — 

*'  When  Dr.  Brown  publicly  declared  his  resolution  not  to  pay  the 
annuity-tax,  there  were  warrants  against  1,961  persons  for  refusing. 
Immediately  after  the  publication  of  the  letters,  the  number  was  reduced 
to  less  than  twenty, — namely,  fifteen ;  and  such  was  the  revolution  caused 
in  the  public  mind,  that  the  tax  was  afterwards  collected  without 
difficulty."—"  Morning  Herald,**  Dec.  3,  1840. 

Mr.  Haldane's  letters  were  published  in  a  separate  pamphlet^ 
to  which  there  is  prefixed  a  very  forcible  argument  against  the 
modern  system  of  resisting  Government  by  means  of  agitation. 
It  passed  through  several  editions,  and  was  reprinted  in  England. 

Dr.  Brown  had  at  the  same  time  very  needlessly  assailed  Mr. 
James  Haldane  in  his  notes,  attempting  to  draw  an  argument 
in  his  own  favour  from  the  fact,  that  in  a  pamphlet  published 
in  1820,  Mr.  Haldane^s  brother  had  expressed  his  opinion  that 
the  alliance  between  the  Church  and  the  State  was  unscriptoral, 
and  fettered  the  progress  of  Christianity.  But  Dr.  Brown  was 
mistaken.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  might  be  in  error,  but  his  views 
were  intelligible  and  consistent.  He  adhered  to  the  opinions 
alluded  to  by  Dr.  Brown,  and  yet  he  never  ceased  to  repudiate 
the  conduct  o{  those  who  endeavoured  to  forward  a  spiritual 
object  by  the  use  of  camal  weapons.  The  opposition  to  the 
payment  of  the  annuity-tax,  of  church-rates,  of  tribute  of  any 
kind,  when  lawfully  imposed,  he  deemed  to  be  rebellion,  and 
a  refusal  %o  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's. 
The  title  of  his  pamphlet,  "The  Voluntary  Question,  political 
not  religious,^'  was  intended  to  mark  his  opinion  of  the  agitation 
which  then  prevailed,  and  he  always  gave  it  as  his  deliberate 
judgment,  that  those  who  strove  by  any  other  than  spiritual 
weapons  to  assail  the  potitioal  establishment  of  the  Church,  did 
not  understand  the  nature  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

The  grateful  sense  which  was  entertained  of  the  vigorous  and 
triumphant  diversion  effected  by  Mr.  Haldane  in  favour  of  the 
Edinburgh  clergy,  had  at  one  time  suggested  the  idea  of  some 
public  testimony  of  respect.  But,  on  more  mature  considera- 
tion, it  was  felt  that  such  a  measure  would  neither  be  dignified 


592  DR.  CHALM£R8. 

on  the  part  of  the  clergy^  nor  agreeable  to  the  sunplidty  of 
Mr.  Haldane's  character.  He  could  not,  however^  fail  to  be 
gratified  with  many  of  the  private  expressions  of  gratitude  he 
received.     The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Chalmers : — 

"  Mt  deab  Sib,— I  have  ordered  my  publisher  to  send  you  the  TolumeB 
of  my  lectures  on  the  Romans  as  they  come  out  There  h&ve  no  copiei 
come  to  myself  yet,  else  I  should  have  forwarded  one  of  them  to  yov 
directly. 

**  The  publication  is  as  distinct  in  its  object  from  yours,  as  if  it  hid 
related  to  another  portion  of  Scripture  altogether — not  critical  and 
expository,  but  pulpit  and  practical  compositions, — a  desire  for  the 
publication  of  which  had  been  long  expressed  by  many  in  Glasgow, 
and  which,  now  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years,  I  set  forth  in  a  separate 
form,  for  the  sake  of  individual  purchasers  who  might  desire  to  have 
them,  as  parts  of  that  series  which  I  am  now  publishing. 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  mention  this  forthcoming  work  of  mine  along  with 
your's,  or,  indeed,  along  with  any  work  whatever  of  well-weighed  prepara- 
tion on  that  important  part  of  Scripture,  but  mine  is  of  entirely  a  different 
species,  written  chiefly  on  plain  points,  for  Sabbath  discourses,  and  sent 
out  to  the  world  with  hardly  any  change  on  the  first  composition  of 
them. 

*'  I  cannot  close  this  letter  without  congratulating  both  myself  and 
the  Christian  public  on  your  timely  and  effective  interposition  in  the 
question  of  the  annuity-tax,  and  by  which  you  have  laid  both  the  Church 
and  the  country  under  a  deep  and  lasting  obligation  of  a  very  high  order. 

"  I  ever  am,  my  dear  Sir, 
^  Your^s,  with  the  utmost  respect  and  affection, 

*'  Thomas  Chalmejbs." 

Many  other  acknowledgments  of  the  value  of  his  services 
were  received  by  Mr.  Haldane^  one  which  he  preserved  with 
care  came  from  the  Divinity  Students  of  the  fourth  year.  The 
document  is  signed  on  behalf  of  the  rest  by  the  Rev.  James 
Dodds^  now  of  the  Free  Church,  minister  of  Belhaven,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  James  Hamilton,  of  Regent's-square  Church,  London^ 
whose  writings  are  so  well  known,  and  justly  esteemed.  It  was 
afterwards  objected,  that  Mr.  Haldane,  in  regard  to  civil  obedience^ 
seemed  to  go  the  full  length  of  inculcating  the  old  High  Church 
doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance.  He  denies 
this,  and  observes : — 

**  It  is  the  old  Scripture  doctrine  of  obedience  and  non-resistance,  but 


PRINCIPLE    OP    CIVIL    OBEDIENCE.  593 

it  is  entirely  different  from  the  old  High  Church  doctrine.  That  doctrine 
taught  the  indefeasible  right  of  a  particular  family,  whereas  the  Scriptures 
make  possession  the  only  title.  To  the  Christian  it  matters  not,  as  respects 
his  duty  of  obedience^  what  family  is  on  the  throne,  or  what  is  the  form 
or  what  the  quality  of  the  Government.  A  Christian  has  only  to  ask, 
in  whom  is  the  power  actually  vested?  Show  me  the  coin!  Whose 
image  and  superscription  is  this  ?  Caesar  was  a  usurper,  but  Caesar  must 
be  obeyed.  It  was  God  who  gave  him  the  power  of  the  Empire :  the 
Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever 
he  will.   (Dan.  iv.  17-21.)" 

Shortly  afterwards^  Mr.  Haldane  made  arrangements  for  the 
translation  of  the  "  Exposition  ^'  into  German,  so  that  an  edition 
of  two  thousand  copies  was  printed,  and  is  now  in  circulation. 

In  the  summer  of  1839,  he  was  much  gratified  hy  a  very 
friendly  visit  from  the  Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth,  who  told  him 
that  he  had  called  chiefly  to  thank  him  for  his  works,  and 
particularly  for  his  treatise  on  Inspiration,  from  which  he  had 
derived  so  much  light,  that  it  had  induced  him  to  call  in  one  of 
his  own  works,  for  the  purpose  of  making  alterations  in  it  on 
this  subject,  so  as  to  take  higher  ground  than  he  had  previously 
judged  it  safe  or  prudent  to  occupy. 

At  the  close  of  1839,  he  published  a  letter  to  the  Right 
Honourable  Thomas  B.  Macaulay,  then  M.P.  for  Edinburgh. 
It  was  not  on  a  pohtical  question,  but  one  affecting  morals  and 
reUgion.  It  related  to  a  speech  in  Parliament  on  the  Ballot,  in 
which  Mr.  Macaiday,  in  the  opinion  of  his  colleague,  Lord  John 
Russell,  was  considered  to  have  been  betrayed  into  the  error 
of  '^  palliating  dissimidation."  From  the  moment  when  Mr. 
Haldane  read  this  ingenious  piece  of  sophistry,  he  saw  its 
mischievous  and  demoralizing  tendencies.  The  orator  was  dis- 
tinguished for  his  genius  and  eloquence,  and  he  bore  a  name 
which,  with  the  religious  portion  of  the  community,  was  still 
encircled  with  the  halo  of  hereditary  fame.  Mr.  Macaulay  was 
Member  for  Edinburgh,  and  as  such,  the  representative  of 
a  great  constituency,  of  whom  Mr.  Haldane  was  one.  Mr. 
Haldane^s  letter  produced  a  striking  effect,  and  it  was  not  only 
copied  into  the  ^' Times,''  of  the  25th  December,  but  com- 
mented on  with  much  approbation  in  a  powerful  leading  articlej 

QQ 


594  LETTER  TO    MR.  MACAUI.AT. 

in  which  the  author  is  described  as  '^  a  man  of  great  talent  and 
respectability/'  The  subject  is  alike  curious  and  importaDt, 
but  the  limits  of  this  Memoir  will  not  allow  of  more  than  a  few 
extracts.  After  exposing  at  some  length  the  Bight  Hon. 
Oentleman^s  sophistry^  he  exclaims : — 

"  In  the  midst  of  your  elaborate  attempt  to  depreciate  the  guilt  of 
practising  deception,  you  exclaim,  *  God  forbid  that  I  should  say  anything 
which  should  seem  to  extenuate  the  guilt  of  falsehood!'  IMd  you  not 
shudder  when  you  thus  took  the  name  of  God  in  Tain,  by  an  af^ieal 
to  Heaven,  at  the  very  moment  when  you  were  calling  in  the  authority  of 
men  to  back  your  vindication  of  what  you  consider  protectiTe  falsehood  ? 
Is  it  by  such  homage  as  this  that  the  sanctity  of  truth  will  be  maintained, 
while  in  the  same  breath  you  are  suggesting  occasions  in  which  it  may  he 
trampled  under  foot  ?  No,  Sir,  abandon  such  appeals  to  the  Most  High, 
and  remember,  that  however  you  may  entangle  your  own  understanding 
in  the  web  of  sophistry,  still  falsehood  never  can  be  divested  of  its  malig- 
nant character,  and  God  will  not  be  mocked.^    .     .    . 

He  concludes  as  follows : — 

"  It  was  lately  said  in  Parliament,  by  a  noble  and  learned  Lord 
with  whom  you  are  well  acquainted,  that  *  a  regard  for  truth  is  the 
first  foundation  of  all  honour,  comfort,  and  morals.'  Far  different  is  the 
lesson  taught  in  your  speech  on  the  Ballot  Others  have  perceived  that 
the  interests  of  truth  are  placed  in  jeopardy  by  secret  voting ;  but  so  far 
as  I  know,  you  are  the  first  who  has  boldly  undertaken  to  set  aside  as 
not  *  sound  and  well-considered'  what  you  rightly  admit  to  be  *  the  moral 
objection '  to  its  adoption.  May  I  not  also  add,  that  you  have  been  the 
first  to  represent  as  venial  the  systematic  practice  of  deception,  if  necessary 
to  protect  a  voter  against  the  effects  of  the  interference  of  another  ?  WeU 
might  Lord  J.  Russell,  in  his  speech  which  followed  yours,  accuse  you,  as 
he  did,  of  '  palliating  dissimulation.' 

"  The  value  of  truth  is  incalculable ;  but  when  you  publicly  teach  that 
in  forming  political  arrangements  it  may  be  subordinated  to  their  advance- 
ment ;  and  when,  in  support  of  your  argument,  you  sneeringly  talk  of  a 
*  zeal  for  truth,*  your  conduct  exposes  you  to  no  ordinary  censure.  After 
such  avowals  on  your  part,  can  you  complain  if  your  own  assertions  shaU 
be  regarded  with  distrust,  and  your  political  pledges  with  suspicion  ? 
Others,  through  the  force  of  temptation,  may  falsify  regarding  their 
votes,  while  they  suffer  under  a  strong  sense  of  their  degradation,  and 
feel  deep  contrition  on  account  of  their  dishonourable  conduct  But  with 
you  no  blush  of  shame  can  testify  the  internal  struggle,  on  the  part  of  high 
principle,  to  assert  its  empire  over  the  man.  The  principles  you  have 
adopted  and  publicly  proclaimed  are  calculated  to  ^ence  the  voice  of 


LETTER   TO    MR.  MACAULAT.  596 

conscience,  to  prevent  the  perception  of  evil,  and  to  steel  the  mind  against 
the  yisitings  of  compunctious  feeling.  Better  will  it  be,  far  better,  if 
professing  your  repentance  as  loudly  as  your  shame  has  been  avowed,  you 
shall  retreat  without  delay  from  the  dishonourable  ground  you  have 
chosen  to  occupy,  and  do  all  in  your  power  to  make  amends  for  the 
mischief  you  have  perpetrated  in  promulgating  opinions  calculated  to 
corrupt  the  principles  of  your  coimtrymen,  and  fraught  with  the  most 
disastrous  consequences  to  the  interests  of  morality  and  virtue. 

**  Till  then,  Sir,  you  cannot  count  upon  the  support  of  those  to  whom 
principle  is  dearer  than  partisanship,  and  truth  more  precious  than  victory. 
The  solid  greatness  and  lasting  prosperity  of  empires  must  depend,  under 
the  blessing  of  God,  on  the  tone  of  public  morals ;  and  what  must  be 
thought  of  the  pretensions  of  a  statesman  who  in  politics  would  import 
into  Scotland  the  deceitful  habits  of  Hindoo  idolaters  as  a  substitute  for 
that  stem  integrity  and  unbending  virtue  which  has  raised  this  country  so 
high  in  the  scale  of  nations  ? 

"  I  am.  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"ROBEBT  HaLDANE. 

"  Bandolphcrescenft  Edinburgh,  Dec.  16, 1839." 

Mr.  Macaulay  was  soon  afterwards  called  to  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet^  and  as  such  required  to  defend  and  explain  his  conduct 
before  his  electors.  It  was  impossible  to  leave  Mr.  Haldane's 
letter  unanswered^  but  it  had  made  too  deep  and  general  an 
impression  on  the  reUgious  portion  of  his  constituency  to  render 
silence  politic  or  explanation  easy.  His  speech  proved  very 
imsatisfactory.  Whilst  denying  that  he  intended  to  advocate 
falsehood^  he  still  substantially  repeated  his  former  arguments^ 
which  were  all  based  on  the  hoUowness  of  worldly  morality, 
and  on  the  license  that  is  conceded  with  regard  to  truths  not 
only  in  the  world  of  fashion^  but  to  politicians  and  men  of 
letters. 

The  folloviring  sentences  from  a  private  letter,  dated  January 
23, 1840,  may  show  the  spirit  and  motives  which  influenced  Mr. 
Haldane  on  this  occasion  : — 

''In  reading  again  Mr.  Macaula/s  apology,  it  appears  that  there  is 
now  presented  a  very  remarkable  opportunity  of  glorifying  God  in  the 
vindication  of  the  truth,  and  of  doing  good  to  others,  for  you  will  see  by 
their  cheers  how  little  the  moral  import  of  the  question  weighs  with  those 
who  heard  him.  He  adheres  in  effect  to  his  former  declarations.  The 
authority  of  Gk>d  he  puts  out  of  the  question,  balancing  one  sin  against 

Q  Q  2 


596  LETTER   TO   MR.  MACAUI.AY. 

another,  resting  all  on  the  opinion  and  practice  of  men  with  r^ard  to 
character,  and  the  propriety  of  extending  to  the  poor  the  indulgence 
which  he  affirms  is  conceded  to  gentlemen.  He  thus  lays  a  stnag 
temptation  in  the  way  of  the  poor  to  think  lightly  of  falaehood,  tod  to 
practise  it  on  all  occasions  when  it  seems  to  be  advantageous." 

In  another  letter^  Mr.  Haldane  mentions  that  he  is  infcmnedi 
on  the  best  authority^  that  the  effect  of  the  discassiou  has  been 
more  powerful  than  he  had  imagined,  and  that  all  idea  of 
employing  him  as  an  advocate  in  Parliament,  in  the  Church 
question,  was  abandoned.  Nor  was  this  a  temporary  result; 
for  Mr.  Macaulay^s  lax  principles  were  not  forgotten^  when,  at 
the  election  in  1846,  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  substituted  Mr. 
Cowan  as  their  representative,  thus  showing  that  they  preferred 
high  moral  principle,  when  associated  with  capacity  for  business, 
to  all  the  genius  of  the  poet,  the  splendour  of  the  historian,  and 
the  eloquence  of  the  orator. 

The  discussion  with  Mr.  Macaulay  was  but  an  episode  in  the 
progress  of  his  greater  works.     But  scarcely  had  he  concluded 
his  letters  to  that  celebrated  essayist,  historian,  and  orator,  when 
he  was  called  on  to  defend  the  doctrines  of  the  "  Exposition  of  the 
Romans''  from  an  attack  made  in  a  friendly  quarter.     After  . 
the  lamented  death  of  Dr.  Thomson,  the  Edinburgh  "  Christian 
Instructor ''  was  under  the  editorial  management  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Bums,  of  Paisley,  and  between  that  excellent  clergyman  and  Mr. 
Haldane  there  subsisted  the  most  entire  coincidence  of  senti- 
ment on   most   subjects.      But  in   the   April  number  of  the 
"Instructor''  of  1840,   there   appeared   an  elaborate   review, 
which,  in  the  midst  of  high  eulogiums  on  Mr.  Haldane's  talents, 
munificence,  and  usefulness,  disclosed  opinions  alike  at  variance 
with  the  doctrines  of  the  author  and  with  the  standards  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.     These  opinions  related  to  original  sin,  the 
extent  of  the  atonement,  and  the  sovereignty  of  Grod.     It  was 
not  written  by  Dr.  Bums,  who  had  not  even  read  it,  and  whose 
private  letters,  as  well  as  his  public  testimonies,  show  how  highly 
he   appreciated   the   value  and   soundness   of    Mr.   Haldane's 
theology.     It  is  unnecessary  to  give  a  detail  of  the  letter  to  the 
"  Christian  Instmctor,"  valuable  though  it  be,  and  the  rather 


IMPUTATION    OP    ORIGINAL    SIN.  597 

because  its  most  important  points  are  interwoven  with  the  last 
edition  which  he  pubUshed.     A  few  extracts  may  suffice. 

Mr.  Haldane  always  considered  the  term  "  righteousness  '*  as 
the  "  key-note  "  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans^  just  as  he  regarded 
the  term  "perfection/'  or  the  finishings  to  be  the  key-note  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  In  various  parts  of  Scripture,  the 
righteousness  of  Grod  signifies  either  holy  rectitude  of  character, 
which  is  the  attribute  of  Grod,  or  that  distributive  justice  by 
which  he  upholds  his  holy  laws. 

**  Biitf^  he  says,  "  when  it  refers  to  man's  salvation,  and  is  not  merely  a 
personal  attribute  (as  in  Rom.  iii.  21),  it  signifies  the  righteousness  which 
God  has  appointed  and  provided  for  the  salvation  of  sinners.  I  was  led," 
he  adds,  "  the  more  fully  to  dwell  on  it,  because  in  its  true  import  it 
furnishes,  as  I  have  shown,  a  complete  proof  of  the  divinity  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  He  who  is  'Jehovah  our  Righteousness*  was  placed,  not 
as  Adam  was,  or  as  the  angels  in  the  beginning  were,  under  the  law,  to 
obey  only  its  precepts,  but  under  it,  as  a  broken  laujy  to  fulfil  at  the  same 
time  both  its  precepts  and  its  penalty, — a  work  which  no  mere  creature, 
nor  all  the  creatures  in  the  universe  together,  could  have  accomplished. 
Could  the  whole  of  them,  with  regard  to  its  precept,  have  brought  in 
everlasting  righteousness  f  Could  all  of  them,  with  regard  to  its  penalty, 
have  said,  *  It  is  finished  f  * " 

With  respect  to  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin  to  every  one  of 
his  descendants,  as  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  imputed  to  all 
believers,  the  reviewer  had  termed  Mr.  Haldane's  doctrine  *'  a 
startUng  proposition/'     His  reply  is  characteristic  : — 

"  Whether  it  be  a  startling  proposition  or  not  matters  little  to  the 
humble  student  of  Scripture,  who  sits  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  to  be  taught  of 
Him,  and  to  receive  the  things  that  pertain  to  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a 
little  child." 

Mr.  Haldane  was  himself  of  opinion  that  this  might  be  one  of 
the  most  useful  of  his  pubUcations,  ''for,''  he  adds  in  a  letter, 
''at  present  there  is  a  great  departure  from  sound  scriptural 
doctrine."  He  was  amused  with  the  description  of  a  writer  in  a 
High  Church  Review,  who  said  that  his  works  might  lead  to 
the  supposition  that  the  author  was  one  of  the  old  Westminster 
Assembly  of  Divines,  who  had  just  risen  from  the  council  table. 
There  was  some  truth  in  the  picture,  for  he  stood  upon  the 
ancient  foundations,  rejected  modem  novelties,  and  delighted 


598  MR.  haldane's  last  woek. 

in  the   ancient   scriptural  writings  of  the  Reformers  and  the 

Puritans. 

This  was  the  last  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  controversial  publications. 

It  had  been  suggested  that  the  ancient  doctrine  with  reference 

to  the  sovereignty  of  God,  as  taught  by  the  Keformers^  was 

regarded  with  prejudice  by  many.     He  writes : — 

**  I  have  read  it  (the  pamphlet)  over  again,  and  am  now  of  opinion  that 
it  is  not  right  in  such  a  matter  to  give  way  to  prejudices,  but  openly  and 
fully  to  declare  and  circulate,  so  far  as  possible,  sound  doctrine,  which  is 
the  only  way  through  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  however  much  it 
may  be  opposed,  it  will  ultimately  prevail." 

Shortly  afterwards  he  began  to  prepare  for  a  complete  revision 

of  his   "Exposition/*   with  a  view  to  final  corrections.     It  is 

alluded  to  in  the  following  letter  : — 

"  I  hope  Mrs.  Haldane  and  you  and  any  of  your  children  will,  if 
possible,  come  and  see  us  here  in  the  course  of  the  summer.  Do  consider 
this,  and  let  me  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  I  may  with  some 
certainty  expect  it.  In  a  few  days, — as  soon  as  I  can  get  a  multiplicity  of 
country  matters  which  are  on  hand  settled, — I  intend  to  begin  to  prepare 
for  a  new  edition  of  the  three  volumes  of  the  "  Exposition,"  that  they  may 
be  ready  for  printing  when,  if  spared,  we  return  to  Edinburgh  in  winter. 
Although  I  do  not  need  this  additional  motive  for  being  desirous  to  see 
you  here,  yet  were  you  here  for  a  little,  especially  if  no  other  company 
were  with  us  at  the  time,  it  would  be  a  very  great  advantage,  so  that  we 
might  consult  as  to  any  final  corrections  that  might  be  necessary  before 
their  going  to  press,  and  to  fix  on  the  proper  form  of  printing,  &c.'' 

He  was  now  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  and  this  was  the 
commencement  of  the  last  of  his  many  labours,  excepting  only 
two  little  tracts, — the  one  on  the  "  Sanctification  of  the  Lord's- 
day,''  and  the  other  on  "  Railway  Sabbath-breaking,''  which,  at 
the  request  of  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath,  he  prepared  and  printed 
whilst  his  greater  work  was  in  preparation. 

A  few  years  before,  in  announcing  his  change  of  residence  in 
Edinburgh  from  the  house  which  he  had  occupied  between 
thirty  and  forty  years,  he  begins  by  dating  from  his  new  abode 
in  Randolph-crescent,  No.  6,  June  8,  1836,  and  proceeds: 
"You  will  observe  we  have  changed  our  quarters.  You  will 
have  no  more  occasion  to  direct  to  10,  Duke-street.  All  things 
earthly  come  to  an  end.''  He,  too,  was  drawing  near  the  ter- 
mination of  his  long  and  ardnoos  career. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

ME.  HALDANE'S  LAST  LABOUES  IN  EEVISING  HIS  "EXPOSI- 
TION OF  EOMANS  "—VISIT  TO  AUCHINGEAY— HIS  SEEMONS 
—COMPLETES  HIS  EEVISION— EETUENS  TO  EDINBUEOH— 
PUBLISHES  HIS  EXPOSITION— PLAN  OP  CIECULATING  THE 
BIBLE  IN  SELECTED  PORTIONS— ME.  HALDANE'S  LAST 
ILLNESS  AND  DEATH— EXTRACT  FROM  THE  "WITNESS"— 
TESTIMONY  OF  THE  EDINBURGH  BIBLE  SOCIETY— DEATH 
OF  MRS.  HALDANE. 

[1840-1842.J 

On  visiting  Auchingray^  in  August^  1840^  about  two  months 
after  the  date  of  the  letter  which  closes  the  last  chapter^  it 
appeared  that  Mr.  Haldane  had  made  some  progress  in  the 
revision  of  his  ''  Exposition.''  On  a  survey  of  the  whole,  he 
expressed  himself  now  satisfied  as  to  the  meaning  of  all  the 
difficult  passages,  over  which  he  had  long  and  anxiously  pon- 
dered, excepting,  perhaps,  Rom.  i.  4,  where  he  thought  the 
expression,  "with  power,''  admitted  of  more  than  one  inter- 
pretation. He  still  felt  persuaded  that  there  must  be  but  a 
definite  meaning,  of  which  being  shortly  afterwards  satisfied, 
he  left  it  as  it  stands  in  his  last  edition.  It  was  interesting  to 
observe  the  pains  which  he  took  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  satis- 
factory conclusion  on  the  minutest  point,  a  circumstance  the 
more  remarkable  on  account  of  the  decision  he  evinced  when  his 
judgment  was  fully  and  finally  made  up. 

His  health  was  obviously  declining,  and  yet  the  vigour  of  his 
mind  was  not  at  all  abated,  nor  did  his  sight,  his  hearing,  or 
the  elasticity  of  his  spirits,  evince  any  symptom  of  the  common 
infirmities  of  old  age.  The  routine  of  his  occupations  went  on 
as  in  former  years,  except  that  he  was  no  longer  allowed  to 
preach  on  the  Lord's-day.     In  the  morning,  when  the  family 


600  VISIT    TO    AUCHINGRAT. 

assembled^  he  read  a  chapter  and  prayed.     When  his  brother 
was  with  him^  as  on  this  occasion,  the  one  usually  prayed  in  the 
morning  and  the  other  in  the  evening.     At  breakfast  he  was 
cheerful  and  full  of  animation.     No  longer  able  to  encounter 
the  same  amount  of  fatigue  as  formerly,  the  time  which  he 
spent  in  his  own  room  was  now  prolonged  till  three  o'clock^  or 
even  later.     Much  of  that  interval  was  devoted  to  conversation 
on  the   great  doctrines  of  the   Gospel,   more  especially  with 
reference  to  the  final  revision  of  his  "  Commentary.^'     He  never 
himself  appeared  at  luncheon  or  required  any  refreshment  between 
breakfast  and  dinner.     About  three  o'clock  he  generally  took 
a  walk,  when  he  talked  without  reserve  on  the  various  topics 
which  arose.     But  at  this  time,  and  in  the  previous  year^  it 
seemed  as  if  he  felt  that  time  was  passing  away,  and  his  com- 
munications  were   full   of  more   than    their  wonted   interest, 
touching  as  they  did  on  the  workings  of  his  own  mind^  the 
history  of  his  religious  experience,  and  the  eventful  career  both 
of  himself  and  his  brother.     This  was  the  more  remarkable 
considering  how  little  of  egotism  and  how  much  of  reserve  were 
included  in  the  elements  of  his  character.     At  dinner  he  was 
affable,  and  even  playful.     At  all  times  rather  abstemious^  he 
seldom  took  more  than  one,  or  at  most,  two  glasses  of  wine, 
and  never  sat  long  at  table.     Before  tea  he  would  very  generally 
walk  out  again,  and  enliven  his  conversation  by  anecdotes  of 
past  times,  and  of  the  various  characters  with  whom,  from  his 
boyhood,  he  had  come  into  contact.     At  an  earher  period,  when 
in  vigorous  health,  and  even  so  late  as  1839,  he  would  often 
take  long  walks  with  his  grandchildren  and  his  younger  nephews 
and  nieces,  or  encourage  them  in  their  games  by  his  playfulness 
and  good-humour.     He  was  at  all  times  fond  of  children,  and 
with  them  would  still  exhibit  his  early  love  of  practical  jokes. 
At  eight  o'clock  the  tea-table  was  spread  in  the  drawing-room^ 
and   after  this  very  social   repast   the  servants  assembled  for 
evening  prayers.     When   this  solemn  but  simple  service  was 
over,  Mr.  Haldane,  at  the  period  to  which  this  sketch  refers, 
would  retire  into  his  own  room,  in  order  that  his  conversation 
on  the  subjects  which  chiefly  occupied  his  thoughts  might  not 


VISIT   TO    AUCHINGEAT.  601 

be  interrupted  by  desultory  talk.  These  conversations^  often 
prolonged  beyond  midnight^  were  intensely  interesting^  and  the 
rather  because  it  was  impossible  not  to  feel  that  they  were  fast 
drawing  to  an  end.  They  were^  at  the  last,  concluded  by  a 
prayer,  simple,  affectionate,  and  earnest,  breathing  the  spirit 
of  adoption,  and  calling  down  the  Divine  blessing  upon  his 
relative,  for  whom  he  prayed  that  the  Lord  might  give  him 
to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith  and  enable  him  to  endure 
to  the  end.  Those  who  regarded  Mr.  Haldane  merely  as  a 
controversialist  little  knew  the  depth  of  his  benevolence,  his 
comprehensive  charity,  and,  above  all,  the  settled  peace  and  joy 
which  he  derived  from  the  personal  and  unclouded  appropria- 
tion of  those  doctrines  of  which  he  was  so  earnest  and  powerful 
a  champion. 

The  summer  of  1840  passed  away,  and  amidst  the  interrup- 
tions that  occurred  connected  with  the  affairs  of  his  grandsons' 
and  his  own  estate,  he  still  found  the  corrections  and  additions 
to  his  ''  Commentary^'  incomplete.  He  therefore  determined  to 
remain  at  Auchingray  during  the  winter,  where,  in  sohtary 
retirement,  he  persevered  undisturbed  in  his  work.  His  corre- 
spondence announces  its  progress,  and  how  he  had  adopted  the 
advice  to  work  up  in  the  "Exposition'*  the  substance  of  the 
valuable  doctrinal  arguments  contained  in  the  recent  letter  to 
the  "  Christian  Instructor."  In  1841  it  was  completed,  and 
before  leaving  the  country,  as  if  feeling  that  he  was  not  again 
to  return,  he  was  much  employed  in  examining  old  letters  and 
papers,  many  of  which  he  committed  to  the  flames. 

During  the  years  when  he  was  accustomed  on  the  Lord's- 
day  to  preach  at  Auchingray,  for  the  convenience  of  the  people 
he  followed  the  Scottish  practice,  prevalent  in  the  country,  of 
running  two  services  into  one.  The  whole  lasted  from  twelve 
o'clock  to  three,  and  the  two  sermons  were  only  divided  by  the 
interval  of  a  psalm,  a  prayer,  and  a  second  psalm.  This  was 
necessarily  fatiguing,  but  the  avidity  with  which  the  country 
people  flocked  to  hear,  and  the  tokens  of  their  blessed  effects, 
rendered  him  unwilling  to  leave  them  off.  Every  Saturday 
evening,  at  family  worship,  he  had  been  wont  to  pray  that 


602  SUNDAY   AT   AUCHINGRAT. 

many  might  come  to  hear,  and  that  a  blessing  might  attend  the 
preaching  of  the  Word.  Seldom,  probably,  have  such  sennona 
been  preached  in  such  a  place,  but  they  were  appreciated,  and 
many  actually  travelled  twenty  miles  or  more  for  the  purpose  d 
attending.  For  most  country  congregations  in  England  they 
would  have  been  too  doctrinal  and  elaborate.  They  cost  mudi 
preparation,  and  even  the  scanty  notes  which  remain  would 
in  themselves  be  sufficient  to  indicate  that  they  were  woithy  of 
the  author  of  the  "  Exposition  of  the  Romans.'^  It  was  a  beau* 
tiful  sight  at  Auchingray  on  a  Sunday  to  see  the  country  people 
flocking  to  the  place  where  he  preached,  across  the  hills  in  the 
direction  of  Shotts,  or  through  the  moorland  and  plantations 
towards  Slamannan,  most  of  them  on  foot,  but  some  in  their 
carts  or  on  horseback,  the  women  with  red  cloaks^  and  the 
men  with  blue  bonnets.  There  was  a  gravity  and  a  respect- 
ability in  their  appearance  that  called  back  the  reooUecrtion  of 
the  old  Covenanters  of  the  west  of  Scotland,  of  whom  they 
were,  in  fact,  the  descendants.  Relics  of  the  times  of  ''the 
Bloody  Clavcrs^'  might  still  be  seen  in  their  houses,  such  as 
the  gun  which  an  ancestor  had  earned  to  Bothwell  Bridge^  or 
some  other  treasured  token  of  their  attachment  to  the  cause 
which  persecution  had  both  endeared  and  consecrated. 

There  was  no  church  near  the  House  of  Auchingray.  The 
post-town  of  Airdrie  was  more  than  six  miles  distant;  the 
parish  church  of  Slamannan  was  not  much  nearer;  nor  the 
Kirk  of  Shotts,  so  famed  for  the  extraordinary  revival  following 
the  remarkable  sermon  of  the  celebrated  Mr.  Livingston,  nearly 
200  years  ago.  Several  of  the  neighbouring  ministers  were  far 
from  regarding  these  services  as  an  intrusion,  but  an  anecdote 
is  told  of  a  very  moderate  minister,  some  miles  off,  who  asked 
one  of  his  parishioners,  in  a  complaining  tone,  what  it  was  that 
Mr.  Haldane  preached,  that  took  away  so  many  of  the  people  to 
hear  him.  With  greater  frankness  and  honesty  than  regard 
for  his  minister's  feelings,  the  worthy  cottager  sturdily  replied^ 
"  'Deed,  Sir,  I  'm  thinking  it 's  just  the  contrary  to  your 
preaching.''  Mr.  Haldane's  object  was  not  to  attempt  the 
formation  of  a  separate  Church,  but  only  to  preach  the  Gospel 


DESIRE   FOR   UNION.  603 

to  those  who  would  not  otherwise  hear  it.  The  Lord's  Supper 
was^  therefore,  not  administered ;  and,  with  respect  to  baptism, 
at  the  close  of  one  of  his  most  striking  sermons,  he  addressed 
all  present  with  great  solemnity,  telling  them  that  the  grand 
question  was  not  whether  they  had  been  baptized  in  infancy  or 
maturity,  but  whether  they  had  been  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Spirit.  He  also  steadily  refused  the  applications  made  to  him 
to  aid  the  Baptist  Bible  Society  in  America,  with  a  view  to 
more  correct  translations  of  the  disputed  words,  alleging,  in  a 
letter,  dated  25th  September,  1840,  that  he  altogether  disap- 
proved of  any  external  ordinance  being  made  a  bond  of  union 
instead  of  faith  in  Christ  and  sound  doctrine.  He  stated,  that 
he  regarded  the  term.  Baptist,  as  prefixed  to  the  Society's 
name,  to  be  quite  inappropriate.  His  correspondence,  in  1840, 
with  his  old  fiiend,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mackay,  of  New  York,  is,  on 
this  subject,  remarkable;  and  more  particularly  with  reference 
to  doctrinal  errors,  which  were  at  that  time  sanctioned  by  soiae 
leading  Baptists. 

At  the  end  of  December,  1841,  Mr.  Haldane  left  Auchingray, 
and,  for  the  last  time,  arrived  in  Edinburgh.  The  printing  of 
his  ''Exposition''  was  commenced,  but,  during  its  progress 
through  the  press,  his  assistance  was  wanted  in  the  great  battle 
then  going  on  with  reference  to  the  desecration  of  the  Lord's- 
day  by  the  railway  companies.  To  his  third  volume  was  added 
an  argument  with  reference  to  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's- 
day,  consisting  of  sixty-two  pages,  which  he  also  published 
separately.  It  takes  up  the  strong  scriptural  ground  which  had 
been,  ten  years  before,  occupied  by  his  brother,  in  an  able 
treatise  on  the  same  subject ;  showing  that  it  was  not  a  Jewish 
statute,  but  an  ordinance  of  God  from  the  beginning,  necessary 
for  man  in  Paradise,  and  still  more  for  man  doomed  to  eat  his 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  He  also  wrote  a  separate  tract 
with  reference  to  the  Glasgow  Railway,  with  all  his  accustomed 
force  and  acuteness. 

The  ''  Exposition  "  was  printed  in  June,  with  his  last  correc- 
tions, and  he  left  it  as  an  injunction  that  no  alterations  might 
be  permitted.      He  also  added  a  separate  treatise^  of  great 


I, 
V 


604  PUBLISHES    UI8   EXPOSITION. 

importance,  on  the  ^'Testimony  of  the  Word  of  God,  with 
regard  to  the  State  of  the  Heathen  destitute  of  the  Gospd." 
The  coDcluBion  contains  a  summary  of  the  whole  Epistle.  Hk 
closing  words  are  as  follows : — 

"  The  doctrines  unfolded  in  this  epistle  rereal  to  us  the  mighty  plin  of 
redemption,  by  which  our  powerful  spiritual  enemies  are  oYeroome  and 
all  the  strong  and  deeply-rooted  evils  lodged   within   our  hearts  shall 
i'  finally  be  subdued.    The  whole  lead  believers  to  exclaim : — '  The  Lord 

I  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice ;  let  the  multitude  of  isles  be  glad  thereat" 

M  His  last  labour  was  a  fit  termination  to  the  long^,  active,  and 

arduous   career  of   Robert   Haldane.      His    health    had  been 
■;  declining   for  some  time,  and,  in  his  seventy-ninth  year,  he 

i  could  not  well  expect  a  revival.     He  was  therefore  compelled  to 

i,  abandon  the  idea  of  some  other  Expositions,  which  he  had  long 

i|  contemplated,  and  for  which  he  had  collected  much  material. 

Although  unable  to  attend  the  General  Meeting  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Bible  Society,  he  had  great  satisfaction  in  the  interviews 
he  enjoyed  with  the  Rev.  Sydney  Thelwall,  who  came  down  as  a 
deputation  from  the  Trinitarian,  and  gave  an  interesting  account 
I  of  the  attempts  in  progress  to  purify  the  foreign  translations  of 

the  Bible  in  Portugal  and  other  Continental  countries.^ 
li  The  Report  of  the  Edinburgh  Society,  in  1842,  so  far  as  it 

j!  related  to  the  Apocrypha  question  and  the  union  with  Socinians 

j  or  Neologians,  was  written  by  Mr.  James  Haldane;    so  that, 

I  *  Mr.  Haldane  was  also  partial  to  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  in 

portions,  or  in  the  form  of  tracts.  In  this  way  he  had,  on  the  Continent, 
circulated  the  Gospel  by  St.  John  and  other  extracts  complete  in  themselves, 
including  the  book  of  Genesis  and  the  first  twenty  chapters  of  Exodus. 
In  order  to  induce  the  Trinitarian  to  adopt  this  plan  in  Portugal,  he 
gave  to  Mr.  Tlielwall  a  special  donation  of  100/.  for  the  distribution  of 
the  historical  portion  of  the  Old  Testament  just  mentioned,  being  one 
which  he  deemed  very  important  and  had  found  very  acceptable.  At 
that  time,  however,  objections  were  taken  by  the  Trinitarian  Conmiittee 
to  such  extracts,  and  Mr.  Haldane  reclaimed  his  donation,  which  was 
appropriated  to  the  diffusion  of  the  Scriptures  in  France.  Since  that 
period  it  appears  that  Mr.  Haldane*s  plan  has  been  adopted  in  Ireland, 
and  selected  portions  of  the  Bible  widely  circulated  by  the  same  Society 
in  the  Irish  language,  in  the  form  of  tracts. 


HIS    LAST    ILLNESS.  605 

although  the  one  brother  was  disabled,  the  other  occupied  his 
post.     On  the  14th  July,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  writes : — 

**  This  18  my  birth-day,  on  which  I  enter  my  seventy-fifth  year.  I  have 
much  cause  of  gratitude  for  the  health  I  enjoy,  as  well  as  for  many  other 
blessings.  But  your  uncle  has  been  very  feeble  for  some  time.  I  do  not 
know  whether  he  will  go  to  Auchingray.  Your  aunt  seems  to  think  that 
he  would  be  the  better  for  the  country  air.  He  has  been  very  little  out 
of  the  house  since  he  came  to  Edinburgh.*' 

In  August  he  was  evidently  sinking  in  bodily  strength, 
although  the  clear  light  of  his  masculine  intellect  was  as 
unclouded,  and  his  mental  energies  as  active,  as  ever.  He 
discussed  matters  of  business  relating  to  his  own  affairs  and  his 
family  with  all  his  usual  shrewdness  and  perspicuity,  and 
kindled  into  animation  in  speaking  of  the  integrity  of  the 
Bible,  its  plenary  inspiration,  or  the  importance  of  maintaining 
the  purity  of  its  doctrines.  On  Saturday  evening,  the  27th  of 
August,  he  was  very  unwell,  and  the  doctor  was  sent  for. 
Shortly  afterwards,  in  a  private  interview  with  his  physician, 
it  was  ascertained  that  Mr.  Haldane  had  asked  him  to  say 
plainly  what  he  thought  of  his  prospects  of  recovery.  The 
doctor  had  replied,  '^  Mr.  Haldane,  you  are  a  man  of  firm 
mind  and  not  afraid  of  death.  I  have,  therefore,  no  fear  of 
alarming  you  when  I  say  that  it  looks  like  a  last  illness.'^ 
Next  day,  after  hearing  Dr.  Candlish  preach  at  St.  George^s 
Church  in  the  morning,  I  went  to  see  him,  and  found  him  in 
bed,  with  his  old  Bible  beside  him,  the  same  which  he  had  used 
at  Geneva,  and  which  Dr.  Malan  described  as  then  literally 
worn  out  by  frequent  reference.  He  had  told  no  one  of  the 
doctor's  announcement,  and  he  did  not  notice  it  now ;  but  his 
manner  was  grave  and  his  countenance  evinced  the  intensity  of 
his  self-searching  meditations.  He  began  at  once, — "I  have 
been  thinking  of  our  Lord's  words  to  his  disciples,  in  his  last 
discourse,  John  xiv.  21 — 23,"  which  he  repeated :  " '  He  that 
bath  my  commandments  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth 
me,'  &c.,  and  the  parallel  passage.  Rev.  iii.  20;"  which  he 
also  repeated.  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  I  have  been  asking  myself, 
what  must  my  answer  be,  if  tried  by  this  test  7     Have  I  kept 


i 


606  HIS    LA8T   ILLNESS. 

his  commandments^ — ^have  I  kept  his  sajrings?''  And,  wiUi 
emphasis  and  an  earnest  expression,  he  exclaimed,  as  his  dark 
penetrating  eye  was  lighted  up  with  animation,  ''  I  bless  the 
Lord  that,  through  his  grace,  I  can  say.  Yes;  that  I  have  his 
commandments,  and  have  kept  them/'  He  then  explained  that 
commandment  is  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Lord  had 
been  pleased  to  give  him  grace  to  believe.  '^  I  do  bdieve,''  he 
said^  ''and  I  do  love  Him;  and,  in  spite  of  much  sin  and 
weakness  and  great  unworthiness,  it  has  been  my  endeavour, 
ever  since  I  knew  the  Cord  and  received  his  sayings,  to  s^rve 
Him  in  simplicity  and  with  godly  sincerity.*'  *'  No  doubt,''  he 
added,  "  there  have  been  much  alloy  and  many  errors,  for  I  have 
no  righteousness  of  my  own.  There  is  no  merit  in  any  of  my 
works,  but  my  trust  has  been,  and  is,  in  the  righteousness  <^ 
Christ.  I  therefore  can  say,  the  Lord  being  my  helper,  that  I 
have  his  commandments,  and  that  I  have  kept  them." 

He  then  spoke  of  his  course  as  a  Christian  generally,  and  of 
the  remarkable  unity  of  thought  and  action  which  had  always 
subsisted  between  himself  and  his  brother,  both  in  doctrine  and 
in  practice.  On  the  contrary,  he  said  that  after  all  ''  it  was  his 
conviction  that  the  Spirit  was  given  as  the  Lord  saw  good  to  all 
Churches — that  it  was  the  preaching  of  sound  doctrine  which 
the  Lord  blessed,  and  not  particular  systems.  Great  good,'' 
he  said,  "  was  done  by  lay  preaching,  but  we  were  permitted  for 
a  time  to  attach  too  much  importance  to  some  things  connected 
with  Church  order;  and  whether  it  was  that  we  were  not 
worthy,  or  whatever  was  the  cause,  our  efforts  to  restore 
apostohc  Churches  and  primitive  Christianity  were  unsuccess- 
ful." ''  The  truth,"  he  added,  "  seems  to  be,  that  the  Church 
is  in  the  wilderness,  and  until  the  Lord  chooses  in  his  own  good 
time  to  bring  her  out  of  it,  I  believe  the  attempt  will  be  vain." 
He,  therefore,  no  longer  laid  much  stress  as  formerly  on  Church 
order.  He  said,  that  although  his  theoretic  views  were  not 
changed,  and  he  had  detected  no  flaw  in  his  principles,  yet  he 
could  not  forget  that  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland — 
such  as  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  Thomson,  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  rest, 
had  been  his  fellow-labourers  in  the  cause  of  the  Bible  and  the 


\ 


\ 


HIS    LAST   ILLNESS.  607 

promulgation  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  much  more  than 
some  who  might  seem  from  their  Voluntary  principles  to  approach 
nearer  to  him  in  sentiment  with  regard  to  Church  polity.  On 
the  Bible  Society  question,  on  plenary  inspiration,  on  the 
Sabbath  question,  and  in  regard  to  the  doctrines  exhibited 
in  his  "  Exposition,'*  he  had  found  far  greater  concurrence  of 
sentiment  between  himself  and  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  such  men  as  Dr.  M^Crie,  Professor  Paxton,  &c., 
than  with  Voluntaries,  who  had,  as  he  thought,  been  too  much 
ensnared  by  politics.  In  regard  to  his  "Exposition,'*  he  felt 
that  it  had  been  welcomed  by  some  of  the  best  men,  both 
in  Scotland  and  England ;  and  for  the  success  that  had  accom- 
panied it  he  desired  to  give  all  the  glory  to  God.  He  then 
conversed  about  other  matters,  which  have  been  touched  on  in 
these  "  Memoirs,'*  relating  to  the  period  when  the  disruption  took 
place  in  the  Tabernacle  connexion.  He  considered  that  that 
had  been  a  time  when  his  motives  had  been  called  in  question 
by  some  who  should  have  known  better,  and  said,  that  although 
he  had  no  doubt  there  was  much  of  worldly  excitement  uncon- 
sciously mingled  with  the  whole  of  the  Congregational  system  in 
its  first  beginnings,  and  with  his  own  zeal  when  chapels  were 
built  so  rapidly,  and  so  much  bustle  prevailed,  yet  he  could  now, 
at  the  close  of  the  day,  and  in  the  calm  retrospect  of  his  busy 
career,  appeal  to  the  Great  Searcher  of  hearts  as  a  witness  to  the 
purity  of  his  motives,  and  his  simple  desire  to  promote  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ. 

Although  Dr.  Davidson  had  truly  expressed  the  opinion  that 
it  was  a  last  illness,  yet  it  was  chiefly  indicated  by  a  failure 
of  strength,  and  tendency  to  exhaustion.  It  was  the  wearing 
out  of  the  over-laboured  framework  of  his  vigorous  and  indomit- 
able spirit.  During  the  course  of  the  week,  he  conversed  for 
many  hours  almost  every  day,  on  matters  partly  connected  with 
his  grandchildren,  but  chiefly  with  reference  to  the  great 
spiritual  objects  in  which  he  was  interested.  There  were  very 
few  of  his  friends  admitted  to  see  him,  and,  besides  his  brother, 
the  only  exception  that  occurred  during  the  visits  alluded  to, 
was  in  favour  of  Mr.  George  Boss,  for  whom  he  entertained 


'J 

h 
i 

I 


r 


608  HIS    LAST    ILLNESS. 

a  particular  esteem  and  regard^  not  only  as  a  family  connexion, 
but  as  one  who  had  sacrificed  much  for  Christ,  and  always 
firmly  and  consistently  stood  forward  as  a  supporter  of  the  great 
truths  of  the  (jospel. 

These  daily  visits  were  always  made  by  appointment  at  a 
particular  hour,  soon  after  he  got  up,  which  was  then  not  till 
about  eleven  or  twelve  o^clock,  or  sometimes  later.  He  occupied 
the  drawing-room  adjoining  which  he  slept,  and  he  generally  sat 
or  reclined  on  a  sofa  fronting  the  fire-place.  There  was  no 
depression  in  his  spirits.  On  the  contrary,  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  vivacity  in  his  conversation,  which  was,  even  on  the  last 
of  these  much-remembered  days,  enlivened  by  cheerful  and 
amusing  anecdotes. 

But  most  frequently  he  was  solemn  and  serious.  Again  and 
again,  but  particularly  during  the  last  visit,  he  urged  the  import- 
ance of  the  ninth  chapter  of  Romans,  and  of  the  view  it  gives  of 
the  sovereignty  of  God.  He  said  he  could  not  express  the  com* 
fort  which  he  had  derived  from  it  at  all  times,  and  especiaUy  in 
a  recent  season  of  trial.  We  were  thus  taught  to  see  God 
in  everything,  and  to  trace  everything  to  God — ^to  see  his 
Almighty  hand  in  our  mistakes,  as  well  as  our  successes: 
in  our  adversity,  as  well  as  prosperity.  It  was  our  wisdom, 
therefore,  to  endeavour  to  commit  ourselves  and  our  concerns 
to  His  supreme  guidance,  to  seek  to  do  His  will,  and  to  be 
conformed  to  it.  He  earnestly  recommended  the  study  of 
his  exposition  of  that  chapter,  as  exhibit'mg  the  only  solid 
ground  on  which  right  views  of  the  Gospel  can  rest,  and  as 
calculated  to  afibrd  the  greatest  practical  comfort  to  all,  who,  as 
little  children,  will  cast  themselves  in  conscious  helplessness 
on  the  almighty  sovereign  power  of  God.  In  speaking  of  a 
special  providence,  he  said  he  rather  objected  to  the  term  special, 
as  it  seemed  to  overlook  the  fact  that  everything  is  ordered  of 
God,  great  as  well  as  small. 

On  another  day  he  spoke  of  several  of  his  friends  at  Geneva 
and  at  Montauban,  and  desired  a  sum  of  money  to  be  sent 
to  both  places  for  the  promotion  of  the  Gospel,  and  as  a  token 
of  his  afiection.     He  also  mentioned  Dr.  Gordon,  of  Edinburgh, 


VISIT    OF    REV.  JAMES    o'hARA.  609 

with  much  regard^  and  spoke  with  pleasure  of  that  eminent 

clergyman's  having  told  him  that  he  had  derived  light  from  the 

exposition  of  the  6th  chapter  of  the  Romans^  on  which  Mr. 

Haldane  said  he  had  laboured  much^  and  conceived  that  by  the 

blessing  of  God  he  had  been  enabled  to  present  the  truth  in 

some  new  and  important  aspects. 

In  the  same  months  the  Rev.  James  O'Hara,  of  Coleraine, 

happened  to  be  in  Edinburgh.      As  a  relative  in  whom  Mr. 

Haldane  took  a  kind  interest^  he  was  permitted  to  enjoy  an 

interview,  of  which  Mr.  O'Hara  gives  the  following  account : — 

"  But  I  believe  I  was  the  last  person,  not  of  his  own  immediate  family, 
who  had  the  privilege  of  spending  an  evening  with  your  uncle ;  it  was 
towards  the  end  of  September,  1842;  and  well  do  I  recollect  writing  to 
Mrs.  0*Hara,  to  whom  I  was  then  just  going  to  be  married,  to  mention 
what  a  treat  I  had  the  evening  before.  He  spoke  for  more  than  an  hour, 
chiefly  on  the  doctrine  of  regeneration  by  the  Word  as  totally  distinct  from 
the  office  of  baptism,  and  I  was  much  struck  with  the  clearness  and 
arrangement  with  which  he  handled  the  subject,  more  as  if  he  was  reading 
from  something  he  had  studied,  and  committed  to  paper,  than  giving 
expression  to  passing  thoughts.  I  had  often  read  of  the  bright  views  of 
Christians  when  on  the  eve  of  their  departure,  but  never  before  had  seen 
an  instance  such  as  was  the  case  with  him;  and  I  left  the  house  with 
reverence  in  my  mind,  and  Balaam's  prayer  on  my  lips,  as  he  evidently 
had  but  few  days  to  pass  on  earth.  It  was  a  scene  which  has  often 
recurred  to  me,  and  one  which  I  never  could  forget." 

Mr.  Haldane  lived  for  more  than  two  months  after  this  period, 

but  although  the  elasticity  of  his  mind  never  gave  way,  his 

bodily  frame  seemed  gradually  to  sink,  and  had  it  not  been 

for  the  strength  of  his  constitution,  he  could  not  have  survived 

so  long.     As  he  became  feebler,  he  more  and  more  preferred 

being  alone,  and  seldom  conversed  even  with  his  own  family. 

In  a  letter,  dated  Friday,  the  25th  of  November,  his  brother 

writes : — 

"  Your  uncle  is  very  ill,  and  on  Monday  night  he  appeared  to  be  gone ; 
but  he  has  rallied  a  little.  Robert  saw  him  to-day,  and  mentioned  what 
you  said  about  the  money  for  Geneva  and  Montauban,  and  all  was 
arranged.  He  inquired  as  to  the  day  of  the  month,  as  he  has  repeatedly 
done  in  reference  to  his  last  settlement  If  he  lives  till  Wednesday,  it 
will  hold,  as  the  sixty  days  from  its  execution  will  then  have  expired 
(necessary,  by  Scotch  law,  for  one  who  does  not  go  to  kirk  or  market,  in 

R   R 


i  > 


610  HIS   DSATH-BED. 

the  intanral).  The  doctors  say,  there  it  bo  hope  o£  bis  xallying  mmk 
Dr.  Davidson  said,  it  was  eyidently  a  breakin^-up^  and  this  was  tk 
ez|n:ession  used  to  me  by  Dr.  Abercrombie." 

On  Saturdftj^  the  26th^  he  sent  for  his  nephew^  Robeft,  ni 
conyened  with  him  for  an  hoor^  settled  all  his  wcM'Idly  affiuR, 
and  gave  directions  as  to  his  fdnera!.  A  letter  of  the  mnt 
date  gives  some  brief  details  of  this  interview^  ftnd  proceeds  .'— 

**  He  sent  his  kind  love  to  you,  and  thanks  for  all  your  kind  attentioa 
%o  him,  and  interest  in  all  his  matters.  He  exhorted  you  to  hold  tuft  tiie 
faithf  and  seal  you  his  blessing.** 

In  another  letter^  dated  the  Monday  following^  his  brother 
again  writes : — 

**  The  message  this  morning  is,  that  your  unele  has  had  a  very  bad 
night.  Ehaabeth  has  been  there,  and  brings  word  that  he  is  moie 
uneasy.  Robert  will  see  him,  and  then  we  shall  hear  niiore  paiticnlaii. 
I  am  not  sure  that  I  mentioned  before,  that  he  converses  more  freely  with 
yourself  and  Robert  than  with  any  one  besides.  He  sufiers  much  from 
weakness,  but  his  mind  is  perfectly  sound.  He  spoke  to  Robert  for  a 
good  while  on  Saturday  evening.  Whilst  he  was  speaking  Robert  began 
to  tell  him  something,  but  he  wished  not  to  be  interrupted.  Yesterday, 
when  Robert  saw  him  again,  he  inquired,  with  perfect  self-reo(^eetkm» 
<  What  was  it  you  were  going  to  say  on  Saturday?'" 

An  account  of  the  interview  above  alluded  toy  so  fetr  as  it  did 
not  relate  to  private  matters,  was  printed  after  Mr.  Haldane's 
death : — 


"  It  was  now  obvious  to  those  around  him  that  the  last  scene  was 
approaching.  His  medical  attendants  had  given  it  as  their  opinioa  that 
he  could  not  survive  many  days.  On  feeling  that  the  hand  of  death  was 
upon  him,  he  sent  for  me  to  come  to  him,  as  he  wished  particularly  to  see 
me ;  and  he  fixed  an  hour  when  he  was  not  likely  to  be  interrupted  by  the 
visits  of  his  physician.  So  anxious  was  he  for  this  interview,  that  he  waa 
the  first  to  hear  me  ring  the  bell,  and  he  desired  his  head  to  be  raised  o» 
lus  pillow,  in  order  that  he  might  converse  the  more  easily.  He  then 
expressed  a  wish  that  all  should  leave  the  room ;  and  he  told  me  to  sit  as 
near  him  as  I  could.  I  shall  never,  so  long  as  I  live,  forget  oar  con- 
versation, which  lasted  for  above  an  hour.  Although  I  had  known  him 
intimately  firom  my  infancy,  I  was  never  so  much  struck  as  on  this  occa- 
sion with  the  masculine  vigour  and  indomitable  firmness  of  his  character. 
He  told  me  that  the  event  he  had  long  expected  was  now  at  hand,  and  that 


HIS   DEATH-BED.  611 

in  a  few  hours  he  would  probably  be  summoned  before  the  tribunal  of  Ood» 
the  Judge  of  alL  He  was  as  composed  as  I  ever  recollect  him,  and  did 
not  display  the  slightest  emotion.  He  told  me  that  he  viewed  the  approach 
of  the  last  enemy  without  dismay, — that  he  died  in  the  faith,  possessing 
the  peace  of  Ood,  and  in  the  full  assurance  of  understanding.  He  added, 
'  You  cannot  conceive  the  comfort  I  possess,  and  I  trust  that,  when  placed 
in  the  same  situation,  you  will  ei\joy  the  like  blessed  hope.*  He  exclaimed, 
'  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,'  &c. ;  and  in  the  most  deliberate  manner 
repeated  the  whole  passage,  laying  particular  emphasis  on  the  words,  *  Not 
for  me  only,  but  for  all  who  love  his  appearing.'  He  remarked,  that,  how- 
ever praiseworthy  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  anything  he  had  done  might 
appear,  he  in  no  way  rested  on  it  as  a  ground  of  acceptance  in  the  sight 
of  God ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  he  renounced  his  good  works  as  much  as 
his  bad  ones,  and  desired  only  to  be  wrapt  in  the  robe  of  his  Redeemer's 
righteousness.  He  added,  that  he  reposed  securely  on  the  atonement  of 
his  Saviour,  and  that  the  words  which  he  uttered  on  the  cross,  'It  is 
finished,'  gave  him  solid  peace  and  comfort.  He  told  me  that  he  died  in 
peace  with  all  mankind,  and  he  sent  affectionate  messages  to  those  con- 
nected with  him.  In  particular,  he  expressed  the  great  comfort  and 
benefit  he  had  derived  from  the  ministry  of  his  brother,  and  felt  thankful 
that  they  had  gone  on  together  hand  in  hand  for  so  many  years  in  all 
their  labours,  and  had  differed  in  nothing.  He  declared  that  he  firmly 
adhered  to  all  the  blessed  doctrines  which  he  had  attempted  to  illustrate 
in  his  writings,  more  particularly  in  the  last  edition  of  his  Exposition  of 
the  Romans.  He  survived  sixteen  days  longer,  during  which  time  I  saw 
him  frequently,  and  so  long  as  he  was  able  to  articulate,  he  expressed  the 
same  firm  confidence  in  the  finished  work  of  his  Redeemer." 

In  another  long  conversation^  held  on  Sunday  evening,  the 
4th  of  December,  with  her  who  had  been  for  nearly  fifty-seven 
years  his  faithful  partner,  he  again  went  over  the  ground  of  his 
hope,  which  he  declared  to  be  fully  able  to  support  him.  He 
spoke  of  the  atonement  as  being  a  reconciliation,  which,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  could  only  be  made  for  the  sheep  of  Christ; 
and  he  added,  that  how  much  soever  a  contrary  view  might,  at 
first,  tend  to  remove  difficulties,  it  was  only  an  apparent  and 
not  a  real  removal,  for  the  same  difficulties,  although  displaced, 
remained  in  full  force,  and  never  could  be  solved  to  one  who 
believed  in  election,  except  by  referring  all  to  the  sovereign 
will  of  God,  who,  as  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  must  do  right. 
He  once  more  repeated,  that  he  had  derived  much  light  on  this 
subject  as  well  as  on  others,  from  his  brother's  preaching  and 

R  R  2 


612  HIS    DEATH. 

writings^  which  he  had  always  found  full  of  edification,  and 
from  which  he  had  derived  more  of  solid  edification  than  frt>m 
any  other.     On  the  subject  of  the  atonement,  he  was  under- 
stood to  refer  particularly  to  a  long  conversation  they  had  had 
together  at  Auchingray  in  1841.     He  seemed  to  have  pleasure 
in  dwelling  on  the  harmony  and  oneness  of  mind  and  purpose 
which  had  subsisted  between  him  and  his  brother,  and  alluded 
to  a  saying  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Murray,  of  George-square,  who, 
on   seeing  them   together,   had,   on   one   occasion,  exclaimed, 
''There  they  are  I    the  two  brothers,  they  have  always  dwelt 
together  in  unity/'     He  spoke  also  of  the  principal  events  of 
his  own  life,  both  before  and  since  he  knew  the  Lord.     He 
felt  that  he  had  been  kept  in  the  grasp  of  Almighty  love,  or 
he  must  have  perished.     He  touched  on  the  different  contro- 
versies in  which  he  had  been  engaged,  and  said  that  it  would 
yet  appear  that  the  Bible  Society  discussion,  involving,  as  it 
did,  the  integrity  of  the  canon  and  the  plenary  inspiration  of 
Scripture,  was  one  of  the  most  important  that  had  occurred 
since  the  days  of  the  apostles.     It  was  then  that  he  expressed 
the  wish  that  an  account  of  it  should  at  some  time  be  published, 
although  it  might  possibly  not  be  expedient  to  do  so  for  a  few 
years.     He  again  sent  messages  of  love  to  his  relations,  and  of 
kind  remembrance  to  friends. 

After  this  he  seemed  to  prefer  being  entirely  alone,  and  scarcely 
spoke  to  any  one.  On  the  night  of  the  11th  of  December,  he 
addressed  some  kind^  pointed  exhortations  to  his  attendant,  as 
to  the  importance  of  storing  her  memory  with  Scripture,  and 
he  was  also  overheard  speaking  to  himself,  as  if  in  prayer. 
The  last  words  he  was  heard  to  utter  were  several  times  repeated 
at  intervals : — "  For  ever  with  the  Lord  " — "  for  ever  " — "  for 
ever.'*  It  seemed  as  if  he  felt  that  the  prayer  he  had  so  often 
uttered  in  his  family  worship  were  about  to  be  fulfilled.  ''  One 
thing  have  I  desired  of  the  Lord,  and  that  will  I  seek  after,  that 
I  may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for  ever.'' 

On  Monday,  the  12th  of  December,  he  peacefully  departed. 
He  was  buried  within  one  of  the  aisles  of  the  Old  Cathedral  at 
Glasgow,  not  far  from  the  spot  where,  forty-four  years  before. 


HIS    DEATH.  613 

he  stood  beside  his  friend^  Mr.  Rowland  Hill^  whilst  the  latter 
preached  to  so  many  thousands  of  the  citizens  of  Glasgow. 

There  were  many  public  testimonials  to  the  estimation  in 
which  he  was  held^  and  his  death  was  noticed  in  the  prayers  and 
in  the  sermons  of  Dr.  Gordon^  Dr.  CandUsh^  and  most  of  those 
who  are  now  the  Free  Church  ministers  in  Edinbui^h.  The 
*' Witness '*  contained  the  first  sketch  of  his  character^  from 
which  one  or  two  sentences  may  be  extracted^  more  especially  as 
coming  from  a  journal  of  distinguished  ability^  then  devoted  to 
that  portion  of  the  Presbyterian  Establishment  of  Scotland  which 
was  so  speedily  to  become  known  as  the  founders  of  the  Free 
Church : — 

*'  On  Monday  morning,  this  venerable  gentleman  died,  in  the  seventy- 
ninth  year  of  his  age,  after  an  illness  of  some  duration,  under  which  his 
bodily  frame  gradually  sunk,  and  his  latter  end  was  peace.  Mr.  Haldane 
was  one  of  those  eminent  men  who  leave  the  impress  of  their  character  on 
the  age  in  which  they  live ;  and  devoted,  as  his  whole  energies  from  an 
early  period  were,  to  the  cause  of  the  Redeemer,  and  with  an  efficacy 
rarely  in  any  age  equalled,  his  is  a  name  which  will  be  remembered  among 
the  worthies  of  the  Church  when  mere  worldly  fame  is  gone.  ...  At 
a  period  when  moderation  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  at  its  meridian, 
or  rather  at  its  midnight,  he  arose,  and  imagined  the  gigantic  enterprise 
of  evangelizing  India,  with  a  view  to  which  it  was  that  his  estate  of 
Airthrey  was  sold.  ...  It  must  be  unnecessary  to  refer  to  the  labours 
of  Mr.  Haldane,  and  his  still  surviving  brother,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  in 
this  fertile  field  of  usefulness.  From  the  Shetland  Islands  to  the  southern- 
most part  of  our  land,  the  influence  of  the  Messrs.  Haldane  was  largely 
and  blessedly  felt,  and  numbers  date  their  awakening  to  the  missionary 
labours  of  these  great  and  devoted  men.'' 

After  alluding  to  the  events  of  his  "invaluable  life/'  and 
describing  his  tall  figure  and  impressive  bearing,  the  "  Witness'' 
proceeds : — 

"His  eye  was  little,  black,  and  signally  penetrating.  The  general 
expression  of  his  countenance  was  thoughtful,  but  bland,  good-humoured, 
and  not  unfrequently  humorous;  for  he  was  not  only  a  profound  and 
most  acute  man,  but  was  a  kind-hearted  man,  and  could  both  make  and 
relish  a  joke.    Of  his  liberality  it  is  needless  to  speak." 

He  never  allowed  his  picture  to  be  taken,  and  consequently  no 
likeness  of  him  remains,  excepting  two  or  three  sketches  done 


i»t4  HIS    APPSARAKCE. 

fn^tii  iwntonr.  or  as  caricatures,  which  may  recal  his  ^>pein» 
:.'  :S^  who  Liiir«%  him.  but  by  no  meana  embody  the  lepRXB- 
ta:-AH«  ot  ht5  «ciicnible  and  commanding  presence.  Serei 
A:»raipC9  wi^re  made  to  induce  him  to  ait  for  a  portnit,  mi 3 
l?v^.  a  kind  note  from  his  daughter  mnd  only  child,  addmei 
lo  M:^  A.  Ilaldane.  nrtVit  with  pleasure  to  an  erpecUtioa  wkb 
th<n  Mvxwd  on  the  verse  of  accompliahment.  But  his  sppstf 
>-AUv.r.c  w  nx>t  tWhowed  up.  or  peihaps  turned  out  tobeonh 
:h^*  KUndr.c»  of  hu  manner  and  the  pleasant  appiedadcm  oftk 
ad^*<;vYi  vkx-^  uneed  the  raquest. 

M-^  inv^KKi  tt«d  herwlt'  to  say  that  few  pictures  ga^  i 
S:TiC  ^:vTk  .:*  :h«:  KMnir.nAl  than  hi»  brother's  picture  did  of  hff 
rA:>.>^T      TV.<n:  wTi»«  however,  a  considerable  differenoe,  as  wdl 

Mr.   HaIoj^v^^  ^Wa:h  was  noticed  by  the  Edinburrii  BiUe 


>  A-.--VVV-  w::>.  :h#  wtiu«  o*  BiN<  dxeuiatioii*  his  name  must  em 
S-  ^v  ..•  -.  TV«Hrc.-.>j*K.-*  He  c;^:erted  uid  first  exposed  those  coxmpdoBi 
*v.-.  c".»"^v;;*  crtvr^  wifch  led  :o  vhat  »  coaimoiilj  known  ss  the 
A7vvr«7>A  wv.;rv»Yr^>.  V7nr*r>  Mcvtviii^  the  liearfiai  evils  to  wliick 
\-vvi.-  Ar,.;  r<v^:fc.oc::  x*i-wTi  «»  %?  :h<  is^fiintsux  of  God's  Word,  and  die 
»■  •'  \-.-.  Y  .V  A>xr«T>4  mr::;rip  w::h  ihsi  Word  most  gxTe  rise,  he  eszij 
<i^  «-.-  *.-tv»  »v.  :>./  rwrss^rv  o«  ;&  wparadon  between  the  Edinbuzgfa 
*"  -  :  ^.'  S^*  o  Ar.i  (Vnr'lc:t  B;b>  :svie€i«s..  He  did  not*  howerer  rart 
v^T  x.■^.•\•  « --. *  T.^Tik  >cc  s«c  h-.Tcsirt:  :ViLn!ea!lT sad fbllT  to  expose  those  eWk 
«  '  V-'  ^^x.-.  .,v:  :o  :>.ir  ^rorfttss*;*. :  d=c  ssiied sad soppocted  br  the  poweifiil 
c\. -V  -f*  ^•■  :.*>.'  ".^^f  IV  A:^infw  rhootscau  and  other  £uthl!ul  ehampioni 

*      *^ >  .':"  ^-vlV  W,':x:.  >.;•  cmmc  coc  his  Uboun  till  he  had  vindi- 

o.»  a".  -''<'   v^-.tp    vs^-.nricr.  o:  Owi**  AVonL  and  checked    the  evil* 
Av—;  t— v\v  .»."*.  '•v'C  r.  SkVVArvI  op.S.  bu:  ia  Eo^rUnd.  sad  to  a  coQaiderable 

k 

;  *v  Av^v'.v.wv.':.  N :'  A  IsT^  ire  ic::ti?  lirVf.  hi*  prsrers.  hi*  coiuiseli» 
J- 'si  ■  <  .x'i-.,:',v..:v-i-v>  ji::.r.a:;fc  A->i  siinx'tec  fie  ei!brt$  of  the  EdinborEh 
l^  >\-  Svv  V  ^1  .  .r*..;  -o%  :b.A:  b.^  K45  beirc  ctlled  from  the  scene  of  his 
U".v  ..->>  v'.-*  x-vi  '  ■*.  :iv  kVc5Lrji;::»fx:  :^fvl  :>a:  :o  hia  :he  laa^usge  of  Scripture 
•►'.t\  ;-r">r  *v  i  •  HAfv:.  *  \*^.{  I  *::s^x.-u  ±  xoi«  frvm  hesTen  aajio^  unto  me 
^►o.v\  H-\>»8^>.x  ^-\'  :>A'  vUrtioI  w>.:v:a  die  is  the  LortL  from  henceforth,  vea. 
vi  ■*  N'  Svi-*.-.\  :>a:  ::Xv7  t:Av  r^-s:  from  their  lAS?ar««  And  their  woiIes  do 
Kuv«  v!^ea»'  * 

Ou  the  I9tb  ot  Juthr«  I$43«  exactly  six  months  from  the  dav 


DEATH    OF    MRS.  HALDANE.  615 

of  her  husband^s  deaths  the  mortal  remains  of  his  companion  for 
fifty-seven  years  were  laid  in  the  same  vault  in  which  his  dust 
reposes  in  the  Old  Cathedral  of  Glasgow.  She  had  been  in 
drooping  healthy  but  she  was  preparing  to  go  to  Leamington 
with  her  daughter^  who^  at  the  beginning  of  April,  had  lost  her 
second  son^  Robert^  after  a  wasting  and  protracted  illness.  She 
herself  thought  that  change  of  air  and  scene  would  revive  her^ 
and  on  the  10th  of  June  Mr.  James  Haldane  writes^  that  "  he 
had  that  day  called  to  see  her^  and  was  much  struck  with  her 
appearance.  I  knew  she  was  confined  to  bed  with  a  cold^  but 
previously  felt  no  alarm  about  her.  I  have  seen  her  since  every 
day^  and  consider  her  to  be  in  a  most  precarious  state.  She  has 
no  apprehension  of  danger  herself^  but  her  mind  appears  stayed 
upon  the  Lord.''  On  the  14th,  she  peacefully  passed  to  her 
rest,  in  her  75th  year.  It  is  no  small  praise  to  say  that  she  had 
gone  along  with  her  husband  in  all  his  varied  plans,  and  although 
of  a  disposition  neither  ardent  nor  imaginative,  had  been  a  willing 
co-operator  in  all  his  enterprises,  whether  they  concerned  the 
Lidian  Mission,  the  sale  of  Airthrey,  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  at  home,  or  its  extension  in  Switzerland  and  France. 
Her  husband  was  accustomed  to  consult  with  her  as  to  all  that 
he  did,  and  it  was  remarked  at  Geneva  by  those  who  enjoyed 
their  intimacy,  how  often  he  also  prayed  with  her  for  a  blessing 
on  the  labours  which  then  engrossed  his  thoughts. 

On  receiving  an  account  of  Mr.  Haldane's  death,  the  Rev. 
Edward  Bick«*steth  wrote  as  follows : — 

'*  To  Alexander  Haldane,  Esq. 
**  Mt  deaa  Haldane, — I  must  thank  you  for  your  truly  delightful 
account  of  your  venerable  uncle.  Such  men,  indeed,  are  precious ;  and 
now  his  works  will  follow  him.  May  we,  too,  tread  in  his  steps  till  we 
meet  in  our  dear  Master's  presence  and  glory.  To  discern,  Btand  by,  and 
maintain  God's  own  truth,  in  the  midst  of  a  world  neglecting  or  opposing 
it,  is  our  present  privilege ;  and  to  be  acknowledged  by  our  Lord,  be  with 
Him  and  like  Him  and  for  ever,  our  future  glory.  Surely  God  is  weaning 
all  his  servants  in  all  his  Churches  from  every  earthly  stay  that  they  may 
lean  on  Him  alone.    In  our  one  Lord, 

**  Very  truly  yours, — E,  BickebstBTH. 

•*  Wattm  Beetory,  Ware,  Dee.  26, 1842." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

MR.  J.  A.  HALDANE  OPPOSES  ERRORS  RESPECTING  THE 
ATONEMENT  —  MR.  HINTON,  DR.  JENKYN,  DR.  PAYNE, 
AND  DR.  WARDLAW— LETTER  TO  THE  EVANGELICAL 
MAGAZINE— LABOURS  AS  AN  OCTOGENARIAN— LETTER 
ON  THE  DEATH  OP  MR.  CLEGHORN— VISIT  TO  LONDON 
AND  BUXTON— DEATH  OP  HIS  ELDEST  DAUGHTER- 
LETTER  ON  MISS  HARDCASTLE'S  DEATH— DEATH  OF 
Da.  ABERCROMBIE  —  TREATISE  ON  CHRISTIAN  UNION— 
PUBLISHES  EXPOSITION  OP  GALATIANS— HIS  LErTERS. 

[1842—1848.] 

Robert  Haldane  had  now  finished  his  course^  whilst  moi€  than 
eight  years  of  active  usefidness  still  separated  his  brother  from 
the  haven  of  rest.  For  some  time  the  attention  of  both  had 
been  specially  drawn  to  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  and 
to  certain  speculative  errors  as  to  the  moral  capabiUties  of  fallen 
man,  which  had  foimd  an  advocate  amongst  the  Baptists  in  one 
of  their  ablest  preachers.  In  1842,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  had  in 
consequence  published  a  treatise  under  the  following  title : 
'^  Man's  Responsibility :  the  Nature  and  Extent  of  the  Atone- 
ment, and  the  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  in  reply  to  Mr.  Howard 
Hinton  and  the  Baptist  Midland  Association.'^  Mr.  Hinton, 
in  his  zeal  to  remove  the  cavils  of  unbeUevers,  had  maintained 
a  kind  of  semi-Pelagian  view  of  our  innate  ability  to  receive 
the  Gospel ;  whilst  at  the  same  time,  with  scriptural  orthodoxy, 
he  fully  admitted  the  proposition,  that  no  man  "  who  could  live 
or  shall  live  has  received  or  will  receive  the  truth  without 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit.''     His  errors  were,  therefore,  rather 


ON    THE    ATONEMENT.  617 

metaphysical  than  substantial^  although  numbers  of  younger 
and  less  enlightened  men  eagerly  embraced  his  views^  and 
carried  them  to  an  extent  which^  in  subverting  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  sovereignty,  also  subverted  the  Gospel.  Mr.  J.  A. 
Haldane's  book  sets  forth  our  moral  responsibility  as  a  fact  alike 
revealed  in  Scripture  and  obvious  to  the  perception  of  every 
man^s  conscience.  But  holding  fast  this  truth,  and  maintaining 
that  the  rejection  of  the  Gospel  is  always  the  result  of  sin 
or  moral  guilt,  and  not  of  misfortune  only,  he  equally  asserts 
the  scriptural  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  God,  as  displayed  in 
the  history  of  nations  and  the  lives  of  individuals. 

**  Iff*  he  says,  **  we  are  content  to  be  guided  by  the  Scriptures,  we  shaU 
not  perplex  ourselves  with  vainly  attempting  to  reconcile  the  sovereignty 
of  God  with  human  responsibility.  It  is  a  matter  too  high  for  us ;  we 
cannot  attain  to  it.  The  death  of  Christ  was  foreordained,  yet  this  did 
not  interfere  with  the  responsibility  of  those  who  through  their  wicked- 
ness fulfilled  the  Divine  purpose."  • 

Mr.  D'Israeli,  in  his  "Political  Biography  of  Lord  George 
Bentinck,'^  has  lately  endeavoured,  if  we  rightly  understand 
him,  to  screen  the  Jewish  nation  from  the  guilt  of  the  cruci- 
fixion, by  pleading  the  mysterious  purposes  of  God  which  they 
fulfilled.  Thus  it  is  that  "  parts  and  parcels  of  truth ''  are,  as 
Mr.  Howels  once  said,  "  the  most  envenomed  shafts  which  fly 
from  the  bow  of  Satan.^'  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  counted  it  the 
path  of  wisdom  to  receive  the  Word  as  he  found  it  written,  and 
neither  to  overlook  the  controlling,  ruling,  directing  sovereignty 
of  God,  nor  the  equally  obvious  and  revealed  responsibility  of 
man.  The  whole  of  his  treatise  is  rich  in  scriptural  views  of  the 
glory  of  God,  as  exhibited  in  the  scheme  of  redemption.  He 
shows  that  in  order  to  understand  the  Grospel  of  salvation,  we 
must  rightly  understand  our  fall  in  Adam.  In  A4am  all  were 
created.  In  Adam  all  sinned.  In  Adam  all  came  "  under  the 
curse  of  a  broken  law,'^  and  died. 

"  The  occasion,"  says  Dr.  Owen,  **  of  all  the  mistakes  or  errors  that  have 
been  about  regeneration,  has  been  a  misunderstanding  about  the  true  state 
of  men  in  their  lapsed  condition  of  nature  as  depraved." 


Ji' 


618  ON   THl   ATONEMENT. 

Mr.  Haldane  continues : — 

"  That  the  unnumbered  millions  of  the  human  race  should  hare  been 
created  in  a  sin^^le  individual,  would  appear  incredible,  but  the  birfii  of 
children  removes  the  difficulty.  Many  hold,  most  inooosistentlyy  that  we 
partake  of  the  consequences^  but  not  of  the  guilt  of  Adazn's  sin.  But 
'  by  one  man's  sin  many  were  made  sinners,'  and  by  the  righteousness  of 
11  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous." 

I 

He  thus  shows  the  unity  of  Adam  with  every  child  of  his  by 
natural  generation  down  to  the  end  of  time^  and  the  wnitj 
of  Christ  with  every  child  of  God  by  the  regeneraticm  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  all  eternity.  He  shows  that  Adam's  sin  was  the 
sin  of  all  mankind^  and  that  Christ's  righteousness  in  the 
righteousness  of  all  his  saved  and  blood-bought  flock.  '^  Tliere 
is/'  he  says^  "  a  transmission  of  mind  as  well  as  of  body.  The 
whole  is  a  mystery.     We  cannot  fathom  it."  • 

In  1^8  writings^  Mr.  J.  Haldane  often  enforces  his  arguments 
by  that  happy  faculty  of  apposite  illustration  from  anecdote 
which  availed  so  much  to  his  popularity  as  a  preacher.  With 
reference  to  the  folly  of  endeavouring  to  divest  the  Gospel  of 
mystery,  and  bring  down  heavenly  things  to  the  level  of  our 
limited  capacities,  he  alludes  to  the  embassy  sent  by  Louis  XIY. 
to  the  King  of  Siam.  The  ambassador  told  the  King,  that 
in  France  the  cold  was  so  intense  that  men  could  walk  upon  the 
water,  and  the  thing  appeared  so  absurd,  that  the  King  imagined 
it  was  intended  as  an  insult,  and  threatened  the  narrator  of  the 
marvel  with  instant  death.  Another  well-authenticated  anecdote 
to  the  same  effect  is  told  of  a  poor  North  American  Indian,  who 
returned  to  the  back  woods  of  his  distant  tribe  to  recount  the 
wonders  he  had  witnessed  at  Washington.  They  were  listened 
^j  to  with  doubt  and  incredulity,  until  he  declared  that  he  had 

seen  the  white  people  attach  a  great  ball  to  a  canoe,  and  so  rine 
into  the  clouds  and  travel  through  the  heavens.  This  was 
instantly  pronounced  to  be  an  impossibility;  and  a  young 
warrior,  in  a  paroxysm  of  anger,  levelled  a  rifle  at  his  head,  and 
shot  him  dead  on  tiie  spot,  as  too  great  a  liar  to  be  permitted  to 
live. 


I  > 

I. 

I' 


.1 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         619 

"If,  then/*  exclaims  Mr.  J.  Haldane,  "what  takei  place  in  another 
climate,  or  in  a  different  state  of  society,  appears  absurd  because  contrary 
to  experience,  shall  we  greatly  wonder  that  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God — those  heavenly  and  eternal  things  which  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
beard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive, — should 
be  foolishness  to  all  who  have  not  the  Spirit,  and  are  consequently  alien- 
ated from  the  life  of  Ood  ?  " 

It  would  be  oat  of  place  to  go  at  length  into  a  discussion  with 
regard  to  the  nature^  and  still  more^  as  to  the  extent^  of  the 
atonement.  But  the  great  importance  which  both  of  the 
brothers  attached  to  right  views  of  the  atonement^  forbids  that  a 
statement  of  their  sentiments  dhould  be  altogether  omitted.  To 
Socinians  and  Neologians  the  idea  of  a  Vicarious  Sacrifice,  by 
virtue  of  which  Qod  and  man  are  reconciled^  appears  nothing 
better  than  the  dream  of  an  enthusiast.  It  was  to  the  Jews  a 
scandal,  to  the  Greeks  fooUshness.  The  first-bom  of  Adam  after 
the  fall,  spumed  at  the  institution  of  a  typical  sacrifice  of  blood. 
To  him,  no  doubt,  it  appeared  contrary  to  reason  and  revolting 
to  humanity.  In  the  pride  of  his  self-righteousness  the  haughty 
will-worshipper  approached  his  Maker  with  what  he  deemed  the 
guiltless  offering  ''  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground.''  His  younger 
brother,  Abel,  discerned  by  faith  a  righteousness  which  was  to 
be  finished  upon  Mount  Calvary,  and  meekly  obedient  to  the 
heavenly  call,  poured  out  the  blood  of  the  firstUngs  of  his  flock 
upon  the  altar  of  God.  From  that  hour  down  to  the  present, 
the  question  of  an  atonement  has  been  one  that  has  divided  the 
two  families  of  which  the  children  of  Adam  were  from  the  first 
composed.  The  seed  of  the  serpent  rejects  the  idea  that  a 
merciful  and  benevolent  God  requires  to  be  propitiated  by  blood ; 
whilst  the  seed  of  the  woman,  with  child-like  simplicity,  receives 
the  Gospel,  that  '^  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  bdieveth  on  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.''  The  Scripture  declares,  that 
'^  without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins." 
The  blood,  we  are  told,  is  the  life;  and  as  death  was  the  penalty 
of  sin,  so  Christ  poured  out  his  life-blood,  and  gave  himself  up 
as  a  ransom  for  many.  Taking  upon  him  the  nature  of  man, 
after  man  had  incurred  the  curse  of  a  broken  law,  he  stood 


620  PHILOSOPHICAL    OBJECTIONS. 

in  the  breach  between  the  offended  majesty  of  the  Divine  law^ 
and  the  devoted  race  of  Adam.  The  curse  of  the  broken 
covenant  fell  upon  the  man  Jesus  Christy  but  in  the  impregnable 
strength  of  his  eternal  Godhead^  the  penalty  was  not  only 
endured,  but  exhausted.  The  curse,  which  would  have  sank 
a  sinful  world  to  the  bottomless  pit,  was  sustained  and  rolled 
away  by  the  Holy  One  of  God.  The  infinite  and  everlasting 
Jehovah,  tabernacled  in  flesh,  imder  the  conditions  of  a  broken 
law,  and  having  satisfied  all  its  requirements,  he  burst  the  portals 
of  the  grave,  rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascended  in  majesty  to  his 
Father's  throne,  whilst  angels,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  at 
length  made  perfect,  chanted  the  triumphant  song,  '^  Lift  np 
your  heads,  0  ye  gates ;  lift  them  up,  ye  everlasting  doors^  and 
the  King  of  Glory  shall  come  in.'' 

But  this  doctrine  of  an  imputed  righteousness  is  foolishness 
to  the  natural  man,  and  has  been  assailed  by  many  plausible 
objections,  drawn  by  inferential  reasoners  from  false  and  insa£S- 
cient  premises.  In  all  matters  concerning  the  truth  of  6od« 
it  is  in  a  finite  creature  nothing  better  than  an  act  of  folly  to  try 
to  overleap  the  boimds  of  revelation.  It  is  vain  for  the  finite  to 
grasp  the  Infinite,  or  for  human  reason  to  sound  the  unfathom- 
able depths  of  Divine  wisdom.  The  Scriptures  have  told  us  that 
Christ  "  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,"  that  he  was 
'^  made  a  curse  for  us  in  order  to  redeem  us  from  the  carse  of 
the  law,"  that  "  the  Lord  laid  upon  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all." 
Here  the  substitution,  the  suretyship,  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of 
"the  Just  for  the  unjust,"  are  clearly  declared,  and  on  this 
foundation  the  whole  fabric  of  man's  salvation  rests. 

In  attempting  to  meet  the  cavils  of  objectors,  or  to  smoothe 
away  difficulties  at  which  unbeUef  stumbles,  many  true  Chris- 
tians have  been  seduced  to  leave  the  beaten  path  of  Scripture, 
and  enter  on  the  fields  of  abstract  reasoning.  The  consequences 
might  easily  be  foretold  by  those  who  remember  the  warnings  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles.  It  is  venturing  on  the  wings  of 
speculation  into  the  realms  of  infinite  space,  where  there  is 
nothing  to  guide,  to  support,  or  to  direct.  All  is  darkness^ 
uncertainty,  and  gloom.     The  attempt  to  blend  the  conclusions 


PRACTICAL    AGREEMENT    AMONGST    CHRISTIANS.     621 

of  metaphysical  theories  with  the  authoritative  declarations  of 
the  Bible^  have  imiformly  ended  in  confusion.  Against  such 
a  method  of  dealing  with  Christianity  both  of  the  Haldanes 
earnestly  contended  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  their 
career.  "  How  readest  thou  1"  and  not  "  what  thinkest  thou  V^ 
was  the  shibboleth  of  their  theology. 

With  regard  to  the  atonement^  there  is^  as  they  used  to  say, 
less  of  real  difference  between  true  Christians  who  receive  the 
Bible  as  the  book  of  God,  than  at  first  sight  appears.  Where 
there  is  true  faith  or  confidence  in  Jesus,  that  confidence  must 
rest  on  the  finished  work  of  an  Almighty  Saviour,  by  whom  an 
atonement  or  reconciliation  is  made  between  God  and  the 
believing  sinner.  No  true  Christian  imagines  that  he  is  saved 
by  his  own  act  or  merits,  and  when  he  believes  that  his  salvation 
is  of  God,  and  not  of  himself,  he  in  effect  believes  in  the  electing 
love  of  the  Father,  in  the  atoning  work  of  the  Son,  and  in  the 
sanctifying  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  it  is  that 
disputes  about  election  and  predestination,  or  the  extent  of  the 
atonement,  are,  amongst  true  disciples,  generally  little  more 
than  strifes  of  words,  arising  out  of  the  partial  restoration  of 
spiritual  eye-sight. 

Still,  as  all  errors  are  dangerous,  and  we  are  commanded 
to  hold  fast  ''the  form''  as  well  as  the  substance  of  sound 
doctrine,  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  devoted  much  time  and  attention 
to  the  refutation  of  the  novel  and  metaphysical  views  of  the 
atonement,  which  were  successively  supported  by  Mr.  Hinton, 
Dr.  Jenkyn,  Dr.  Payne,  and  the  still  more  venerable  authority 
of  Dr.  Wardlaw.  He  himself  stood  by  the  old  doctrine,  which 
he  had  learned  as  a  child  out  of  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Catechism — that  doctrine  in  which  he  had  been  confirmed  by 
the  study  of  the  Scriptures  during  more  than  fifty  years — that 
doctrine  which  was  taught  not  merely  by  the  old  Scottish  and 
Puritan  Divines,  but  by  many  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  the 
English  and  Foreign  Churches. 

In  1843,  he  published  an  excellent  little  tract  on  the  atone- 
ment, and  in  1845  a  more  elaborate  but  still  condensed  work  on 
the  same  subject,  entitled,  "  The  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  with 


622  REALITY   OF   THE   ATONEMENT. 

Strictures  on  the  recent  Publications  of  Drs.  Wardlaw  and 
Jenkyn/^  Dr.  Wardlaw  not  only  maintained  the  universality 
of  the  atonement^  but^  like  Mr.  HintcHi,  that  men  have  '^  power 
to  believe  and  turn  to  God.^^  Some  students  of  Dr.  Wardlaw^Si 
and  also  of  the  Associate  Synods  taking  advantage  of  these 
incautious  concessions^  proceeded  to  deny  the  doetrine  of  electiiHi 
i  and  the  necessity  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit^  and  thua  adopted 

l  heresies,  which,  as  Mr.  J.  Haldane  remarked,  accord  better  with 

\l  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  and  "  promise  to  modify^  if  not  to 

remove,  the  hitherto  insuperable  difficulty  of  Grod^s  absolute 
sovereignty  in  the  bestowal  of  salvation.^^  The  system  against 
which  he  contended  teaches  that  the  atonement  was  an  eiiubiticm 
or  a  iuplmy,  a  make-believe,  a  show  or  shadow  of  justice  whilst 
the  Scripture  declares  it  to  be  a  reaUty. 


<*  In  all  that  is  done  by  the  Almighty,"  gays  Mr.  J.  H.,  '<  there  is  a 
substance,  a  reality,  which  repels  the  notion  of  a  mere  public  display  being 
the  end  of  his  proceedings.  Those,  therefore,  have  greatly  erred,  who 
would  resolve  the  whole  mystery  of  the  wisdom,  power,  and  love  of  God, 
comprised  in  the  atonement,  into  a  design  of  making  an  impression  mi 
his  creatures,  as  if  it  were  *  public  justice'  only  that  demanded  the  death 
of  Christ  The  atonement  is  indeed  a  wonderful  manifestatioQ  of  the 
righteousness,  holiness,  mercy,  and  truth  of  God ;  but  the  necessity  of  the 
atonement  did  not  result  from  the  existence  of  any  creature  excepting  the 
transgressor.  The  eternal  justice  and  truth  of  God  imperatively  demanded 
the  punishment  of  the  guilty ;  and  had  Adam  stood  alone,  the  solitarjr 
creature  of  the  Almighty,  the  essential  attributes  and  character  of  Gody 
his  holiness,  justice,  and  truth  would  have  rendered  his  doom  inevitable, 
had  not  wisdom  and  mercy  combined  to  devise  a  remedy,  by  which  the 
claims  of  justice  and  truth  are  satisfied  in  all  their  boundless  extent. 
.  .  .  Far  be  it,  then,  from  those  who  love  the  Lord,  to  represent  the 
atonement  as  an  expedient  for  the  exhibition  of  pubHc  justice,  instead  of 
being  an  actual  satisfaction  to  the  justice  of  God.  .  .  .  The  wisdom 
II  /  of  God,  even  the  hidden  wisdom,  consists  in  this,  that  the  '  debt  of 

obedience*  is  paid  actually,  not  figuratively,  by  our  great  Surety ;  that  our 
guilt  is  as  effectually  covered  with  the  robe  of  Christ's  righteousness  as  if 
it  had  never  existed ;  and  that  believers  have  fulfilled  the  law  in  all  its 
length  and  breadth,  so  that,  with  adoring  admiration  of  Him  who  loved 
them  and  washed  them  from  their  sins  in  his  own  blood,  they  dare 
challenge  the  universe  to  lay  anything  to  their  charge.  Is  this  the 
language  of  those  who  '  have  been  and  ever  must  continue  guilty  ?  *  ** 


i" 


DB.  paynb's  metaphysics.  623 

He  then  shows  that  the  mystery  of  the  absolution  of  the 
gpiilty  is  explained  by  the  unity  of  Christ  with  his  members. 

"  It  was  not,"  he  says,  ^'  another  who  appeared  as  their  surety.  It  was 
tke  head  of  the  body  of  which  they  are  the  members,  and  the  unity  of  the 
head  and  the  members  of  the  natural  body  is  not  more  real  than  that  of 
Christ  and  his  people.  This  is  the  mystery  of  faith.  It  may  elude  the 
grasp  of  human  intelligence ;  it  may  be  one  of  those  things  into  which  the 
angels  desire  to  look.  But  the  fact  is  certain.  He  hath  said  it,  and 
Instead  of  perplexing  ourselves  about  the  properties  of  '  commutative  or 
distributiTe  justice,'  it  will  be  our  wisdom  to  bow  with  adoring  humility 
to  the  unfathomable  wisdom  of  God,  and  receiving,  as  little  children,  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  to  learn  the  meaning  of  Chrisfs  words,  *  I  thank 
thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so, 
Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight.' " 

In  1847>  a  second  edition  of  this  work  being  called  for,  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  added  an  Appendix  of  Strictures  on  Dr.  Payne^s 
Lectures  on  the  same  subject.  These  Lectures  he  considered  as 
a  practical  illustration  of  the  danger  of  "  blending  metaphysics 
with  Scripture.'' 

"  Dr.  Payne,"  he  says,  **  seems  to  court  the  title  of  a  Philosophical 
Divine.  It  is  a  dangerous  eminence.  The  man  who  aspires  to  it  tres- 
passes on  forbidden  ground.  'Stop,  traveller f  is  inscribed  on  the 
entrance  gate.  Paul,  the  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  all  the 
authority  of  his  apostoHc  character,  and  under  the  infalliUe  guidance  of 
inspiration,  warns  us  of  the  dang^  of  blending  our  philosophy  with  the 
doctrine  of  Jesus.  (Col.  ii.  8.)  It  is  impossible  to  neglect  the  warning 
without  becoming  the  dupes  of  our  own  subtleties." 

Unless  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  election  be  set  aside^  Mr. 
Haldane  argues  that  neither  the  metaphysics  of  Dr.  Payne  and 
Mr.  Hinton,  nor  the  still  more  powerful  logic  of  Dr.  Wardlaw, 
will  avail : — 

^  If,"  he  continues, — "  if  the  work  of  the  Spirit  be  as  essential  to  salvation 
as  the  work  of  Christ,  an  atonement  having  been  made  for  all  brings  no 
one  nearer  to  the  kingdom  of  Qod,  for  without  the  sovereign,  efficacious 
work  of  the  Spirit,  there  is  an  absolute  impossibility  of  a  sinner's  salva- 
tion, so  that  your  opening  a  door  of  hope  for  all  is  only  uncovering  a 
grave  that  the  dead  may  come  forth  ;  it  is  lighting  a  candle  that  the  blind 
may  see ;  it  is  opening  a  door  for  a  man  without  legs  to  walk  out  of 
prison." 


624  GENERAL    AND    PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 

Mr.  J.  Haldane^s  object  was  to  exhibit  the  simple  truth  of 
Scripture,  and  at  the  same  time  to  expose  the  futihty  of  eveiy 
attempt  to  explain  or  remove  difficulties  by  philosophical  specu- 
lations. In  one  word,  he  held  the  doctrine  of  the  substitution 
and  vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ  to  be  a  reality  instead  of  a 
fiction,  and  as  to  difficulties,  ^^  what  we  know  not  now,  we  shall 
know  hereafter.'' 

But  connected  with  the  discussion  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
atonement,  there  is  another  question  as  to  the  extent  of  its 
operation,  which  has  unhappily  divided  some  Churches  and 
many  Christians,  who  hold  the  doctrines  of  election  and  of  free 
sovereign  grace,  in  a  way  which  ought  to  cut  ofi*  all  ground 
for  serious  difference  of  opinion.  The  question  as  to  general  and 
particular  redemption  is  one  of  which  Joseph  Milner  says,  in  his 
"  Church  History,''  that  he  regrets  it  ever  was  opened.  There 
is  a  sense  in  which  Jesus  Christ  as  man  redeemed  the  world, 
including  animate  and  inanimate  creation,  from  the  usurpation 
of  Satan ;  and  in  this  life  there  is  also  a  sense  in  which,  ^'  for 
the  elect's  sake,"  every  creature  that  breathes  on  this  earth 
participates  in  the  benefits  of  redemption.  There  is  also  a  sense 
in  which  all  mankind  are  brought  under  the  purchased  dominion 
of  the  Son,  to  whom  all  judgment  is  committed  by  the  Father. 
But  whether  atonement  or  reconcihation  can  be  said  to  belong  to 
those  who  die  in  their  sins,  and  either  reject  the  Gospel  or  never 
hear  it,  is  a  question  which  has  divided  many  Christians  whose 
views  of  the  doctrines  of  free  grace  are  substantially  the  same. 
The  Scriptures  contain  a  plain  warrant  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature.  There  is  no  exception.  It  is  addressed  to 
sinners  throughout  the  whole  world,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile, 
male  or  female,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  or  free.  Christianity 
is  not  like  Judaism,  intended  for  a  particular  nation  or  selected 
family.  It  is  glad  tidings  for  every  inhabitant  of  the  world  who 
hears  and  believes  the  testimony  declared  by  the  Father,  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  only  begotten  and  well-beloved  Son  of 
God,  in  whom  He  is  well  pleased.  "  Whosoever  beheves "  this 
testimony,  may  conclude  with  certainty  that  for  him  Christ  died. 

In  so  far  all  are  agreed  who  receive  the  saving  tiniths  of  God. 


EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  625 

But,  unhappily,  other  questions  have  arisen  which  are  more 
speculative  and  perplexing,  and  with  the  view  of  removing 
stumbling-blocks,  it  has  been  declared  that  Christ  shed  his 
precious  blood  equally  for  the  lost  as  well  as  for  the  saved,  for 
Judas  as  well  as  for  Paul,  for  the  millions  and  millions  to  whom 
the  Gospel  is  never  sent,  as  well  as  for  the  countless  multitude 
who  hear  and  believe.  If  this  speculative  question  were  settled 
in  the  affirmative,  would  it  remove  one  of  those  difficulties  which 
are  now  an  offence  to  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  ? 

If  Christ  died  for  the  whole  world,  and  the  term  world  is  to 
be  understood  in  an  unrestricted  sense,  without  the  limitations 
which  the  sense  again  and  again  requires  for  the  same  word 
in  other  places,  would  it  not  be  asked.  Why  is  not  the  (Jospel 
carried  to  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  why  do  millions  in 
every  age  die  in  ignorance  and  blindness,  without  the  know- 
ledge of  the  costly  salvation  supposed  to  have  been  prepared 
for  their  acceptance  ?  Was  all  this  provision  in  vain  ?  Is 
there  not,  at  all  events,  as  much  of  the  supposed  mockery  in 
speaking  of  an  atonement  or  reconciliation  hidden  from  three- 
fourths  of  the  adult  world  who  die  imreconciled,  as  in  speaking 
of  an  atonement  which  was  only  for  those  who,  if  they  arrive  at 
years  of  imderstanding,  manifest  by  their  faith,  that  they  are  the 
sheep  whom  the  Father  hath  given  to  Christ  ?  (John  x.  17, 
and  xvii.  10.)  The  difficulties  remain  the  same  in  either  case, 
unless  it  be  said  that  the  Grospel  is  preached  to  condemn  the 
world,  or  at  least  that  portion  of  it  which  rejects  the  truth, — an 
allegation  that  would  rather  seem  to  militate  against  our  Lord's 
declaration,  that  he  came  "  not  to  condemn,  but  to  save.'' 

To  all  cavils  there  is  but  one  answer,  and  it  is  that  by  which 
the  apostle  stated  and  silenced  the  objection  to  the  sovereignty 
of  (Jod.  (Rom.  ix.  20.)  If  it  had  been  the  will  of  God,  the 
Gospel  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ  might  have  passed  with 
the  lightning  speed  of  electricity  to  every  comer  of  the  globe  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost.  Had  it  been  the  will  of  God,  the  Grospel 
might  have  been  preached  to  every  creature  imder  heaven  without 
exception,  and  the  same  irresistible  power  which  arrested  Saul 
on  the  road  to  Damascus  could  have  unlocked  every  heart  to 

s  s 


t  ■• 


•  i 


626  SOVEREIGNTY   OF   GOD. 

receive  the  truth.  But  thia  did  not  seem  good  to  Him  who 
ordereth  all  things  according  to  His  sovereign  pleadure  in  the 
armies  of  heaven  and  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  the  earthy  and 
we  know  who  has  said^  "  No  man  cometh  unto-  me  exoq>t  the 
Father  draw  him.''  But  why  are  not  all  drawn  ?  "  Ask  not  the 
reason^''  says  Benedict  Pictet ;  '^  it  is  secret^  but  not  unjust/'  It 
is  enough  to  know  that  the  command  is  plain^ "  Preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature/'  and  that  the  promise  of  salvation  is  secure  to 

i';-i  "  whosoever  believe."     For  "  whosoever"  will  believe,  there  is  an 

t-h  ample  provision ;  for  all  who  will  enter  in^  the  door  stands  open ; 

i'^  for  all  who  will  drink  the  fountain  flows.     But  whether  there  be 

reconciliation  provided  for  those  who  die  unreconciled^  whether 
there  be  the  same  provision  for  those  who  reject  as  for  those  who 
J  receive  the  Grospel^ — for  those  who  turn  away  from  the  water  of 

j{  life  as  for  those  who  drink, — ^for  those  who  spurn  at  the  door  (^ 

'I  mercy  as  for  those  who  meekly  enter  in,  are  questions  which  do 

|]  not  seem  to  involve  any  practical  result,  and  on  which  there 

is  surely  room  for  the  exercise  of  mutual  charity  amongst  those 
who  equally  beheve  that  by  grace,  and  by  grace  alone,  are  we 
saved,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  all  in  all. 

These  remarks  are  made  not  in  a  polemical  spirit,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  explaining  the  discussion  concerning  the  nature  of 
the  atonement  and  its  extent,  in  which  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  took 
so  prominent  a  part.  He  was  in  his  seventy-seventh  year  when 
his  last  treatise  on  the  atonement  appeared,  and  he  was  verging 
on  fourscore  when  he  published  the  second  and  enlarged  edition, 
with  the  appendix  in  reply  to  Dr.  Payne.  By  a  very  distin* 
guished  theologian,  who  has  also  used  it  as  a  class-book,  it  was 
pronoimced  to  be  the  most  vigorous,  acute,  and  logical  of  all 
Mr.  James  Haldane's  works.     The  same  eminent  Presbyterian 

I  ]  divine  also  lately  added,  that,  in  his  opinion,  it  was  the  best  and 

-  the  soundest  work  on  the  atonement  he  had  ever  met  with, 

having  regard  to  its  condensation  of  solid  truth  as  well  as  to  its 
sound,  scriptural  theology.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  had  proclaimed 
the  Oospel  in  all  its  freeness  with  a  fervour  and  a  success  seldom 
exceeded.  His  own  views  are  the  reflection  of  those  contained 
in  the  Confession  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  in  the  seven- 


'1 1 
I'' 
il 

1- 1 


< 

i  ■ 


SCRIPTURAL   THEOLOGY.  627 

teenth  article  of  the  Church  of  England.  No  man  could  charge 
him  with  occupying  himself  with  curious  points^  preaching  only 
to  the  electa  or  by  reference  to  the  secret  counsels  of  God^ 
fettering  the  proclamation  of  pardon  to  repenting  sinners.  His 
works^  therefore^  on  the  atonement  had  the  double  advantage  of 
being  the  mature  opinions  of  a  man  mighty  in  the  Scriptures^ 
and  of  one  whose  gift  seemed  especially  designed  for  awakening 
the  careless  and  persuading  sinners  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth.  Both  of  the  brothers  distinctly  held  that  but  for  his 
chosen  sheep^  Christ  never  would  have  shed  his  precious  bloody 
and  that  no  sacrifice  could  avail  without  the  prayer  or  interces- 
sion of  the  Priest.  (Heb.  vii.  25 ;  Rom.  viii.  84.)  They  also 
held  that  there  must  be  perfect  imity,  both  of  design  and  of 
execution^  in  the  (rodhead.  The  tmity  of  the  Grodhead  required^ 
that  as  was  the  extent  of  the  Father's  gift^  and  the  extent  of  the 
sanctifying  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost^  such  also  must  be  the 
extent  of  the  atonement  or  reconciliation  effected  by  the  Son. 
To  suppose  that  Christ  died  for  those  who  were  not  given  to  him 
of  the  Father^  and  whom  the  Holy  Ohost  does  not  sanctify^  and 
for  whom  Christ  himself  would  not  intercede  (John  xvii.  9)^  was 
to  impute  not  only  disunion^  but  inconsistency^  to  the  operation 
of  the  three  persons  of  the  blessed  Trinity. 

But  holding  these  decided  views^  no  man  preached  the 
Gospel  more  freely  and  fully  than  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane,  and  no 
man  more  disapproved  than  he  did  of  that  unwarrantable 
method  which^  overlooking  the  responsibility  of  man^  only 
addresses  the  invitation  to  the  electa  whose  names  are  in  the 
book  of  life.  He  rested  his  appeals  on  a  firm  conviction  that 
every  human  being  is  bound  to  believe  the  testimony  of  the 
Father,  that  Christ  is  his  beloved  Son;  that  the  rejection  of 
this  testimony  is  the  result  of  moral  depravity  and  not  of 
natural  inability;  that  whosoever  believes  this  testimony  shall 
have  eternal  life,  whilst  those  who  reject  the  testimony  are 
justly  condemned,  because,  by  their  unbelief,  they  exhibit  their 
enmity  to  truth,  and  make  God  a  liar.  But  he  never  called 
upon  each  and  every  sinner  to  believe  that  Christ  died  or 
offered  up  a  sacrifice  for  him  in  particular,   because  he  was 

s  s  2 


028      LKTTBE   TO   THE    "  EVANGELICAL    MAGAZINE." 

convinced  that  Christ,  in  his  priestly  character,  ne^'er  offeitd 
a  aacrificc  for  thoac  on  whose  behalf  he  did  not  intercede.  It 
was  the  neglect  of  thia  diitinction  which,  in  his  opinion,  pm- 
duccd  BO  much  confusion  amongst  many  good  mm  who  anbiUii- 
tially  hold  and  desire  to  preach  the  same  Gospel. 

The  BcccMsioD  which  at  this  time  took  place  from  the  Congre* 
gational  Union  in  Scotland  gave  rise  to  some  diacnaaioQ  in  the 
"Evangelic^  Magazine"  for  1844  (p.  670),  and  for  1845 
(p.  142).  In  these  articles  a  Scotch Congregationalist,  willingto 
justify  his  own  denomination,  and  transfer  the  origin  of  the  new 
heresies  to  a  remote  cause,  with  more  of  ingenuity  than  of  truth 
or  logic,  traced  the  mischiefs  which  had  sprung  np  to  what  bad 
occurred  nearly  fifty  years  before  in  connexion  with  Mr.  Uai- 
danc's  seminaries.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  waa  prevailed  on  to 
put  on  record  a  contradiction  of  these  mis-statements,  and  it 
appeared  in  the  "Evangelical  Magazine"  for  1846  (p.  249). 
His  letter  to  the  editor  is  important,  partly  as  a  memorial  ctf  the 
doctrinal  consistency  and  sobriety  of  both  the  brothers,  partly 
as  an  evidence  of  their  uniform  aversion  to  the  frigid  system  ot 
Sindcmanianisni,  snd  partly  as  a  testimony  to  the  character  t^ 
most  of  the  students  who  were  educated  in  the  seminaries 
of  Glasgow,  Dundee,  and  Edinburgh.  In  the  letter  he  alludes 
to  bin  lirst  preaching  tour,  undertaken  in  1797,  with  the  view 
of  calling  attention  to  the  Gospel,  but  adds,  that,  "whilst  I 
hope  I  have  learned  something  by  studying  the  Scriptures  for 
almost  fifty  years,  if  I  were  asked  in  what  respect  my  present 
views  of  any  great  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  differ  from  my  aentt- 
ments  in  1797,  I  could  not  specify  one  particular."  He 
adds:— 

"  It  may  be  a  reproach,  in  (he  opinion  of  your  correspondent,  tliat  1 
hold  '  the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Confession,'  but  I  sin  still  willing 
to  bear  it,  and  to  this  day  I  prefer  it  to  the  improyemenla  made  upon  it 
by  writers,  either  in  America,  Scotland,  or  England.  And  I  am  con- 
firmed in  this  preference  when  I  witness  the  fruits  of  a  deviation  from 
some  of  these  doctrines,  both  in  the  Secession  and  Congregational 
Churches  of  Scotland," 

He  then  relates  what  has  been  already  stated  in  en  early  part 


LETTER   TO    THE    "EVANGELICAL   MAGAZINE.        629 

of  this  volume,  with  reference  to  his  owd  and  his  brother's 
protest  in  1801  against  the  use  of  Sandeman's  works  by  Mr. 
Ewing  in  the  seminary  at  Glasgow^  and  his  continued  and 
uniform  disapproval  of  them  since  that  period.     He  adds : — 

"  Sandeman  may  be  said  to  set  aside  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  for  he 
discourages  all  concern  about  salvation  in  the  unconverted ;  but  he  carries 
the  doctrine  of  Divine  sovereignty  so  high,  that  it  would  appear  the  sinner 
has  nothing  to  do  but  to  wait  till  Ood  reveal  His  Son  in  him." 

A  quotation  had  been  made  by  the  writer  in  the  '' Evan- 
gelical Magazine^'  from  a  work  on  ^^  Errors  in  Religion/'  by 
Mr.  Douglas^  of  Cavers^  from  which  it  appeared  that  Mr. 
Douglas  had  associated  the  leaders  of  ^'  the  Haldane  movement 
with  some  peculiar  opinions  relating  to  the  preparation  of  food^ 
entertained  by  that  gentleman's  early  friend  and  relative^  Dr. 
Stuart.     On  this  point  Mr*  J.  A.  Haldane  replies : — 

**  For  my  own  part,  I  have  always  understood  the  precept,  Acts  xv. 
28,  29,  as  being  parallel  to  Rom.  ziv.  15,  and  that  it  was  given  from 
regard  to  the  Jews,  in  whose  synagogues  Moses  was  read  every  Sabbath- 
day.  I  never  at  any  time  held  this  prohibition  as  perpetual,  and  that  my 
brother's  sentiments  were  similar  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  when  Mr. 
Ewing  was  about  to  publish  his  lecture  on  Acts  xv.  28,  29,  my  brother 
intimated  his  intention  of  taking  a  number  of  copies,  till  he  heard  that 
Mr.  Ewing  insisted  on  the  obligation  under  which  believers  are  laid  to 
abstain  from  blood,  when  he  told  him  that  in  that  case  he  could  not 
encourage  the  sale." 

Although  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane^s  strength  seemed  long  to 
triumph  over  age^  yet  frequent  attacks  of  gout  reminded  him^ 
as  he  himself  wrote,  that  ''  the  clouds  returned  after  the  rain.'' 
In  a  letter  written  when  he  was  seventy-five,  he  says : — 

"As  to  exertion  and  fatigue,  you  greatly  overrate  my  labours,  and 
I  do  not  feel  more  fatigued  on  the  Lord's-day  evening  than  on  other  days. 
If  ever  I  find,  as  is  likely  should  I  live  a  little  longer,  that  my  work  is  too 
great,  I  will  give  up  the  Lord*s-day  evening  service.  At  present  this  is 
not  necessary." 

Thus,  imtil  verging  on  fourscore  years,  did  he  himself  conduct 
three  services  every  Lord*s-day,  preaching  twice,  besides  admi- 


630  DEATH    OF   MR.  CLEGHORN. 

Distering  the  Lord^s  Sapper  in  the  morning  and  delivering  tw 
addresses^  equal  in  l^gth  to  one  full  sermon. 

In  the  spring  of  1848  he  had  a  severe  attack  of  gout^  to  whicl 
he  alludes  in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Mrs.  M'Neil 
which  indicates  the  perfect  peace  that  possessed  his  soul : — 

t:^i  <«  Edinburgh,  Apnl  9th,  1843. 

'.'  ''The  account  which  you  give  of  the  state  of  your  mind  when  you 

received  relief  from  the  Gospel  is  very  affecting.  The  Lord  leads  the 
hlind  in  a  way  they  know  not,  and  in  paths  that  they  have  not  known. 
You  went  to  Thurso  for  your  health  in  1797,  and  the  Lord  was  pleased  to 
meet  you  there  and  to  guide  your  feet  into  the  way  of  peace.     I  shall 

^.  never  forget  the  kindness  I  received  from  yoiur  worthy  fSather,  and,  indeed^ 

'^  from  all  the  family.    I  spent  some  very  happy  hours  at  Stazigo,  the 

recollection  of  which  is  still  gratefid,  although  most  of  those  in  whose 
company  they  were  passed  have  gone  the  way  of  aU  the  earth.  Well  I 
we  shall  go  to  them,  but  they  will  not  return  to  us.    We  can  anticipate 

!^i  uniting  with  them  in  the  new  song  of  praise  to  Him  who  loved  us,  and 

hath  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that 
you  have  been  so  unwell,  but  I  unite  with  you  in  giving  thanks  to  the 
Ood  of  our  life  for  your  restoration.  I  have  also  had  an  attack  of  gout, 
to  which  I  am  subject.  I  was  laid  aside  for  three  Lord's-days,  but  was 
able  to  preach  last  LordVday.  I  heard  lately  of  a  woman  in  the  High- 
lands, who  had  been  very  ill.  A  friend  visited  her,  to  whom  she  said, 
<  1  thought  our  next  meeting  would  have  been  before  the  throne,  but 
either  I  am  not  meet  for  that  blessed  place,  or  my  Father  has  something 
more  for  me  to  do.'  Well,  which,  think  you,  is  the  true  reason  ?  Why, 
to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  believe  it  is  the  last;  for  when  I  think  of  the 
glory  of  my  Eedeemer's  righteousness,  in  which  I  shall  stand  before  God, 
it  seems  so  complete  that  I  have  no  fear  of  my  acceptance.     *  I  went,' 

j  { j  continued  she,  '  to  my  neighbours  on  my  recovery,  and  told  them  I  was 

sent  back  to  them  from  the  dead,  and  some  were  much  affected,  and 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  one  is  seeking  the  way  to  Zion.'  I  used  to 
call  frequently  on  Mr.  Cleghom;  although  his  weakness  prevented  him 
from  speaking  in  public,  I  thought  it  a  great  privilege  to  converse  with 
him.  He  was  constantly  employed  in  searching  the  Scriptures,  and  was 
delighted  to  speak  of  the  wondrous  things  which  he  had  discovered  in 

,  God's  holy  law.    1  saw  him  not  long  before  his  death ;  indeed,  the  first 

'  intimation  I  got  of  it  was  in  a  letter  asking  me  to  his  frmeral.    I  was 

unwell,  and  unable  to  go.  And  now  I  commend  you  to  God  and  to  the 
word  of  His  grace.  May  He  support  and  comfort  you,  and  sanctify  you 
wholly !    May  'you  be  enabled  to  look  stedfastly  within  the  veil,  and 


t. 


1 

i  • 


VISIT   TO   HATCH  AM.  631 

beholding  in  the  unveiled  &ce  of  Jesus,  as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of  the 
Lord,  may  you  be  changed  into  the  same  image,  firom  glory  to  glory,  as 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Mrs.  M'Neil,  yours  very  affectionately, 

"  J.  A.  Haldanb." 

In  the  summer  of  1843^  he  was  induced^  on  account  of  his 
gout^  to  repair  to  Buxton  with  Mrs.  Haldane.  He  went  by  sea 
to  London^  and  remained  at  Hatcham  for  some  time.  During 
his  visits  he  was  able  to  take  long  walks  with  as  little  fatigue  as 
ever,  and,  accompanied  by  his  grandchildren,  almost  daily  made 
some  little  excursion.  Greenwich  Hospital  was  a  very  favourite 
object,  and  he  took  particular  pleasure  in  seeing  the  old  sailors 
in  their  magnificent  asylum,  and  in  watching  the  shipping  on 
their  still  more  majestic  river.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the 
following  letter  was  written  by  that  venerable  and  excellent 
man,  the  late  Rev.  (jeorge  CoUison,  so  well  known  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Village  Itinerant 
Society : — 

**  There  are,**  he  says,  "  few  things  of  the  kind  that  would  afford  me 
more  gratification  than  to  meet  your  venerable  father  for  a  few  hours  at 
Hatcham  House.**  After  stating  his  engagements,  and  proposing  a  parti- 
cular day,  Mr.  CoUison  adds :  **  Should  this  be  inconvenient,  I  can  only 
request  my  affectionate  regards  to  the  venerable  minister  of  the  grace  of 
God,  with  sincere  prayer  for  his  abundant  comfort  in  the  last  stage  of  his 
important  ministry.  The  names  of  '  Robert  Haldane'  and  *  James  Hal- 
dane' are  so  blended  with  all  my  mental  associations  respecting  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  forty  years  ago,  that  I  must  almost  forget  myself 
before  I  can  forget  them." 

From  London  Mr.  Haldane  proceeded  to  Buxton,  where,  as 

usual,  he  took  long  walks  on  the  week-days,  and  preached  twice 

every   Lord's-day   with   great  power    to    good    congregations. 

From  the  baths  and  change  of  scene  he  appeared  to  derive 

great  benefit,  and  returned  home  about  the  middle  of  October. 

On  his  arrival,  he  writes : — 

**  On  reviewing  our  journey  we  see  much  cause  for  gratitude  to  God, 
and  there  is  no  part  of  it  on  which  I  look  back  with  so  great  pleasure  as 
to  the  time  I  spent  with  you  at  Hatcham  and  at  Buxton,  and  all  your 
kindness,  as  well  as  that  of  dear  Emma  and  her  sister  Selina,  to  both  of 
whom  I  shall  write  as  soon  as  I  can  get  my  hands  free  of  matters  which 


1 


!•! 


632  RECALLED   TO    LONDON. 


have  accumulated  in  my  absence.    It  is  my  daily  prayer  that  the  Lord 

blessing  may  rest  on  you  and  all  your  family.    You  will  be  surpriaed  t 

learn  that  Dr.  Malan  is  here.    He  was  at  Aberdeen  yesterday,  and  goe 

A  to  the  Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  to-morrow  at  Glasgow.     He  speak 

of  being  with  you.     Here  I  hope  he  will  be  with  us,  and  preach  for  nn 
next  Lord's-day." 

Scarcely  bad  he  arrived  in  Edinburgh^  when  the  illness  of  hii 
eldest  and  beloved  daughter  Elizabeth^  who  remained  with  ha 
brother^  recalled  him  to  Hatcham.  She  had  for  many  yean 
been  in  bad  healthy  but  without  any  unmediate  apprehensions 
of  a  fatal  issue.  Her  father  was  most  anxious  to  take  her 
home^  as  it  was  impossible  for  him^  without  the  neglect  of  his 
public  duties^  to  remain  away  from  Edinburgh.  A  land  joomey 
would  have  been  too  fatiguing  for  her^  but  it  was  at  last 
arranged  that  she  should  go  by  sea^  and  her  cousin^  Mrs. 
}  Haldane  Gordon^  who  was  then  staying  at  Hatcham,   kindly 

lil  attended   her  on   the  voyage.      She  survived^   without    much 

suffering,  till  the  20th  of  December.     On  the  evening  preceding 
her  death,  her  father  writes : — 

"  If  you  come  this  week  I  hope  you  will  see  her  alive.  I  had  never 
spoken  to  her  about  my  thoughts  of  her  danger  till  yesterday.  I  had  no 
doubt  of  her  union  with  Christ,  and  confidently  expected  that  he  would 
lead  her  to  speak  on  the  subject.  When  alone  with  her,  she  asked  me 
whether  I  thought  the  disease  advancing  rapidly.  I  told  her  I  did,  and 
1 1  that  she  must  have  seen  from  the  beginning  that  I  had  no  hope  of  hei 

I J  recovery.     She  said,  she  knew  this,  and  was  looking  to  Jesus  as  her  only 

';  f  I  hope ;  that  she  had  long  known  the  Lord,  and  felt  secure  in  his  love." 

'i  i  In  the  same  letter  he  proceeds,  at  a  later  hour : — 

"  Dear  Elizabeth  is  very  weak.  Whether  she  will  rally  is  at  present 
doubtful,  but  she  expressed  the  hope  that  she  might  live  to  see  you  once 
more,  but  was  afraid  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  speak  to  you  when 
you  came.  Her  mind  is  quite  comfortable.  She  said  to  me,  when  I  was 
speaking  to  her  a  little  while  ago,  that  she  had  got  the  wish  for  which  she 
had  prayed  on  the  evening  of  her  mother's  death,  that  she  might  go 
before  me,  and  not  see  me  die.  I  reminded  her  of  Jordan  being  dried  up, 
when  the  feet  of  the  priests  touched  the  water,  so  that  Israel  passed 
through  dry-shod,  and  so  the  empty  grave  of  Jesus  stands  at  the  entrance 
of  the  dark  valley,  the  pledge  of  death  being  swallowed  up  in  victory." 

Nearly  two  years  afterwards  the  following  letter  was  written 


LETTER   ON    THE    EESURRECTION.  633 

on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Miss  Hardcastle^  the  early 
friend  of  his  departed  daughter  and  the  only  surviving  sister  of 
his  daughter-in-law : — 

"  Edinburgh,  November  Uh,  1845. 

"  My  dearest  Emma, — I  have  just  received  Alexander's  letter  inform- 
ing us  of  the  removal  of  dear  Selina.  It  was  very  unexpected,  although 
the  state  of  her  health  for  so  long  a  time  rendered  it  an  event  which  might 
reasonably  be  looked  for.  I  wrote  to  her  on  Monday,  and  my  letter 
would  arrive  a  few  hours  after  her  departure.  Many  years  ago  Selina 
and  Elizabeth  were  together  at  Hatcham,  and  I  did  not  then  anticipate, 
that,  although  so  much  older,  I  should  survive  them  both.  But  the  path 
of  death  is  to  be  trodden  by  all,  and  it  is  to  believers  the  porch  of  eternal 
life.  It  has  been  called  by  a  heathen  the  birthday  of  eternity.  The  life 
of  all  his  posterity  was  committed  to  Adam,  and  he  forfeited  it ;  but  the 
life  of  the  believer  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and  the  second  Adam  has 
said.  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.  In  him,  their  glorious  head,  they 
suffered  the  penalty  of  their  guilt.  The  triumphant  shout, '  It  is  finished,' 
was  re-echoed  from  the  everlasting  hills,  when  Jesus  was  raised  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  and  Justice  and  Mercy  united  in  rolling 
away  the  stone,  that  the  Prince  of  Life,  the  head  of  the  new  creation, 
might  come  forth  firom  the  sepulchre  in  which  he  was  laid,  when  he  bore 
the  sins  of  his  people  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  We  are  not  called  to 
sorrow  for  dear  Selina,  as  those  who  have  no  hope.  She  has,  I  doubt  not, 
slept  in  Jesus,  and  joined  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect,  and  we  must 
all  shortly  follow.  The  more  we  are  freed  from  self-righteousness,  the 
more  we  look  to  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  the  more  comfort  shall  we 
enjoy.  Some  have  called  faith  and  repentance  the  conditions  of  the  new 
covenant.  Both  are  essentially  necessary,  they  accompany  salvation,  but 
we  may  as  well  term  holiness  the  condition,  for  without  holiness  no  man 
shall  see  the  Lord.  Faith  terminates  in  its  great  object;  the  source  of 
our  comfort  therefore  is  out  of  ourselves,  and  hence  it  is  that  salvation  is 
by  faith,  not  by  love,  or  any  disposition,  or  Christian  grace,  wrought  in 
ourselves ;  he  that  glorieth  must  glory  in  the  Lord. 

"  The  dispensation  will  be  peculiarly  trying  to  you,  but  I  trust  you 
will  experience  that  the  Lord's  grace  is  sufficient  for  you,  or,  in  the 
language  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  spiritual  things  are  set  forth 
by  those  which  are  earthly  and  typical,  that  your  shoes  shall  be  iron 
and  brass,  and  that  as  your  day  is  so  shall  your  strength  be.  The  great 
promise  of  the  Old  Testament  was  the  incarnation  of  Christ.  Its  accom- 
plishment has  vindicated  the  faithfulness  of  God.  The  great  promise  of 
the  New  'i'estament  is  the  second  appearing  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  he  hath 
said.  Behold,  I  come  quickly.    May  we  all  respond,  *  Even  so,  come.  Lord 


in 


634  DBATH   OF   DR.  ABS&CIIOMBIE. 


it 


\f 


tt 

]■■ 

h 

•I 


"i!! 


^ 


Jesus.'    It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  Mrs.  Haldane  and  myself  that  we  san 
Selina  once  more  before  her  removal.    She  sometimes  spoke  of  being  able 
to  visit  Edinburgh,  when  the  railway  was  completed.      Hereafter  the 
people  of  Ood  will  not  be  separated  from  each  other  by  distance. 
J  M  **  Believe  me,  my  dearest  Emma, 

**  Most  affectionately  yours, 

**  J.  A.  Haxj>akk.'' 


Mr.  Haldane's  public  engagements  were  still  discharged  withoat 
ijj  intermission^  and  the  time  which  he  devoted  to  correspond- 

ence with  the  Highland  preachers  itinerating  for  the  Baptist 
Home  Missionary  Society^  indicated  that  the  spirit  which 
animated  his  early  labours  was  unabated.  That  institution  was 
somewhat  similar  to  the  original  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  at  home^  and  employed  about  forty  itinerants,  to  cany 
the  Gospel  through  the  Highlands.  For  many  years  the 
preachers  were  accustomed  to  consult  him  in  every  difficulty, 
and  receive  from  him  directions  as  to  their  spheres  of  duty. 
To  the  energetic  vigilance  with  which  he  watched  over  their 
appointment^  to  the  prayerful  wisdom  with  which  he  directed 
their  movements,  to  the  combined  firmness  and  gentleness  with 
which  he  counselled,  admonished^  or,  if  needful,  rebuked,  may 
be  traced^  under  God,  much  of  the  good  fruit  that  crowned 
i'  their  exertions. 

In  a  letter,  dated  November  14th,  1844,  Mr.  Haldane  gives 
the  details  of  the  incidents  connected  with  the  death  of  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Abercrombie,  which  was  very  sudden^  and  some- 
j  j  what  similar  in  its  circumstances  to  that  of  Dr.  Chalmers.     He 

!  I'  continues : — 

**  He  lately  sent  me  a  little  book,  the  first  of  a  series  intended  for  the 
young,  on  the  discipline  of  the  mind,  not  anticipating  that  it  was  to  be 
his  last.     But  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  is  gone  to  Jesus." 

Dr.  Abercrombie,  whose  reputation  was  European,  both  as  a 
physician  and  a  philosopher^  had  been  many  years  before  a 
member  of  Mr.  Haldane^s  Churchy  and  although  having  first 
returned  to  the  Establishment^  and  then  gone  out  with  the 
Free  Church,  a  pastoral  relation  no  longer  subsisted  between 


\ 


DR.  CANDLISH CHRISTIAN    I^MION.  635 

him  and  Mr.  Haldane^  yet  they  both  felt  towards  each  other 
a  mutual  esteem  and  regard. 

In  1845  he  announced^  with  much  satisfaction^  the  success 
of  his  eldest  son^  by  his  second  marriage^  Daniel  Rutherford^ 
who  was  pursuing,  with  great  success,  the  study  of  Medicine 
at  the  Edinburgh  University.  ^'I  believe,^'  he  writes,  *^it  is 
unprecedented  to  gain,  at  the  same  time,  both  the  junior  and 
senior  prizes.  The  Professor  was  much  surprised.  He  also 
gained  the  first  prize  in  Physiology,  and  perhaps  would  have 
had  that  in  Anatomy  too,  had  he  not  lost  all  the  last  summer 
by  his  illness.^' 

In  a  letter,  dated  June  4th,  1845,  he  thus  writes : — 

**  I  went,  last  night,  to  a  Meeting  to  promote  unity.  Sir  Andrew 
Agnew  was  in  the  chair.  Mr.  Winslow,  from  Leamington,  spoke ;  also 
D*Aubign6  and  Monod ;  Guthrie,  of  the  Free  Church ;  Drummond  and 
Crowther,  Episcopalian;  and  Candlish  concluded.  I  came  away  before 
Dr.  Candlish  spoke,  which  I  regretted,  for  I  understand  it  was  the  best 
speech  of  the  evening.  He  disclaimed  presuming  to  judge  between 
essentials  and  non-essentials,  and  said  in  regard  to  what  Ood  had  revealed 
and  commanded  we  were  bound  to  obey  in  all  things,  but  still  to  exercise 
forbearance  to  each  other.  On  ever}'  question  on  which  I  have  heard  him, 
he  always  takes  high  ground.  He  is  decidedly  the  leader  of  the  Free 
Church.     A  man's  gift  maketh  room  for  him.** 

These  were  always  his  views  on  Christian  union,  and  he 
shortly  afterwards  published  a  little  treatise  on  the  subject,  in 
which  he  cites,  as  embodying  his  mature  opinions,  what  he 
had  written  more  than  forty  years  before,  in  his  book  on  Social 
Worship.  In  a  letter,  dated  January  5th,  1846,  he  says,  ^^I 
do  not  expect  it  to  be  popular.  The  first  part  will  probably 
be  most  so.  Mr.  Whyte  (the  publisher),  on  reading  it  ordered 
two  hundred  and  fifty  additional  copies  to  be  thrown  off.  He 
should  have  waited  until  he  saw  the  whole.^^  In  another  letter 
he  writes,  '^  I  am  not  surprised  that  you  do  not  agree  with  the 
second  part  of  the  pamphlet "  (relative  to  the  duty  of  following 
what  he  deemed  the  apostolic  usages),  ^'but  I  am  Ailly  con- 
vinced it  is  right.  The  disunion  of  Cfiristians  will  continue 
whilst  Moses  and  Elias  remain  upon  the  mount.  There  are 
many  good  men  in  the  Church  of  England,  but  I  greatly  fear,  and 


636  EXPOSITION  OP  GALATIAN8. 

I  say  it  with  grief,  that  a  great  part  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  England  will  go  into  Popery.  I  do  not  make  these  remarks 
to  introduce  any  controversy  with  you.  You  are  living,  I  trust, 
by  the  faith  of  Jesus,  and  have  received  that  anointing  which 
teacheth  all  things,  although,  in  some  points  belonging  to  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  I  consider  you  to  be  in  error,  and  I  pray 
the  Lord  to  guide  you  in  all  things,  and  to  preserve  you  to  his 
heavenly  kingdom/' 

In  1848  he  published  an  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  a  volume  in  which,  as  in  all  his  writings,  there  are 
many  delightful  and  edifying  views  of  Divine  truth,  and  many 
valuable  illustrations  of  the  connexion  between  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  But  the  third  chapter  unavoidably  led  him  to,  dis- 
cuss the  question  of  baptism,  and  this  necessarily  rendered  the 
book  less  acceptable  to  those  who  hold  the  importance  of  infant 
baptism.  It  is  to  this  objection  he  alludes  in  the  following 
letter.  The  firmness  with  which  he  adheres  to  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  will  of  God,  blended  with  so  much  charity  towards  those 
with  whom  he  differed,  will  however  command  the  respect  of  all 
who  admire  the  union  of  manliness,  fideUty,  and  candour  : — 

**  I  am  fully  sensible  that  anything  I  write  would  be  more  generally 
acceptable  were  I  to  omit  bringing  forward  my  views  respecting  Christian 
ordinances.  My  doing  so  does  not  arise  from  party  spirit,  or  a  desire 
to  exalt  any  one  denomination.  I  see  much  evil  in  all,  and  am  convinced 
of  the  obligation  under  which  believers  are  laid  to  forbear  with  each  other. 
I  am  convinced  that  the  corruption  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  originated  in 
the  corruption  of  the  ordinances.  The  doctrine  is  embodied  in  the  ordin- 
ances. ...  To  represent  the  ordinances  as  of  little  consequence, 
provided  we  hold  by  the  great  doctrines,  is  like  a  man  saying  of  a  geo- 
graphical work,  that,  provided  the  text  be  correct,  the  maps  are  of  little 
consequence.  The  description  in  the  text  ought  to  be  exhibited  in  the 
map?*,  and  where  they  correspond,  we  have  a  much  clearer  conception  of 
the  relative  position  of  the  places,  than  we  could  otherwise  have.  If  they 
do  not  correspond,  it  only  confuses  and  perplexes  us.  I  am  perfectly 
aware  that  the  power  of  religion  does  not  always  correspond  with  the 
apparent  accuracy  of  our  views  of  the  ordinances,  and  that  many  members 
of  unscriptural  Churches-are  far  superior  in  point  of  devotedness  to  God 
to  those  in  a  communion  guided  by  the  example  of  the  Apostolic 
Churches,  and  not  only  so,  but  I  see  some  who  have  lax  and  unscriptural 
views  of  some  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  superior  to  others  who 


HIS   VIEWS    OF    CHURCH    ORDINANCES.  037 

appear  better  instructed,  but  still  I  do  not  feel  myself  at  liberty  to  deviate 
from  the  custom  of  the  Apostolic  Churches  when  I  find  the  apostles  so 
anxious  that  there  should  be  no  deviation  from  their  practice.  (1  Cor. 
xi.  2.)  Those  who  think  it  their  duty  to  separate  from  Uie  world,  may  be 
viewed  as  narrow-minded  bigots,  placing  religion  in  external  observances. 
But  the  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh.  I  heartily  rejoice  in  the 
number  of  faithful  ministers  of  any  denomination  being  increased.  I  see 
many,  in  what  I  om/ulfy  convinced  to  be  most  unscriptural  situations,  far 
better  than  myself;  but  Tarn  Christ*  s  servant, — I  observe  his  ordinances  in 
faith,  and  I  cannot  be  satisfied  that  I  am  right  without  an  equal  conviction 
that  those  who  are  othenit'ifle  minded  are  wrong.  For  my  part,  I  durst  no 
more  have  published  an  Exposition  of  the  Oalatians,  and  have  slurred 
over  chapter  iii.  27,  than  have  put  my  hand  in  the  fire.  The  object  I  had 
in  view  was  to  show  that  the  great  body  of  Christians  are  in  the  situation 
of  those  who  were  under  the  influence  of  the  Judaizing  teachers.  When 
I  was  baptized,  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  I  was  connnced  that  it  was  the  will 
of  God,  but  I  see  its  importance  far  more  now  than  I  did  then.  It  is  not 
with  me  a  party  matter.  I  would  prefer  associating  with  a  Church  of 
England  man,  or  a  Presbyterian  who  was  spiritual  and  humble,  than  with 
a  Baptist  who  was  lifted  up  with  a  conceit  that  he  was  something.  I  would 
not  give  up  the  benefit  I  have  received  from  right  views  of  baptism  in 
regard  to  the  Gospel  for  any  consideration.  May  the  Lord  be  with  you ; 
draw  near  to  him,  and  he  will  never  leave  you,  nor  forsake  you. 

''  Yours,  ever  most  affectionately, 

«  J.  A.  H." 

This  chapter  has  conducted  us  over  six  years  of  the  life  of  the 
surviving  brother.  It  exhibits  him  bringing  forth  fruit  in  old 
age^  and  up  to  the  age  of  fourscore  labouring  with  undi- 
minished zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  sinners. 
Were  it  possible  to  withdraw  the  curtain  which  conceals  his 
domestic  and  private  life,  to  exhibit  the  closeness  of  his  walk  with 
God,  and  the  calm  sunshine  of  spiritual  peace  which  possessed 
his  soul,  it  would  also  be  possible  to  understand  something  of 
the  practical  and  sanctifying  influence  of  those  doctrines  for 
which  he  so  long  and  earnestly  contended.  His  letters  are, 
perhaps,  the  best  memorials  of  that  simple  faith,  that  deep 
experience,  that  settled  peace  and  assurance,  which  cheered  and 
irradiated  the  sunset  of  his  long  and  arduous  career.  The  limits 
of  these  memoirs  forbid  the  insertion  of  much  of  his  correspond- 
ence, and  some  occasional  fragments  must,  of  necessity,  suffice. 


■  f 

<  A- 

1* 


<i 


638  DBATH   OF   MR.  ALFRED    HAB1>CA8TUL 

The  following  are  parts  of  leltera  written  on  tlie  ^r^^h  of  fk 
two  brothers  of  his  daughter-in-law  in  London,  the  aoos  of  U 
own  and  his  brother's  friend^  Mr.  Hardcastley  whose  n^m^  wu 
at  the  outset  of  their  career^  so  much  associated  with  the  m 
motion  of  all  the  great  missionary  objects  which  ^»«»iTtg"i*^ 
the  close  of  the  last  century.  The  second  of  Mr.  Haidcastk'i 
three  sons  especially  resembled  his  father  both  in  features  am 
in  character^  and  with  him  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  li^d  eujovet 
much  intercourse.  It  was  whilst  absent  on  a  joomej^  whid 
they  made  together  into  Scotland,  that  Mr.  Alfred  Hardcasd 
wrote  of  him  to  his  sister^  '^I  cannot  express  the  incieasin^ 
reverence  I  feel  for  that  good  man's  character/^  On  hearinf 
of  his  deaths  produced  by  a  sudden  inflammatory  attack  in  hi 
fifty-first  year,  he  wrote  as  follows : — 

1*  "^BJWwy*,  Jfordkl  10,1842. 

J  **  Mt  dearest  Alexander, — ^When  I  saw  the  outside  of  your  letter 

'  .  I  too  surely  anticipated  the  melancholy  tidings  it  contained.     But  wki 

should  I  say  melancholy  ?    An  heir  of  Ood  and  a  joint  heir  of  ChnU 

1  has  finished  his  appointed  course  of  trial  and  disappointmeot,  and  hai 

entered  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.  Since  he  was  caUed  by  gmee  he  has 
had  fellowship  with  Jesus  in  the  troubles  of  life,  and  now  the  l^tt  scene 
of  his  fellowship  with  his  suffering  Saviour  is  safely  ended,  and  he  has 
departed  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better.  With  what  different  eyes 
does  he  now  regard  all  that  is  in  the  world,  and  with  what  gratitude  to 

I  Him  who  bought  him  with  his  blood,  does  he  look  forward  to  an  exeeed- 

ing  and  eternal  weight  of  glory !  His  lot  in  this  world  was  amooth  and 
prosperous,  but  he  now  looks  back  upon  all  external  circumstances  as  leas 

/  than  nothing  and  vanity,  except  as  they  bore  upon  that  unchanging  state 

into  which  he  has  entered.  And  yet  his  happiness  is  still  incomplete ; 
Satan  is  not  yet  bruised  under  his  feet,  for  he  still  retains  the  mortal 
body  in  the  prison  of  the  grave ;  but  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  tha 
assured  pledge  of  the  reunion  of  soul  and  body, — ^not  in  dishonour^  as 
being  doomed  to  separation ;  not  in  weakness,  as  being  subject  to  pain 
and  dissolution ;  not  a  natural  body,  as  being  derived  ^m  the  first  mMw, 
who  was  of  the  earth  earthy ;  but  a  glorious,  a  spiritual  body,  of  whieh 
the  glorious  body  of  the  second  Man,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  is  the 
pattern.  The  Lord  said  to  his  apostles,  <Ye  are  they  which  lunra 
continued  with  me  in  my  temptations,  and  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom 
as  my  Father  hath  appointed  unto  me.'  In  this  there  was  something 
peculiar  to  them,  as  the  chosen  ambassadors  of  Christ;  the  twelve 
foundations  of  his  Church,  as  resting  upon  Him,  the  chief  comer-stone. 


i>EATH   OF   MR.  ALFRED    HARDCA8TLB.  639 

They  were  (as  they  now  do)  to  sit  upon  tweWe  thrones,  judging  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel ;  but  all  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  are  made  kings 
and  priests  unto  Ood,  and  they  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.  And  shall 
we  say,  when  one  of  them  has  entered  the  haven  of  rest,  that  it  is 
melancholy  ?  It  is  so,  indeed,  in  reference  to  survivors ;  it  is  the  parting 
of  the  closest  and  most  endearing  ties  which  Ood  Himself  hath  appointed. 
He  Himself  calls  us  by  such  a  dispensation  to  weeping  and  mourning, 
but  we  are  not  to  sorrow  as  those  who  have  no  hope.  It  is  one  of  those 
scenes  of  tribulation  which  is  calculated  to  bring  sin  to  remembrance,  to 
tell  us  what  an  evil  and  bitter  thing  sin  is ;  to  show  us  that,  though  the 
sinner  was  the  signet  on  Jehovah's  right  hand.  He  would  pluck  it  off. 
He  adopts  a  child  of  Adam  into  his  family ;  He  loved  him  with  an  ever- 
lasting love  ;  but  there  was  about  him  that  bitter  thing  which  God's  soul 
hateth,  and  He  changed  his  countenance  and  sent  him  away,  apparently 
in  anger,  although  He  was  pacified  towards  him  for  all  that  he  had  done. 
God's  Word  took  hold  of  him :  '  Dust  thou  art,  and  into  dust  shalt  thou 
return.'  This  is  very  wonderful,  but  it  is  the  consequence  of  something 
still  more  inconceivable  and  stupendous.  The  only-begotten  Son,  who 
was  holy  as  God  is  holy,  appeared  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  as  the 
Head  of  his  body  the  Church.  He  had  undertaken  to  restore  what  He 
took  not  away.  After  living  years,  as  a  Man  of  sorrows,  in  the  world 
which  He  had  called  into  existence,  without  having  anywhere  to  lay  his 
head,  justice,  in  the  person  of  the  officers  sent  to  apprehend  Him, 
demanded  its  \'ictim.  He  instantly  responded  to  the  call,  adding,  '  If  ye 
seek  me,  let  these  go  away;'  and  then  He  underwent  that  bitter  trial 
which  wrung  from  Him  these  awful  words :  *  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me  ? '  The  sword  had  awaked  against  Him  who  was  the 
fellow  wof  the  Almighty,— against  Him  who  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be 
equal  with  God,  and  who,  at  this  time,  was  at  once  yielding  the  most 
humble  obedience  to  his  Father's  will,  and  exercising  one  of  the  special 
prerogatives  of  the  eternal  God.  He  had  received  a  conmiandment  from 
his  Father  to  lay  down  his  life,  and  He  did  it  voluntarily.  No  man  took 
It  from  Him.  Well  may  we  say,  *  O  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How  unsearchable  are  his  judgments, 
and  his  ways  past  finding  out'  In  God's  dealings  with  his  Church,  the 
principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places,  see  God's  manifold  wisdom. 
It  is  a  passage  in  the  history  of  the  universe,  which  they  will  never  tire  of 
perusing ;  it  is  a  depth  which  they  shall  never  be  able  fiilly  to  comprehend. 
**  The  account  you  give  of  Alfred's  death  is  very  interesting,  from  its 
simplicity.  Nothing  could  be  more  peaceful  and  happy  and  satisfactory. 
Although  we  may  long  have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  a  believer 
walking  humbly  with  God,  it  is  very  gratifying  to  witness  his  confidence, 
when  grappling  with  death,  and,  in  the  confidence  of  faith,  exclaiming : — 


640  DEATH    OF   MR.  JOSEPH    HARUTASTLE. 

'  Rejoice  not  against  me,  O  mine  enemy.      When  I  fall,  I  ahaU  rise ; 
when  I  walk  in  darkness,  the  Lord  will  be  a  light  around  me.'  .  .  . 

"  Give  my  kindest  love  to  Emma  and  the  children.  May  they  all  be 
bound  up  in  the  bundle  of  life  with  the  Lord!  May  they  be  found 
written  among  the  living  in  Jerusalem!  They  see  that  the  fashion  of 
this  world  passeth  away.  My  kindest  love  also  to  Mrs.  Alfred.  I 
truly  sympathize  with  her.  The  Lord  is  the  Judge  of  the  widow  and 
the  Father  of  the  fatherless.  Remember  me  very  kindly  to  Mr.  Hard> 
castle.  I  am  sure  he  will  feel  it  much.  May  the  Lord  Himself  comfort 
and  sanctify  him  !    We  shall  be  anxious  to  hear  again. 

"  Ever,  your  most  affectionate, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

The  death  of  Mr.  Alfred  Hardcastle  was  followed  by  that  of 
his  elder  brother^  who  had  not  been  in  good  health  at  the  time 
the  sudden  blow  had  fallen  on  him  by  the  removal  of  him  to 
whom  he  had  been  so  devotedly  attached.  It  was  on  this 
double  loss  that  the  next  letter  was  addressed  to  his  daughter- 
in-law  : — 

"  Edinburgh,  March  21,  1842. 

"  My  dearest  Emma, — Most  sincerely  do  I  sympathize  with  you  on 
the  removal  of  your  two  very  amiable  and  affectionate  brothers.  We 
were  in  hopes  that  the  crisis  in  regard  to  Joseph  was  over,  but  this 
morning  we  received  the  melancholy  account  of  his  having  followed 
Alfred.  It  is  exceedingly  affecting ;  but  we  must  say,  *  I  was  dumb ;  I 
opened  not  my  mouth,  because  thou  didst  it.'  Shall  we  receive  good  at 
the  hands  of  God,  and  not  evil  ?  Yet  it  is  not  evil.  Both  your  brothers 
have  been  removed  from  this  vale  of  tears,  and  both  departed  in  the  fisdth 
of  Jesus.  They  had  hope  in  their  death,  and  could  look  beyond  the 
darkness  of  the  tomb  into  that  world  of  light  which  is  illuminated  by  the 
beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  You  shall,  it  is  true,  no  more  behold 
them  in  their  houses  of  clay,  but,  through  the  grace  of  Jesus,  you  can 
anticipate  the  time  when  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  shall  present  it  to 
Himself  without  spot  or  wrinkle;  when  the  night  of  weeping  shall  haye 
passed;  and  when  uninterrupted  joy  shall  be  the  everlasting  portion  of 
the  redeemed. 

"  Then,  in  how  different  a  light  shall  we  regard  the  sorrows  of  life ! 
We  shall  look  back  upon  all  the  way  which  the  Lord  hath  led  us,  and 
shall  see  that  goodness  and  mercy  have  followed  us  all  the  days  of  our 
life ;  that  all  things  were  ours ;  that  every  dispensation  of  Providence, 
however  afflictive,  was  a  stream  from  the  inexhaustible  fountain  of  erer- 
lasting  love;   and  that  everything  which  befel  us  in  the  days  of  oar 


LETTER  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  FRIENDS.      641 

pilgrimage  was  the  development  of  that  wondrouB  plan  for  raising  us 
from  the  unfathomable  depth  of  sin  and  misery  to  an  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory.  These  are  the  true  sayings  of  God :  *  Heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  Christ's  words  shall  not  pass  away.  In 
the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation ;  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
come the  world.'  And  so  complete  is  his  victory,  that  the  troubles  of  life 
and  the  mouldering  of  our  mortal  bodies  in  the  dust  are  the  means 
employed  by  Him  who  is  wonderful  in  counsel  and  excellent  in  working, 
to  introduce  us  to  the  enjoyment  of  eternal  happiness.  It  must  be  a 
great  satisfaction  to  you  that  you  were  so  much  with  your  brother  Joseph 
in  his  last  illness ;  that  you  had  an  opportunity  of  soothing  him  in  his 
dying  moments ;  and  that  you  heard  him  profess  his  faith  in  the  grace 
and  power  of  the  surety  of  the  everlasting  covenant. 

"  I  received  Annie's  beautiful  letter,  giving  an  account  of  her  imcle 
Alfred's  death.  It  was,  at  the  same  time,  indeed,  very  triumphant  and 
perfectly  calm.  There  may  be,  and  often  is,  a  great  deal  of  excitement 
in  the  last  scene,  but  in  his  removal  everything  appeared  in  keeping — 
solemn,  and  perfectly  placid.  ...  I  sometimes  think  there  is  more 
resignation  among  the  poor  than  among  those  who  are  in  better  worldly 
circumstances.  It  is  a  common  expression  with  them,  *  It  was  to  be.' 
No  doubt  this  may  be  abused,  and  may  be  alleged  as  an  apology  for  our 
neglecting  the  means  which  were  placed  in  our  power ;  but  when  the  will 
of  God  is  declared  by  the  event,  it  is  our  wisdom  to  acquiesce  and  to  say : 
•  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  done  as  it  pleased  thee.' " 

The  next  was  addressed  to  his  grand-daughter^  now  Mrs. 
John  Corsbie : — 

"  My  dearest  Annie, — I  would  have  sooner  replied  to  your  very 
interesting  letter,  had  I  not  been  much  engaged.  The  scene  you  wit- 
nessed, in  your  uncle  Alfred's  departure,  was,  indeed,  very  striking  and 
much  calculated  to  confirm  your  faith.  The  Lord  there  showed  you  the 
extent  of  the  triumph  which  He  has  achieved  in  behalf  of  his  people,  not  by 
averting  the  stroke  of  death, — not  by  preventing  the  return  of  the  spirit 
to  Him  who  gave  it,  but  by  transforming  the  last  enemy  into  a  messenger 
of  peace  and  making  the  grave  the  portal  of  immortality.  When  Jesus 
had  finished  the  work  which  He  had  undertaken.  He  dismissed  his  spirit. 
He  died,  was  buried,  and  rose  again,  and  He  in  this,  as  in  other  things, 
is  the  pattern  of  his  people.  ...  It  is  a  beautiful  passage  in  the  book 
of  Job,  where  he  inquires,  *  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? '  Certainly. 
And  hence  he  adds,  *  All  the  days  of  my  appointed  time  will  I  wait  till 
my  change  come.'  This  is  not  the  change  produced  by  the  separation  of 
the  soul  and  body ;  it  is  the  change  of  this  mortal  body  for  the  spiritual 
and  incorruptible  body.  This  is  evident  from  what  follows :  *  Thou  wilt 
call,  and  I  will  answer  thee ;  thou  wilt  have  respect  to  the  work  of  thine 

T   T 


642         LETTER   ON    THE   BIRTH    OF   A    0RAND8ON. 

hands;  thou  tumest  man  to  destruction  and  sayest,  Ck>ine  again,  ye 
children  of  men/  Our  bodies,  so  fearfully  and  so  wonderfully  made,  are 
broken  in  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel;  but  in  that  day  God  will  have 
respect  to  the  work  of  his  hands.  He  had  reduced  it  to  its  original  dnat, 
but  it  had  been  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus ;  it  had  been  the  habita- 
tion of  God  through  the  Spirit,  and  shall  therefore  be  re-constructed  in  a 
form  from  which  every  seed  of  weakness,  corruption,  and  mortality,  shall 
be  removed.  And  how  it  is  calculated  to  confirm  our  faith,  to  witness 
one  of  Christ's  blood-bought  sheep  amidst  the  swellings  of  Jordan, 
delivering*  himself  up  with  calmness  and  composure  into  the  hand  of  the 
king  of  terrors,  and  confidently  anticipating  the  day  when  Satan  shall  be 
bruised  under  his  feet,  when  death  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  Tictory. 
Such  was  the  scene  you  were  so  lately  c%lled  to  witness,  and  I  trust  you 
have  derived  much  benefit  firom  it.  It  has  practically  shown  you  how  the 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away ;  that  you  have  no  abiding  here,  but 
are  merely  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger.  .  .  .  May  the  Lord  himself 
bless  you ! " 

It  was  not  long  after  these  mournful  letters  were  written  that 
the  birth  of  a  grandson^  uniting  his  own  and  his  brother's 
names^  drew  from  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  the  expressions  of  con- 
gratulation and  thankfulness.  Every  event,  whether  clouded 
hy  sorrow  or  brightened  with  joy,  was,  in  his  mind^  always 
associated  with  the  better  country : — 

"My  deabest  Alexandeb, — Most  sincerely  do  I  congratulate  you 
and  unite  with  you  in  giving  thanks  to  the  Lord  for  his  great  kindness  to 
Emma  and  yourself  in  the  birth  of  your  son.  It  is  my  prayer  that  he 
may  be  spared  for  a  blessing  to  you  both ;  that  his  name  may  be  found 
written  among  the  living  in  Jerusalem ;  that  the  Lord  may  guide  him  by 
his  counsel,  and  afterwards  receive  him  to  his  glory !  ^    .     .     . 

The  following  letter  was  written  from  Dollar,  in  the  Ochill 
Hills,  where  he  spent  two  months,  in  the  autumn  of  1846,  and 
frequently  preached  in  the  Free  Churches : — 

**  Mt  deabest  Emma, —  ...  I  do  not  wonder  that  you  should  have 
felt  much  in  the  prospect  of  leaving  Hatcham,  with  which  every  circum- 
stance  of  your  past  life  is  so  closely  interwoven;  but,  through  the 
kindness  of  God,  you  have  learnt  you  are  a  stranger  and  pilgrim  here, 
and  that  your  citizenship  is  in  heaven,  whither  our  Lord  is  gone  to 
prepare  mansions  for  his  people.  But,  although  absent  and  invisible 
to  eyes  of  flesh.  He  is  not  far  from  us;  and,  although  we  have  not 
literally  the  cloud  and  fire  to  guide  us  by  day  and  night.  He  keeps  the 


BOBCOLLECTIONS    OF    HIS    EARLY    CHILDHOOD.       643 

feet  of  his  saints,  leading  them  in  the  right  way,  and  will  bring  us  to  the 
city  of  habitation,  when  all  tears  will  be  wiped  from  our  eyes  and  we 
shall  enjoy  the  fulness  of  that  rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of  God. 
This  is  calculated  to  support  the  mind  in  every  situation;  but  it  is 
delightful  to  observe  how  the  Lord  smooths  the  road  by  which  He  is 
leading  us,  thus  encouraging  us  to  place  the  most  unlimited  confidence  in 
his  compassionate  guidance.  You  do  well  to  notice  the  goodness  of  the 
Lord,  even  in  the  smallest  matters,  and  to  receive  every  proof  of  his 
tenderness  as  a  pledge  that  in  every  situation  his  eye  will  be  upon  you 
and  his  grace  sufficient  for  you.  It  is  my  daily  prayer  that^the  Lord 
may  be  with  you  and  yours;  and,  although  you  never  can  forget 
Hatcham,  yet,  considering  the  changes  that  have  taken  place,  and  the 
still  greater  changes  that  are  in  contemplation,  so  far  as  the  locality  is 
concerned,  I  doubt  not  you  will  see  that  the  Lord,  in  fixing  the  bounds 
of  your  new  habitation  in  Essex,  has  been  providing  for  your  comfort. 
The  house  in  wliich  I  lived  at  Dundee  with  my  mother,  and  where  I 
continued  after  her  death  till  I  was  nine  years  of  age,  has  been  pulled 
down  many  years  ago,  but  I  perfectly  recollect  every  comer  of  it ;  and 
I  may  say  the  same  of  the  house  in  place  of  which  the  splendid  mansion 
of  Camperdown  has  arisen. 

**  The  cloud  which  so  long  stood  over  Hatcham  is  now  taken  up,  and 
you  are  called  to  follow  it  in  faith  that  it  is  good  for  you  to  remove. 
Many  dear  firiends  have  finished  their  course  there,  but  your  consolation 
is,  that  all  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and  come  to  Zion,  with 
everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads ;  they  shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness,  and 
sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away.  We  had  a  very  short,  but  very 
pleasant  visit  from  Alexina,  with  Mrs.  N.  Hardcastle  and  her  son  and 
daughter.  Edmund  spent  two  or  three  days  with  us  here,  and  seemed  to 
enjoy  the  mountain  scenery.  I  suppose  he  is  gone  on  his  way  to  India. 
May  the  Lord  meet  him  there,  and  manifest  Himself  to  him  as  he  does 
not  to  the  world !  Mrs.  Haldane  and  all  here  imite  in  kindest  love  to 
you  and  yours.  I  am  happy  to  hear  that  your  son  is  so  well  and 
promising.    May  Ood  be  his  portion  ! 

"  Most  affectionately  yours, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 


T  T  2 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

MB.  J.  KALDANE  AS  AN  OCTOGENAEIAN— SENTIMENTS  AS  TO 
PUBLIC  FASTS  — HIS  OWN  PRACTICE  — LA  MANCHA - 
MARRIAGE  OF  HIS  DAUGHTER  ISABELLA— MR.  BURDON 
SANDERSON  —  LETTER  DESCRIBING  WEST  JESMOND — 
VISIT  TO  THE  MANOR  HOUSE,  EAST  HAM— SERMONS  AT 
WOOLWICH— DEATH  OF  MAJOR  JOHN  GORDON  AND  OP 
HIS  MOTHER,  MRS.  HALDANE  GORDON— VISIT  OF  THE 
REV.  JAMES  GORDON  —  JUBILEE  —  ILLNESS,  1849  — WIN- 
TERFIELD— LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ANDERSON— ROMAINE'S 
LETTERS— EXPOSITION  OF  HEBREWS— LETTER  TO  LADY 
STAIR— PERSONAL  REIGN— PAPAL  AGGRESSION— CLOSE 
OF  1850— ILLNESS  AND  DEATH— HIS  FUNERAL— TESTI- 
MONIES TO  HIS  CHARACTER  AND  USEFULNESS— CON- 
CLUSION. 

[1848-185L] 

It  is  not  given  to  many  to  climb  the  heights  of  four-score  years. 

To  still  fewer  is  reserved  the  privilege  to  attain  that  altitude 

with  an  eye  undimmed  and  an  inteUect  unclouded.     To  the 

very  last  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  was  enabled  to  persevere  in  the 

cause  to  which  he  had  dedicated  his  strength^  and  the  cessation 

of  his  evening  sermons  on  the  Lord^s-day  was  the  only  token 

that  he  felt  his  natural  force  at  all  abated.     Even  that  was 

owing  to  prudential  motives  and  the  intreaties  of  his  family 

not  to  expose  himself^  especially  when  heated  by  speakings  to 

the  night  air.     In  a  letter  written  with  reference  to  this  subject^ 

when  in  his  eightieth  year^  he  says : — 

"  Decefnber  9,  1847. 
"My  deaeest  Alexander, — ^I  received  your  very  kind  letter,  but 
could  not  help  smiling  at  part  of  it     Had  a  stranger  seen  it  he  would 
have  concluded  that  I  was  so  reckless  and  so  much  disposed  to  go  out  at 


HIS    HEALTH.  645 

night  that  I  had  brought  on  some  very  uncommon  disease,  whereas,  in 
fact,  I  have  had  rather  a  slight  attack  of  influenza,  which  few  have 
escaped,  and  on  account  of  which  several  classes  of  the  College  and  the 
High  School  and  other  public  schools  have  been  shut  up.  The  good 
health  which  I  enjoy  is  an  evidence  that  the  plan  I  pursue  is  not  an 
unwise  one.  Your  uncle  and  I  acted  in  an  entirely  diiSerent  way  in 
regard  to  our  health,  and  both  acted  on  principle.  He  was,  in  some 
respects,  as  I  judged,  over  careful  of  himself,  avoiding  every  draft  of  air 
so  much  as  to  render  himself  more  susceptible  of  cold;  while  avoiding 
unnecessary  exposure,  I  was  satisfied  to  let  things  take  their  course,  by 
which  I  believe  I  have  been  a  gainer.  I  have  not  yet  been  out,  but  I  am 
quite  well,  with  the  exception  of  a  cough,  to  which  I  am  not  subject,  but 
which  I  hope  and  think  will  soon  be  removed.  I  have  by  no  means  put 
myself  upon  the  lowering  system,  for  I  was  afraid  it  might  have  brought 
on  gout" 

A  few  months  afterwards  he  again  wrote  as  follows  : — 

"  Edinburgh,  July  17,  1848. 

"  My  dearest  Emma, — Many  thanks  for  your  very  kind  letter,  written 
on  my  birth-day,  when  I  entered  my  eighty-first  year.  I  have  great 
cause  of  gratitude  to  the  Lord  for  the  enjoyment  of  so  good  health 
at  such  an  advanced  age.  I  cannot  adopt  the  language  of  Caleb, 
Joshua  xiv.  11,  and  still  less  that  of  Barzillai,  2  Sam.  xix.  35.  In  regard 
to  preaching,  I  do. not  feel  any  perceptible  difference,  but  the  earthly 
tabernacle  must  be  dissolved.  We  must  have  fellowship  with  Christ  in 
his  death,  that  we  may  attain  to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.     .     .     • 

"  Give  my  kindest  love  to  all  your  children  by  name.  I  daily  make 
mention  of  your  name  and  their's  to  the  Lord,  and  we  know  he  is 
the  hearer  of  prayer.  I  hope  Anne  has  got  quite  strong,  and  that  she 
and  her  husband  and  Mrs.  Corsbie  are  all  in  good  health.  I  am  glad  to 
hear  your  little  Henrietta  is  doing  so  well. 

"  Ever  most  affectionately  yours, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

His  observations  with  reference  to  the  Fast-day  which  was 
observed  in  the  previous  month  of  March^  are  worth  recording. 
Whilst  his  principles  led  him  to  disapprove  of  the  union  between 
the  Church  and  the  State^  he  greatly  deprecated  those  opinions 
which  led  certain  of  the  Voluntaries  to  act  and  speak  as  if 
rulers  in  their  pohtical  capacity  ought  to  ignore  the  worship  of 
the  Most  High  God  :— 

"  The  fast- day  was  kept  yesterday.  We  met  twice,  and  I  preached  in 
the  afternoon.    In  reference  to  those  who  object  to  the  proclamation  of  a 


646  PUBLIC    FASTS. 

fast  by  Royal  authority,  I  showed  that  had  the  Ninevites  acted  on 
the  same  principle,  Nineveh  would  have  been  destroyed.  Again,  there 
was  the  case  of  Jonah,  when  the  master  of  the  ship  called  him,  and 
desired  him  to  cry  unto  his  God,  he  might  have  replied,  '  Am  I,  the 
prophet  Jonah,  to  be  schooled  by  an  idolater,  and  is  he  to  dictate  to  me 
as  to  my  prayers  ? '  He  was  hardened  through  the  deoeitfulness  of  sin, 
but  not  to  so  great  an  extent  as  to  utter  such  language.  He  had  declined 
carrying  the  Lord's  message  to  Nineveh,  and  now  he  was  compelled  to 
deliver  one  against  himself,  and  perhaps  his  doing  so  was  an  eridence  of 
his  repentance  for  his  previous  conduct.  I  stated  that  I  had  little  doubt 
that  the  manner  in  which  the  day  was  observed  through  the  country 
would  decide  whether  the  judgment  in  the  nation  should  be  alleviated  or 
increased.  Some  of  the  sects  here  did  not  meet,  but  I  suppose  in  general 
it  was  externally  pretty  well  observed." — '*  Dr.  Alexander's  Church  met, 
and  I  understand  that  the  Provost  (Mr.  Adam  Black),  who  is  one  of  his 
deacons,  prayed." 

On  the  subject  of  fasting,  it  is  right  to  mention^  that  it  was  a 
duty  to  which  he  attended^  not  merely  on  public^  bat  private 
occasions.  He  was  habitually  a  man  of  prayer^  and  as  fasting 
is  in  Scripture  associated  with  prayer^  so  when  there  was  any 
subject  on  which  he  peculiarly  desired  to  seek  counsel  of  the 
Lord,  he  was  accustomed  to  set  apart  a  day  for  the  special 
purpose  of  humbling  himself,  and  making  known  his  requests 
on  behalf  of  himself,  his  family,  or  the  Church.  In  the  sommer 
of  1847,  he  took  the  house  of  La  Mancha,  in  Selkirkshire^  about 
sixteen  miles  from  Edinburgh.  It  was  a  thinly-peopled  and 
wild,  but  heatthfii],  part  of  the  country,  having  somewhat  of  the 
character  of  Auchingray,  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
pay  an  annual  visit  with  his  family  during  his  brother's  lifetime. 
La  Mancha  was  four  miles  from  any  place  of  worship;  he 
therefore  preached  twice  every  Lord's-day,  as  well  as  on  other 
occasions,  to  good  congregations.  His  labours  were  highly 
prized  by  the  country  people,  and,  it  is  believed,  were  much 
blessed.  Indeed,  his  visit  to  their  neighbourhood  was  most 
acceptable,  and  he  received  very  gratifying  tokens  of  personal 
regard.  In  his  letter  announcing  his  arrival  at  La  Mancha^  he 
writes : — 

"  We  came  here  yesterday.    It  is  an  old  house,  but  large  and  con« 
venient     There  is  a  wide  mahogany  staircase,  with  very  good  rooms. 


MRv  BURDON    SANDEESON.  647 

There  are  a  number  of  fine  trees,  and  plenty  of  space  for  the  boys  to  play. 
I  hope  you  will  pay  us  a  visit  soon.  I  was  very  happy  to  hear  by  your 
letter  yesterday,  that  J.  Alfred  Hardcastle  has  been  successful  in  his 
election.  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  was  much  indebted  to  the  name  and 
character  of  his  grandfather,  who  was  a  most  amiable  and  superior  man, 
and  whose  character  was  so  generally  known.  Selina's  letter  by  the 
same  post  as  yours,  gave  us  a  fuller  account  of  what  took  place  at  the 
chairing." 

The  beginning  of  1848  was  gladdened  by  the  marriage  of 
Isabella^  the  eldest  of  his  three  daughters  by  his  second  wife^  to 
Richard  Burdon  Sanderson,  Esq.,  the  younger,  of  West  Jesmond, 
near  Newcastle.  His  father  was  the  only  surviving  son  of  the  late 
Sir  Thomas  Burdon,  by  Jane  Scott,  the  youngest  sister  of  Lords 
Eldon  and  Stowell.  Mr.  Burdon,  who  afterwards  assumed  his 
wife^s  name  of  Sanderson,  having  been  a  Fellow  of  Oriel,  it  is 
scarcely  needful  to  say  that  he  ran  a  distinguished  course  at 
Oxford.  As  an  undergraduate  he  was  the  successful  competitor 
for  the  Newdigate  in  1811,  whilst  in  the  list  of  annual  prizes 
given  for  English  composition,  he  stands,  as  in  the  year  1814, 
between  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge  and  the  late  Dr.  Arnold,  of 
Rugby.  He  was  designed  for  the  bar,  and  his  uncles  confi- 
dently anticipated  that  so  brilliant  a  commencement  was  to  be 
followed  up  by  a  career  worthy  of  their  own  great  legal  renown. 
The  ferment  of  religious  excitement  which  then  began  at  Oxford 
was  the  commencement  of  two  very  diflferent  schools  of  theology, 
the  one  rather  tending  to  German,  and  the  other  to  Romish 
error.  At  the  head  of  the  former  may  be  placed  Archbishop 
Whately,  Bishop  Hampden,  and  Dr.  Arnold ;  and  at  the  head 
of  the  latter,  Messrs  Keble,  Rose,  Pusey,  and  Newman.  It  was 
at  this  period  of  spiritual  agitation  that  Mr.  Burdon  was  led  to 
discern  the  excellence  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  to  distin- 
guish between  the  dry  formalities  of  the  old  High  Church  system, 
and  the  living  energy  of  spiritual  religion.  It  may  be  permitted 
to  some  of  his  friends  to  regret  that  he  did  not  persevere  in  the 
profession  in  which  Lord  Eldon  predicted  his  eminence,  or 
adopt  the  resolution  of  taking  orders  in  the  Church,  but  the 
post  to  which  he  was  immediately  appointed,  as  Secretary  of 
Presentations  to  the  Lord  Chancellor,  gave  him  such  a  view  of 


648  MR.  BURDON    SANDERSON. 

the  abuse  of  patronage  in  the  Establishment  for  political  objects, 
as  unhappily  led  to  the  resignation  of  his  office^  his  prospects, 
and  his  churchmanship.  Retiring  to  the  country^  he  adopted  a 
life  of  comparative  isolation,  but  one  which  enabled  him  to  carry 
out  his  own  ideas  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  These  views  may  not  unfairly  be  traced  to  the  lessons 
derived  partly  from  his  tutor.  Archbishop  Whately,  and  partly 
from  the  still  more  defined  anti-State  Church  notions  of  the 
embryo  Tractarians  of  Oriel.  A  visit  made  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Burdon  Sanderson  to  Edinburgh,  at  the  close  of  1847,  issued  in 
the  marriage  of  their  eldest  son,  to  whom  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane 
became  much  attached,  and  of  whose  "  sterling  worth  '^  and 
true  godliness  he  entertained  a  high  estimate.  The  following 
letter  was  written  shortly  afterwards :  — 

''Edinburgh,  February  21,  1848. 

'<  My  dearest  Emma, — Your  very  kind  letter  reached  me  the  day 
before  we  left  Jesmond.  We  arrived  at  home  on  Friday,  after  a  very 
pleasant  visit.  We  have  much  cause  to  be  thankful  that  Isabella  is 
so  comfortably  situated,  and  has  become  connected  with  a  family  in  which 
the  power  of  religion  is  more  manifested  than  in  most  which  I  have 
witnessed.  They  have  two  chapels :  one  in  Newcastle,  and  the  other 
between  Jesmond  and  the  town.  The  father  and  son  preach  twice  in  the 
former  on  the  Lord's- day,  and  in  the  other  on  Thursday  evening.  There 
are  large  schools  connected  with  each  chapel.  That  Mr.  Sanderson  should 
be  a  scholar,  considering  that  he  was  a  first-classman  at  Oxford,  is  not 
surprising,  but  I  was  much  astonished  to  find  that  his  house,  which  is  very 
beautiful,  in  the  Gothic  style,  was  planned  and  built  without  any  architect 
or  estimate,  but  entirely  by  days*  w^ages,  under  his  own  direction.  The 
only  assistance  he  had  was  a  visit  from  a  person  in  the  neighbourhood,  on 
two  occasions,  in  reference  to  the  working  plan.  This  greatly  surprised 
mc,  and  I  asked  him  how  he  had  acquired  so  much  knowledge  of  archi- 
tecture. He  told  me  he  wrote  a  poem,  which  carried  the  prize,  upon  the 
Temple  of  Minerva  at  Athens,  the  Parthenon,  when  he  found  it  necessary 
to  study  the  Grecian  architecture,  which  afterwards  induced  him  to  study 
the  Gothic.    The  house  is  very  handsome,  and  very  convenient.    .    •    . 

'*  Ever  yours  most  affectionately, 

"  To  Mrs,  A,  Haldane,'*  "  J.  A.  Haldane. 

Immediately  after  his  return  home  he  was  attacked  with  gout^ 
which  was  partly  attributed  to  over-exertion  in  preaching  in 
Newcastle  and  the  neighbourhood.     But  at  Easter  he  was  well 


VISIT   TO   LONDON — WOOLWICH.  649 

enough  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  eldest  son^  near  London^  accompanied 
by  Mrs.  Haldane  and  their  youngest  boy.  It  was  his  last  journey 
to  the  great  Metropolis^  but  the  interest  with  which  he  visited 
the  places  associated  with  the  recollections  of  his  youth^  and 
observed  the  changes  produced  by  time  and  modem  improve- 
ments^ indicated  the  freshness  of  his  feehngs.  As  a  proof  of  his 
remaining  physical  vigour  and  self-rehance,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  on  the  first  day  after  his  arrival^  he  walked  alone^  by  a  road 
before  unknown  to  him,  nearly  five  miles  to  the  river  side,  and 
having  hired  a  small  boat,  crossed  over  to  Woolwich.  He  pro- 
ceeded up  the  Thames  by  a  steamer,  as  usual  enjoying  the  sight 
of  Greenwich  Hospital,  with  its  beautiful  park  in  the  background, 
and  the  shipping  in  the  docks  and  in  the  pool.  From  London 
Bridge  he  walked  through  the  crowded  streets  to  the  Shoreditch 
terminus  of  the  railway,  but  being  too  late  for  the  train,  pro- 
ceeded to  one  of  the  cab-stands  at  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  and 
reached  home  to  dinner.  He  had  left  the  house  without  any 
specific  design  whilst  the  party  were  at  luncheon,  and  although 
as  the  hours  passed  on  many  wistful  looks  had  been  directed 
towards  the  entrance-gate,  and  an  inquiring  welcome  greeted  his 
arrival,  his  own  manly,  yet  not  unconscious  glance  seemed  at 
once  to  admit  that  there  might  have  been  some  cause  for  solici- 
tude, and  at  the  same  time  playfully  to  disclaim  its  necessity  on 
his  account. 

It  was  during  this  visit,  that,  on  two  successive  Lord's-days, 
he  preached  in  the  Scotch  Church  at  Woolwich.  A  sergeant  who 
heard  him  on  the  first  Lord's-day,  was,  during  the  week,  marched 
to  Windsor,  but  such  was  his  anxiety  once  more  to  listen  to  the 
same  blessed  truth,  that,  on  being  relieved  from  guard,  very 
early  on  the  next  Lord^s-day  morning,  he  obtained  leave  to 
return  to  Woolwich,  where  he  arrived  in  time,  after  his  fatiguing 
walk.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  was  himself  both  interested  and 
roused  by  his  audience,  and  we  have  heard  that  the  "  word  was 
with  power.^'  It  was  a  striking  spectacle  to  witness  such  a 
congregation  of  soldiers  and  marines,  of  all  uniforms,  each 
listening  with  fixed  attention,  as  the  octogenarian  preacher 
earnestly  and  impressively  urged  on  them  the  promises  of  a  free 


650  DEATH  0¥   MAJOR  GORDON. 

Grospel,  with  all  the  fire  and  energy  of  his  youth,  only  mellowed 
by  the  pathos  and  gentleness  of  age. 

Daring  the  summer  of  1848,  Mr.  J.  Haldane  took  a  house  in 
the  parish  of  Tranent,  not  far  from  the  field  which  has  acquired 
so  much  of  historical  renown  as  the  scene  of  the  Wctory  of  the 
Pretender,  in  1742,  and  the  spot  on  which  the  gallant  Colonel 
Gardner  fell,  near  his  own  mansion,  and  died  Uke  a  Christian 
hero,  rallying  the  Royal  forces,  and  refusing  to  retreat  with  his 
panic-stricken  dragoons. 

The  Indian  mail,  of  February,  1849,  conveyed  the  melan- 
choly intelligence  of  the  death  of  Major  John  Gordon,  eldest 
son  of  Mrs.  Haldane  Gordon,  who  fell  on  the  27th  of  the 
previous  month  of  December,  at  the  storming  of  Mooltan. 
When  the  siege  of  that  great  fortress  first  commenced.  Major 
Gordon  was  with  his  regiment,  the  60th  Rifles,  near  Bombay, 
and  before  it  was  ordered  to  move  he  volunteered,  with  another 
officer,  to  ascend  the  Indus,  to  reconnoitre  the  line  of  march  and 
obtain  personal  information  as  to  the  best  method  of  moving  the 
troops.  His  mission  was  discharged  with  equal  zeal  and  judg- 
ment, and  he,  in  September,  assisted,  with  marked  approbation, 
at  the  operations  before  Mooltan,  which  were  attended  with 
80  much  loss,  and  were  ultimately  suspended  in  consequence 
of  the  defection  of  Shere  Singh.  He  rejoined  his  regiment,  and 
assisted  in  the  successful  march  to  Mooltan.  The  arrival  of 
the  Bombay  troops,  at  the  end  of  December,  was  the  signal 
for  the  assault,  and  two  days  before  he  fell,  an  entry  in  his 
journal,  made  after  attending  Divine  service  with  the  troops, 
indicates  the  solemnized  feeling,  with  which  he  thought  of  the 
possible  nearness  of  the  eternal  world.  His  death  was  almost 
instantaneous.  He  was  at  the  head  of  his  men,  conducting  them 
over  some  broken  ground,  within  reach  of  the  enemy's  marks- 
men, and  being  mounted  on  a  white  Arab  charger,  his  dark 
uniform  rendered  his  danger  especially  imminent.      The  Adju- 

I  tant  of  the  Rifles  advanced  towards  him,  and  kindly  begged 

him  to  dismount,  but  he  declined,  observing,  with  characteristic 

i  I  calmness,  "  I  am  in  my  place.'*     Scarcely  had  he  spoken  when 

a  bullet  pierced  his  sword-belt,  and  he  fell  into  the  arms  of 


I 


*; 


LETTER   OF   MRS.  HALDANE    GORDON.  651 

his  friend.  It  was  a  crushing  blow  to  his -afflicted  mother, 
although  the  event  was  not  without  its  consolations^  as  will 
appear  from  the  following  letter,  written  by  her,  in  a  spirit 
of  Christian  resignation,  not  long  after  the  sad  intelligence 
arrived : — 

"  Cadlington,  Feb.  20, 1849. 

"  My  deab  Cousin, — I  feel  deeply  sensible  of  your  great  kindness  and 
sympathy  in  our  great  affliction.  You  knew  my  beloved  John,  and  could 
estimate  him,  and  the  irreparable  loss  we  have  sustained :  but,  in  endea- 
vouring to  view  it  in  the  prospect  of  eternity,  there  is  light,  even  in  this 
dark  cloud.  I  feel  assured  confidence  that,  in  that  sudden  and  awful 
moment,  his  spirit  was  received  by  the  blessed  Saviour — ^that  the  many 
prayers  of  those  beloved  parents,  who  are  now  inheriting  the  promises  of 
God,  were  answered ;  and  that  there  had  been  a  preparation  of  heart  and 
mind,  that  led  him  to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  every  event ; 
and  constrained  him  to  seek  for  happiness  in  that  source  where  alone  it 
can  be  truly  found. 

"  Latterly  these  sentiments  have  been  again  and  again  expressed.  In 
his  last  letter,  of  the  18th  of  October,  before  reaching  Mooltan,  he  says, .  .  • 
These  few  lines  will  be  interesting  to  you,  I  feel  sure.  I  believe  that  the 
change  has  been  infinite  gain  to  him,  but  as  yet  I  can  hardly  realize  more 
than  our  great,  great  loss.  May  this  trial  be  indeed  sanctified  to  me,  and 
to  his  brother  and  sisters,  and  be  made  to  answer  the  end  for  which  it  has 
been  sent. 

"  Accept  my  sincere  and  warmest  thanks  for  all  your  kindness  to  him 
in  the  days  that  are  past,  which  was  not  forgotten  by  him,  nor  can  it  be 
80  by  me.  I  had  a  most  kind  letter  from  my  dear  uncle  this  morning. 
There  have  been  many  alleviating  circumstances,  and  it  is  soothing  to 
know  that  he  was  esteemed  and  beloved  in  his  regiment  and  by  his 
friends ;  that  it  was  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  he  fell,  and  though  no 
human  aid  could  help,  he  was  cared  for  by  his  brother  officers,  and  his 
memory  beloved  and  valued.  I  feel  thankful  for  these.  My  afiSectionate 
remembrances  to  Mrs.  Haldane,  and  each  one  of  your  family.  Accept 
the  same,  and  believe  me  to  be  your  afiectionate  cousin, 

"  Alexander  Haldane^  Esq.'*  "  M.  Haldame  Gordon. 

The  bereaved  mother  did  not  long  survive  the  shock.  Her 
health  had  been  drooping  for  some  time^  and  she  died  somewhat 
suddenly,  on  the  29th  day  of  September,  1849.  Her  remains 
repose  in  the  beautiful  churchyard  of  Blendworth,  in  Hampshire^ 
and  her  ransomed  spirit  having  escaped  all  '^  the  waves  of  this 
troublesome  life/'  has,  doubtless,  joined  the  general  assembly  of 


652  VISlir   OF   REV.  JAMES    GORDON. 

the  spirits  of  the  just  before  the  throne,  joyfully  awaiting  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  Becond  appearing  of  the  Lord 
from  Heaven. 

Not  long  afterwards  a  visit  of  her  only  surviving  bod,  the 
Rev.  James  Gordon,  himself  a  partaker  of  like  precious  faith,  a 
clei^man  in  the  Church  of  England,  was  mentioned  with  much 
satisfaction  in  the  letters  of  his  grand-uncle.  Of  thia  meeting 
Mr.  Gordon  himself  thus  writes  i — 

"  T  was  very  glad  lo  see  your  father,  and  quite  as  well,  or  better,  than  I 
expected.  Independent  of  relationship  and  aasociation,  there  is  something 
peculiarly  interesting,  I  may  say  affecting,  in  looking  upon  one  who  has 
BO  nearly  fought  the  good  fiKht,  bo  nearly  finished  the  course,  and  hearing 
the  sound  of  a  voice,  which  will  so  soon  be  tuned  for  the  harmony  of 
heaven.  Christian  maturity  is  very  beautiful ;  softening  end  mellowing 
humanity.  I  felt  all  this,  and  much  more  in  talking  to  your  father ;  and 
the  interest  he  took  in  all  I  could  tell  of  poor  John,  and  my  deer  mother, 
was  moat  gratifying.  I  rejoiced  to  have  the  pleasure  of  shaking  hands 
once  more,  and  in  feeling  that  another  tie  than  formerly  bound  ue  to  each 
other, — the  aged  servant  of  Christ  to  the  young  disciple.  But  I  will  not 
dwell  on  this." 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  had  many  family  ties  in  India.  His 
daughters,  Mary  and  Catharine,  were  both  residing  with  their 
husbands  in  that  eastern  province  of  the  British  Empire.  The 
death  of  Major  Gordon  was  calculated  to  increase  anxiety  for 
tJiose  who  were  exposed  to  the  same  dangers,  and  many  were 
the  prayers  which  were  offered  up  on  behalf  of  the  husband  of 
his  daughter  Mary,  and  their  eldest  son,  who  had  also  entered 
on  the  same  career  as  his  father.  Since  the  period  of  hia 
marriage  in  1824,  Colonel  Eckford  had  been  engaged  at  the 
storming  of  Bhurtpore,  and  had  served  with  distinction  as 
brigadier  in  the  successive  campaigns  for  the  rescue  of  the  pri* 
Boners  in  Affghaunistan,  for  the  repulse  of  the  invasion  of  the 
Sikhs,  and,  finally,  for  the  subjugation  of  the  revolt  in  the  Pim- 
JBub.  After  the  passage  of  the  Ravee,  and  the  battles  of 
Ramnuggar  and  Sowdawallah,  in  the  latter  of  which  he  was 
much  exposed,  he  had  very  reluctantly  gone  to  take  the  command 
of  Lahore,  menaced  as  it  was  by  the  Sikhs,  but  it  was  thus  that  he 


BRIGADIER   ECKFORD,    C.B.  658 

escaped  being  present  at  the  fruitless  slaughter  of  ChiUianwallah. 
Of  this  occurrence  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  writes : — 

**  It  is  indeed  a  great  cause  of  thankfuhiess  that  Eckford  was  at  Lahore. 
I  am  glad  to  hear  the  testimony  of  Lord  Gough,  as  well  as  of  Lord 
Hardinge,  to  his  services.  His  medals  and  the  Companionship  of  the 
Bath  are,  in  themselves,  of  no  g^eat  importance ;  but  they  may  be  an 
advantage  to  his  children,  and  therefore  I  would  not  undervalue  them. 
He  held  very  responsible  commands,  both  in  the  last  Sikh  war  and  the 
present.  The  charge  of  the  battering-train  and  the  treasure,  which  he 
brought  up  from  Delhi  to  Sobraon,  was  very  important,  and  he  executed 
it  most  satisfactorily.  He  was  nominally  under  Sir  John  Littler,  at 
Lahore,  but  I  suppose  the  charge  chiefly  devolved  on  him,  for  the  General 
was  a  considerable  time  absent,  and  he  seems  to  have  acted  with  great 
gallantry  and  judgment  in  the  late  campaign.  I  trust  the  Lord  will  hear 
our  prayers  in  his  behalf,  and  bring  him  safely  home,  and*  spare  him  for 
the  sake  of  his  children." 

These  prayers  were  heard^  and  Colonel  Eckford  and  his  wife 
both  returned  home  in  time  to  receive  the  blessing  and  the 
welcome  of  their  venerable  parent.  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  was 
always  pleased  to  learn  that  any  one  in  whom  he  was  interested 
discharged  his  duty^  but  in  Colonel  Eckford  he  had  the 
double  gratification  of  hearing  of  his  manly  and  consistent 
walk  as  a  soldier  of  Christ.  Wherever  he  was  in  authority, 
Divine  service  was  publicly  performed,  and  a  sermon  read  on  the 
Lord^s-day,  whether  at  Jellalabad,  at  Lahore,  at  Bareilly,  or  at 
Ferozepore ;  and  where  there  was  no  chaplain,  he  himself  read  the 
prayers  and  a  sermon,  a  duty  for  the  performance  of  which  he 
received  the  personal  sanction  of  his  friend,  the  Bishop  of 
Calcutta. 

On  the  3d  of  February,  1849,  Mr.  Haldane  completed  the 
fiftieth  year  of  his  pastoral  office,  and  a  wish  very  generally 
prevailed  that  the  event  should  be  celebrated  in  such  a  way  as  to 
indicate  the  respect  in  which  he  was  held,  not  only  by  his  own 
Church  but  by  the  Congregationalists  generally.  This  was  very 
gratifying  to  him,  and  accordingly  the  Jubilee  Meeting  was 
held  on  the  12th  of  April.  His  old  and  valued  friend,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Innes,  whom  he  had  first  known  as  minister  of  Stirling, 
presided,  and  opened  the  meeting  by  a  reference  to  the  labours 


654  MR.  J.  haldane's  jubilee. 

and  services  both   of  Mr.  James   Haldane   and  his  departed 
brother.     Of  the  latter  he  said, — 

"  When  I  look  to  the  extensive  scale  on  which  Mr.  Haldane  carried  on 
his  plans  of  usefulness,  the  number  of  preachers  he  educated,  the  import- 
ant situations  in  which  some  of  these  have  been  placed,  while  others 
have  been  equally  devoted  in  a  more  limited  sphere ;  .  .  .  when  to 
these  I  add  the  numerous  places  of  worship  built  by  him  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  I  say,  putting  all  these  things  together,  if  I  were 
asked  to  name  the  individual  who  has,  during  the  last  half  century  (nay, 
I  might  go  further  back,)  done  most  for  the  cause  of  the  Gospel,  I 
would  without  hesitation  pronounce  the  name  of  Robert  Haldane." 

The  Rev.  Christopher  Anderson,  who  has  but  lately  entered 
into  rest,  gave  a  most  striking  account  of  the  spirit  which  per- 
vaded the  great  movement  at  the  end  of  the  last  century  and  the 
beginning  of  the  present,  and  which  issued  in  a  rehgious  revival 
in  Scotland,  so  striking  and  enduring.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Kinni- 
burgh,  who  has  also  since  departed,  spoke  of  the  remarkable 
awakening  which  took  place  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  and 
alluded  to  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Cleghom's  account  of  the  preaching 
in  Caithness,  as  contained  in  the  ''  Missionary  Magazine  '^  for 
1803.  Mr.  Cleghom  says  : — "  Mr.  Haldane's  congregations  on 
week-days,  though  in  the  time  of  harvest,  were  numerous,  but 
on  the  Lord's-day  such  congregations  were  never  seen  in  this 
place.  Many  have  spoken  to  me  of  the  effects  of  the  Word  on 
this  occasion,  but  they  have  always  wanted  words  to  express 
their  views  of  them.  Some  have  compared  its  operation  to  that 
of  an  electric  shock.  A  solemn  silence  pervaded  the  multitude. 
Many  were  seen  to  shed  tears,  and  when  some  truths  were 
expressed,  sighs  were  heard  throughout  the  congregation.  Some 
have  told  me  there  was  an  astonishing  authority,  and  a  sort  of 
indescribable  evidence  attending  the  Word,  which  they  could 
not  resist.  The  Word  of  God  on  this  occasion  was  truly  quick 
and  powerful.  I  have  been  informed  by  others  that  they  heard 
Mr.  James  Haldane  as  if  he  had  been  a  messenger  sent  immedi- 
ately from  God,  and  thought  that  what  they  heard  was  addressed 
to  them  individually,  and  that  they  were  sometimes  afraid  lest 
their  very  names  should  be  mentioned.     In  short,  the  attention 


JUBILEE.  655 

of  almost  every  one  was  drawn  to  what  they  called  this  Gospel. 
It  was  indeed  new  to  most  who  heard  it,  both  as  to  the  matter 
and  the  manner  of  delivering  it.  So  generally  was  the  attention 
of  people  drawn  to  it  that  you  could  hardly  find  two  conversing 
together  but  religion  was  the  subject." 

Mr.  Watson  also  gave  an  interesting  detail  of  his  reminiscences 
of  the  preaching  in  Ayrshire,  and  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  himself 
spoke  with  his  usual  manly  simplicity,  in  a  manner  which  evinced 
the  spirit  of  faith  and  love  and  zeal  which  animated  his  exertions. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander's  speech  was  delivered  with 
his  usual  eloquence,  whilst  the  clergyman  of  the  parish  where 
Mr.  Haldane's  place  of  worship  was  situated,  and  other  ministers, 
took  part  in  the  proceedings.  It  was  a  pleasant  sigl^t  to  witness 
a  kind  of  Evangelical  Union  of  Baptists  and  Independents,  Free 
Churchmen  and  ministers  of  the  Establishment,  all  assembled  to 
give  thanks  to  God  for  that  Christian  devotedness  with  which  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  had  been  through  grace  enabled,  for  nearly  fifty-two 
years,  to  labour  with  consistent  zeal  in  the  service  of  their  Lord 
and  Master.  The  place  was  crowded  to  the  door,  and  hundreds 
went  away  for  want  of  room.  There  was  one  sentiment  which 
Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  expressed  at  the  meeting,  which  in  sub- 
stance has  been  already  alluded  to : — 

**  I  feel  much  satisfaction  in  the  consideration,  that  although  I  began  to 
preach  shortly  after  being  brought  to  Christ,  I  do  not  know  one  point  in 
which  my  views  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  have  varied.  They  are,  of 
course,  more  matured  and  more  distinct,  but  I  could  not  point  out  an 
instance  of  a  change  in  doctrine  since  I  first  began  to  preach." 

Not  many  months  after  the  Jubilee  Meeting  he  had  another 
attack  of  gout,  which  was  at  one  time  very  threatening.  The 
following  letter  was  written  when  he  began  to  recover : — 

"  Edinburgh,  August  4,  1849. 
"  My  dearest  Alexander, — I  am  much  better,  but  very  weak.  I 
never  had  so  bad  an  attack  of  gout,  but  am  better.  It  was  attended  with 
a  considerable  degree  of  fever.  We  have  taken  Winterfield  House,  near 
Dunbar,  for  two  months,  and  intend  going  out  on  Tuesday.  I  received 
Emma's  kind  letter,  but  at  present  am  unable  to  answer  it.  We  heard 
that  you  were  going  to  Tunbridge  for  change  of  air.  Your  sister  Henrietta 
is  gone  to  Cavers,  and  Margaret  to  Naughton.    I  am  weak,  and  not  able 


656  WINTESFIELD. 

to  write  more.  I  bave  not  pTenched  Tor  we^ettl  wedu.  The  L<^  toM] 
be  pleaaed  to  blew  the  change  of  air  for  nijr  recorery  ;  but  wiUi  long  lif 
ha*  Ue  latisfied  me,  and  I  am  ready  to  depart  when  He  see*  fit.  Kinde* 
love,  in  which  my  wife  unites,  to  Emma  and  all  at  the  Manor.  May  th 
Lord'a  blGsaing  rest  upon  you ! 

"  Ever  most  affectionately  yonn, 

"  J,  A.  Haxbane." 

Winterfield  was  the  paternal  mansion  of  the  family  of  hii 
fiiend  Colonel  Anderson,  and  then  in  the  possession  of  bii 
late  elder  brother.  The  following  letter  is  addressed  to  the 
Colonel ; — 

"  WinterfiM,  Sept.  I,  IMS. 

"  Mt  dear  Sir, — I  do  not  know  if  you  are  awartt  that  we  are  at 
present  occupying  your  paternal  halls.  We  came  here  at  the  beginning 
of  lost  month,  and  intend  to  remain  till  the  end  of  September.  I  need 
not  tell  you  it  is  a  tery  pleasant  habitation,  and  itisTery  convenient  from 
being  so  near  Edinburgh,  say  bd  hour  by  rail. 

"  I  often  think  of  the  two  Lord's-days  we  spent  with  you  at  Woolwich, 
and  the  verj'  interesting  congregations  of  young  soldieia.  ,  .  .  Tbm 
more  we  understand  the  Gospel,  the  more  clearly  do  we  see  its  adaptatian 
to  uur  circumstances,  at  once  excluding  boastiog,  and  enabling  us  to  joy 
in  Ood  through  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have  alap  received  the  atone- 
ment. We  are  esalted  in  Christ's  righteousness.  We  are  desd.  Not 
only  did  sentence  pass  upon  us  in  Adam,  but  the  children  of  the  second 
Adam  endured  the  penalty  in  their  glorious  Head.  The  corutitulion 
which  Ood  gave  to  the  human  race  had  a  reference  to  the  plan  of  talva- 
tion.  We  were  not  created  separately,  but  in  Adam,  who  was  the  figure 
of  Him  that  was  to  come.  The  life  of  all  his  posterity  wai  commttled  to 
him  and  be  forfeited  it ;  but  Christ  came  that  in  Him  his  people  might 
have  life,  and  have  it  more  abundantly.  As  the  death  of  Adwi  waa  the 
death-knell  of  all  his  posterity,  so  the  resurrection  of  Christ  it  the  assured 
pledge  of  the  resurrection  to  eternal  life  of  all  His  people.  We  look  to 
Him  who  exclaimed  upon  the  cross,  'My  Ood,  my  Ood,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me  ?  *  thus  proclaiming  that  He  was  for  us  enduring  tike  cune  of 
the  law ;  and  shortly  we  hear  bim  say,  '  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and 
your  Father,  to  my  Ood  and  your  Qod.'  We  are  commanded  to  comfort 
one  another  with  these  words.  Considered  in  ourselves,  we  are  alienated 
from  the  life  of  God,  through  the  darkness  and  ignorance  that  ia  in  ua ; 
but  in  Christ  we  are  washed,  and  sanctified,  and  justified  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  Ood.  We  were  at  first  created 
in  the  image  of  God,  but  1^  the  disobedience  of  our  first  btber  wa 
lost  that  image ;  but  it  ia  restored  in  Christ,  and  His  appearance  (br  us  at 


romatnf/s  letters.  657 

the  right  hand  of  Ood  gives  us  the  assurance  of  the  enjoyment  of  eyery 
spiritual  and  heavenly  blessing.  May  you  continue  to  enjoy  much  of  the 
consolation  that  is  in  Christ,  and  continue  to  be  eminently  useful  in  the 
important  sphere  in  nrhich  the  Lord  has  placed  you !  My  wife  unites  in 
kindest  love  to  Mrs.  Anderson  and  all  your  family.  May  you  and  she 
dwell  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  under  the  shadow  of  the  wings 
of  the  Almighty !  Let  us  pray  for  each  other,  and  believe  me  ever,  my 
dear  Sir, 

"  Yours  affectionately  in  Jesus  Christ, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

During  the  time  of  his  residence  at  Winterfield  he  had  an 
attack  of  faintness  after  walking,  which  he  evidently  deemed 
threatening^  and  he  calmly  said  to  his  wife  and  children,  who 
were  gathered  round  him,  '^  It  is  all  well.''  He  revived,  how- 
ever, and  had  no  other  serious  attack  of  illness  till  the  last, 
nearly  eighteen  months  afterwards. 

His  vigour  was  to  a  considerable  extent  restored,  and,  after 
his  return  to  Edinburgh,  he  resumed  his  ministerial  duties  with 
all  his  accustomed  energy.  At  the  beginning  of  1850  he  sent 
to  his  daughter-in-law  near  London  a  copy  of  "Romaine's 
Letters,'*  as  a  new-year's  gift.  He  valued  them  much,  and 
during  the  last  year  of  his  life  used  frequently  in  the  evening, 
and  especially  on  the  Lord's- day,  to  recline  by  the  fire-side  after 
p]:eaching,  and  listen  with  pleasure  as  they  were  read  aloud  by 
his  daughter  Margaret,  whilst  his  eldest  daughter  Henrietta 
was  visiting  the  Greenside  School,  which  she  has  so  long  and 
successfully  superintended.  Of  "  Romaine's  Letters"  he  thus 
writes : — 

'<  The  fulness  and  freeness  of  the  great  salvation  are  there  very  beau- 
tifully set  forth.  Probably  you  know  the  same  author's  *  Life,  Walk,  and 
Triumph  of  Faith.'  But  the  best  and  simplest  book  on  religion  is  the 
Bible.  I  believe  I  read  more  of  it  than  of  any  other  book.  The  truth  it 
contains  is  always  new.  I  trust  you  say,  with  the  prophet,  '  Thy  word 
was  found  of  me,  and  I  did  eat  it,  and  it  was  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  my 
heart.' 

*^  I  mentioned  that  I  was  lecturing  on  the  Hebrews.  I  have  got  to  the 
seventh  chapter,  and  have  written  out  my  exposition  nearly  to  the  end  of 
chapter  ix.  When  I  have  finished  I  intend  to  begin  again,  and  re-write 
my  exposition  of  the  epistle,  and,  if  it  then  appears  desirable,  to  print  it. 

u  u 


658  THE  EECTOB  OF   BATH. 

This  is  pretty  well  at  the  age  of  eighty-two.  Moat  probably,  like  yoiu 
unde,  I  ma;  never  finish  it.  You  arc  aware  he  began  the  Epistle 
There  ii  one  word  in  it  on  which  I  have  tried  to  recal  what  I  beard  hin 
■ay,  but  I  cannot  It  is  the  word  ptffeeltd,  which  frequently  oecin* 
I  beard  a  sermou  at  Brighton  on  Heb.  t.  9.  I  thought  it  a  very  indif 
ferent  one,  but  I  still  remember  with  pleature  one  from  the  Beeta 
of  Bath,  from  CoL  iL  10,  '  Ye  are  complete  in  him,'  which  I  enjoyed 
exceedingly." 

The  sermon,  the  remembraiice  of  nhich  at  the  distance  tA 
nearly  ten  years  he  twice  recalled  with  so  much  pleasure,  wsi 
preached  at  St.  Mary's,  Brighton,  where,  daring  his  visit  in 
1840,  he  had  gone  in  the  expectation  of  hcariDg  the  Rev.  H. 
V.  Elliott.  It  happened  that  the  Rev.  Wro.  Brodrick  preached, 
and  it  was  his  sermon  to  which  he  listened  with  much  delight. 
Mr.  Brodrick's  conclusion  was  to  this  effect : — 

"  To  the  established  Christian  the  comfort  which  the  text  contain* 
ia  not  new,  but  as  the  name  of  Jesus  is  as  ointment  poured  out,  erer 
fragrant  and  reft-cahing  to  the  believer,  ao  the  very  renewal  of  this 
assurance,  as  to  his  being  complete  in  Christ,  is  like  a  fresh  spring 
of  comfort  to  his  soul.  To  be  complete  in  Christ  in  righteousness,  in  the 
abolishing  of  sin,  in  freedom  from  guilt,  in  deliTcrance  from  condemna- 
tion, in  reconciliation,  in  love, — to  be  thus  complete  fully  realizes  the 
apostle's  declaration  concerning  Christ,  '  To  you  that  believe  he  is 
precious.'  But  ohl  whet  motives  to  holiness,  to  self-denial,  to  devotion, 
to  separation  from  the  world,  to  nctive  leal,  to  passive  resignation ! 
What  more  can  you  desire  P  Nothing  for  your  own  comfbrt,  but  much 
for  the  glory  of  God.  I  cannot  for  one  conceive  anything  which  makes 
me  so  earnestly  long  and  strive  and  pray  to  glorify  our  Ood,  aa  the  belief 
of  being  comple(£  in  Christ.  It  cella  forth  the  moat  influential  motives 
which  can  impel  the  soul, — the  motives  of  gratitude  and  love.  'What 
can  I  render  to  the  LordP'  is  the  soul's  expressive  language.  The  soul 
hears  testimony  to  the  full  force  of  that  language  which  the  apouae 
uses  in  speaking  of  the  Saviour,  'Yea,  he  is  altogether  lovely.'  It  aays, 
with  all  its  energy,  and  from  its  deepest  feelings,  '  This  ia  my  Beloved, 
■nd  this  is  my  Friend.  Thou  art  mine; — my  Saviour, — my  Redeemer, — 
my  guide  in  life, — my  hope  in  death.  I  am  complete  in  Tbee  now,  snd 
yet  this  ia  not  all  Thy  goodness  towards  me.  I  shall  be  complete  in  Thee 
even  in  eternity,  for  I  shall  behold  Thy  presence  in  righteouanesa.' " 

Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane  lived  to  complete  his  "  Exposition  of  the 
Hebrews"  in  his  public  ministration,  and  he  had  even  written 
it  out,  but  it  was  bis  design  still  further  to  have  eUborated  it 


EXPOSITION    OP    HEBREW^.  659 

before  going  to  the  press.  His  correspondence  indicates  how 
much  his  mind  was  interested  in  the  work,  and  how  clear  and 
acute  were  his  perceptions  of  difficulties.  There  was  a  subject 
on  which  he  had  occasion  to  touch,  in  expounding  Heb.  xii.  26, 
and  on  which  some  division  of  opinion  has  subsisted  amongst 
Christians.  The  hope  of  the  second  appearing  of  our  Lord  was 
one  which  ever  occupied  his  thoughts,  but  he  rejected  the  idea 
of  a  personal  reign  in  this  sinful  world  before  the  destruction  of 
all  that  is  wicked  and  unholy  and  the  regeneration  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  His  views  are  expressed  in  a  letter  of  earUer 
date  addressed  to  his  second  surviving  son  Robert : — 

**  The  great  promise  of  the  Old  Testament  was  the  coming  of  Christ  in 
the  flesh.  The  promise  of  the  New  Testament  is  his  second  coming. 
This  will  be  to  judge  the  world  and  to  bruise  Satan  under  the  feet  of  his 
saints,  who  shall  be  raised,  spiritual  and  incorruptible.  When  God  sepa- 
rated Israel  from  the  nations  at  Sinai  the  earth  was  shaken,  and  there 
was  to  be  another  and  greater  shaking.  (Heb.  xii.  26.)  This  was  to 
consist  in  the  removing  of  the  things  which  were  shaken,  that  the  things 
which  cannot  be  shaken  might  remain.  (Ver.  27.)  This  took  place  upon 
the  kingdom  being  taken  from  Israel  and  given  to  the  righteous  nation 
(the  children  of  the  new  covenant).  This  took  place  at  Pentecost,  and 
there  is  to  be  no  other  change.  The  Gospel  dispensation  remains 
unchanged.  (2  Cor.  iii.  2.)  Those  who  maintain  that  Christ  shall  come 
to  reign  on  the  earth  {as  it  now  is),  represent  a  much  greater  change  as 
taking  place  than  the  transition  from  the  Law  to  the  Gospel  dispensation, 
and  this  is  contrary  to  the  word  once  more.  At  all  events,  your  uncle 
did  not  hold  the  personal  reign  of  Christ  in  this  world  in  its  present 
state.  Christ  will  reign  in  the  new  heaven  and  new  earth,  and  the  earth 
that  now  is  will  flee  away  when  he  appears.  It  once  did  not  afford  him 
a  place  to  lay  his  head,  and  in  shame  and  confusion  it  will  vanish  from 
the  presence  of  his  glory." 

In  May,  1850,  the  somewhat  sudden  death  of  his  cousin. 
Lady  Henrietta  Fergusson,  occasioned  the  following  letter  to 
her  sister,  the  Countess  of  Stair : — 

«  Edinburgh,  May  Zlst,  1850. 

"  My  beak  Lady  Staib, — I  sincerely  sympathize  with  you  on  this 
afflicting  occasion.  The  suddenness  of  the  stroke  renders  it  more  afiect- 
ing.  It  is  my  prayer  that  it  may  be  greatly  sanctified  to  you.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  voice  from  the  tomb,  loudly  saying  to  us,  *  Be  ye  also  ready.' 
You  and  your  sister  have  been  but  little  separated  during  your  lifetime, 

u  u  2 


660  LBTTEB  TO  LADT   STAIR. 

and  looking  back  to  the  happy  days  you  spent  together  ik  calculated  t 
render  parting  more  dittreesing.  But  it  is  Irequently  better  for  us  to  g 
to  the  houu  of  mourning  than  to  the  house  of  feaitiug.  It  reminij 
ua  that  we  must  shortly  follow,  but  dark  as  is  the  tomb  the  believer  i 
JeauB  aee«  beyond  it  a  light  too  strong  for  our  feeble  viaion.  It  i 
an  exceeding,  even  an  eternal,  weight  of  glory  reserved  for  him  i 
heaven,  where  Ood  will  wipe  away  all  tears  from  his  eyes  and  put  hii 
in  full  pouesaion  of  the  inheritance  which  his  elder  brother  has  mad 
sure  to  him  for  an  eierlaating  possession,  where  sorrow  and  sighing  glial 
for  ever  flee  sway,  and  there  shall  be  no  more  pain  nor  separation  fron 
those  we  love. 

■'  That  the  Lord,  by  the  power  of  his  Spirit,  may  enable  you  to  lool 
■tedfastly  within  the  vail,  and  behold  much  of  the  glory  of  the  great 
Captain  of  salvation,  is  my  earnest  prayer !  May  you  experience  at  thit 
season  that  the  consolations  of  Ood  are  neither  few  nor  small !  Odc  aftei 
another  of  those  we  lored  have  been  laid  in  the  narrow  house,  but  Jeaiii 
says,  '  I  em  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though 
he  be  dead,  yet  shall  he  live,  and  he  that  liveth  and  beliereth  in  me  shall 

"  To  the  Christian,  what  we  call  death  is  but  its  shadow.  Clirist  has 
abolished  death.  He  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,  and  his 
own  eternal  life  is  the  pledge  that  his  people  shall  die  no  more.  By 
death  he  has  destroyed  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  ia,  the 
devil.  He  has  put  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  Satan,  and  as  Joshua  caused 
his  officers  to  trample  on  the  kings  of  Canaan,  so  wHl  the  Lord  bruise 
Satan  under  the  fbet  of  his  people  shortly. 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Lady  Stair,  youn  moat  truly, 

"  3.  A.  Haldane." 

The  following  letter,  addressed  to  one  of  his  grand-daughtera, 
refers  to  an  account  of  a  tour  through  France  and  Switzerland 
and  doira  the  Rhine,  in  the  autumn  of  1850 : — 

"  Edinburgh,  October  34,  1850. 
"  Mt  deasest  Emu, — I  this  morning  received  your  excellent  letter. 
Tour  tour  must  have  been  very  delighted,  and,  I  trust,  will  be  bene- 
ficial to  you  through  life.  You  have  seen  some  of  the  grandest  natural 
scenes,  and  the  more  of  these  stupendous  works  we  behold  the  inor« 
should  our  views  be  exalted  of  the  power  of  Him  who  made  them  alL 
But  although  the  eternal  power  and  Godhead  of  the  great  Creator  is  to 
manifest  in  his  works,  it  has  not  prevented  mankind  from  bowing  dom 
to  the  works  of  their  own  hands,  or  changing  the  inuge  of  the  incor- 
ruptible God  into  an  image  of  corruptible  man  and  of  birds  and  four- 
footed  beasts.    That  wisdom,  under  the  influence  of  which  the  b^erw 


PAPAL    AGGRESSION.  661 

worships  Ood  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  can  only  be  learned  by  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God.  He  that  hath  seen  Him  hath  seen  the  Father, 
for  he  is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express  image 
of  his  person,  and  under  the  new  dispensation,  believers,  beholding  in  an 
unveiled  face  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image  as  by 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  .  .  .  Your  letter  contains  an  excellent  account  of 
your  tour,  which  both  you  and  your  brother  must  have  enjoyed  very  much, 
and  I  hope  your  papa  and  mamma  and  all  will  derive  great  benefit  from 
it.  How  distressing  it  is  to  think  that  so  great  a  part  of  Europe  is  still 
under  the  power  of  the  Man  of  Sin  ;  but  they  have  forsaken  the  Word  of 
God,  and  what  wisdom  is  in  them !  The  Antichristian  idolatry  was  intro- 
duced precisely  in  the  same  way  as  the  Pagan  idolatry,  by  men  not  being 
satisfied  with  the  instructions  which  God  gave  them  in  regard  to  his 
worship.  They  added  and  omitted  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
folly,  until  they  buried  true  religion  under  a  mass  of  idle  ceremonies. 
But  the  Lord  will  arise,  and  have  mercy  upon  Zion ;  the  time  to  favour 
her  shall  come.  May  the  Lord  hasten  it  in  his  time !  With  kindest  love 
to  your  papa  and  mamma,  your  sisters  and  brother,  in  which  your  grand- 
mamma unites,  as  well  as  Henrietta,  Margaret,  and  Helen.  Adamina  is 
staying  with  Isabella. 

"  I  am  ever,  most  affectionately  yours, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

In  another  letter,  a  few  days  later,  he  notices  the  sudden 
death  of  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Dawson,  Vicar  of  Orpington,  whose 
manly  and  Christian  character  he  had  always  admired,  and  in 
whom  he  had  felt  warm  interest  from  the  period  when  his 
faithful  remonstrance  against  being  compelled  to  assist  in 
Romish  idolatry,  at  Malta,  had  occasioned  his  dismissal  from 
the  artillery,  in  which  he  had  been  an  oflScer.  "  I  am  sorry,'* 
he  says,  "  to  hear  of  Dawson's  sudden  death ;  but  the  death  of 
a  believer  is  no  subject  of  lamentation.  '  Blessed  are  the  dead 
that  die  in  the  Lord.'  " 

The  Papal  aggression  at  this  time  greatly  interested  his  mind 

and  was  frequently  referred  to  in  his  correspondence,  as  well  as 

the  progress  of  the  Irish  Missions. 

"  Popery,"  he  observes,  "  is  not  simply  a  religion ;  it  claims  power  over 
all  baptized,  and  a  right,  founded  on  this  usurpation,  to  punish  heretics. 
On  the  whole,  I  would  not  consider  them  as  entitled  to  the  same  privi- 
leges as  those  who  renounce  carnal  weapons.  Those  who  consider  it  to 
be  a  part  of  their  religion  to  use  the  sword,  ought  not  to  complain  if  the 
civD  power  be  employed  to  keep  them  within  proper  bounds." 


66:2  IRISH    CHURCH    MISSIONS. 

In  snotlier  letter,  aUudiag  to  Lady  Olivia  B.  Sparrow,  vbo 
WB8  then  in  Edinburgh,  and  whose  teal  for  the  cause  oi 
Chriatian  Protestantism  he  repeatedly  mentions,  and  particu- 
larly with  reference  to  her  early  and  monificent  support  of  the 
Iri^  Church  Miaiuons,  he  thus  writes : — 

"  Sdinhuryh,  Noo.  15,  1850. 

"I  MW  Lady  Olivia  j'eiteTday;  the  is  Tei?  kind  and  aDcammonl] 
agreeable.  Her  whole  heart  app«an  to  be  fixed  on  the  promotion  of  the 
Ooapel  of  Cliriit.    .    .    . 

"  The  outcry  raised  about  the  Pope,  in  which  I  folly  aympathia«,  will,  I 
trust,  do  good.  I  hope  one  effect  of  it  will  be  to  lead  ministers  U)  pnt 
the  Iriih  QoTemment  Bchoola  on  a  different  footing,  to  as  not  to  eiclude 
from  them  the  ETangelical  clergy.  Let  achoola  remain  for  Roman 
Catholics,  but  do  not  exclude  from  the  benefit  of  OoTemment  edneatioD 
thoie  who  wiU  not  banish  the  Scriptures  from  their  teaching.  Wa  were 
with  Lady  Olivia  when  your  letter  arrived,  alating  what  the  Queen  i* 
reported  to  have  said  to  Lord  John  Ruuell,  She  was  greatly  delighted 
by  the  infonnation.  The  Lord  reigns,  and  He  is  d<nng  all  hia  pleasure. 
We  maij  tremble/or  the  ark,  but  it  is  a$  »a/e  in  Ae  Utndofth*  PAiiitline$ 
at  at  ShiloA.     This  is  no  reason  for  inactivity,  bat  it  is  for  calmncM." 

For  enrne  months  he  had  enjoyed  excellent  health.  He  looked 
well,  and  had  been  able  to  preach  with  much  vigour,  both  at 
home,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Newcastle,  during  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1850.  He  continued  to  visit  the  sick,  and 
on  the  Saturdays  he  was  still  able  to  take  bis  fovourite  walk  to 
Granton  pier,  to  see  the  London  and  other  steamers  preparing 
to  sail.  But  the  time  of  his  departure  was  drawing  near,  and 
the  tone  of  his  correspondence,  as  well  as  of  his  preaching, 
indicated  that  he  was  more  and  more  impressed  with  a  sense  <^ 
the  littleness  of  time,  and  the  magnitude  of  eternity.  With 
reference  to  a  proposal  made  for  his  son.  Dr.  D.  Rutherford 
Haldane,  to  travel  for  a  year  on  the  Continent,  as  phyaician  to  a 
relative,  he  thus  wrote : — 

"  I  trust  the  Lord  will  direct  in  this.  His  mother  and  I  have  nada 
it  a  subject  of  prayer,  and  I  doubt  not  the  Lord  hai  heard  ut,  and  will 
take  the  matter  into  hia  own  management.  It  is  much  that  the  High 
and  Lofty  One  who  inhahitetb  eternity  should  vouchaafa  to  interfere  in 
our  behalf  on  any  Bubjeet,  but  when  we  read  of  the  GondeacenaiMi  of  Jotub, 


JOYFUL    ANTICIPATIONS.  663 

in  whom  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelleth  bodily,  we  are  embold- 
ened to  ask  much,  and  to  expect  much,  trusting  in  Omnipotence.^ 

Such  was  the  spirit  which  animated  his  cheerful  and  active 
piety.  No  gloomy  foreboding  as  to  a  dark  and  unknown 
future — no  dread  of  the  King  of  Terrors — no  doubts  as  to  his 
acceptance  in  Christy  obscured  the  radiance  of  his  setting  sun. 
In  the  same  letter,  written  within  six  weeks  of  his  departure, 
being  then  in  good  health,  he  thus  affectionately  addresses  his 
eldest  son  in  London,  as  if  anticipating  that  his  years  were 
numbered : — 

"  This  is  the  last  day  of  the  year,  and  the  last  letter  I  shall  write  this 
year.  My  life  has  been  wonderfully  preserved,  much  beyond  the  usual 
course  of  nature.  Goodness  and  mercy  have  followed  me  all  the  days  of 
my  life,  and,  without  the  shadow  of  boasting,  I  can  add,  I  shall  dwell  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord  for  ever.  May  the  blessing  of  God  Almighty  rest 
on  you  and  yours ! 

"  Ever  most  affectionately  yours, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

It  was  the  gracious  will  of  his  heavenly  Father  that  he  should 

be  spared  the  pain  of  a  protracted  illness.     But  there  were  many 

things  which  combined  to  make  his  last  days  and  weeks  and 

months  a  testimony  to  the  strength  of  that  assured  faith  which 

bore   him   onwards   and   upwards  to   the   heavenly   mansions. 

The  following  words,  as  uttered  by  him  in  one  of  his  sermons  in 

Northumberland,  taken  down  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  R.  Burdon 

Sanderson,  indicate  the  practical  and  personal  feeling  by  which 

many  of  his  closing  addresses  seemed  to  be  inspired : — 

'* '  I  am  crucified  with  Christ.'  I  died  in  His  death.  I  rise  in  His 
resurrection.  I  live,  yet  not  I;  Christ  liveth  in  me.  Not  I,  a  poor 
wretched  rebel,  whose  foundation  is  in  the  dust,  who  dwell  in  a  cottage  of 
clay.  It  is  I,  the  disciple  of  Christ,  the  member  of  Christ's  body,  who 
look  forward  to  the  glorious  inheritance,  incorruptible  and  undeiiled,  and 
which  fadeth  not  away,  when  this  vile  body  shall  be  fashioned  like  unto 
Christ's  glorious  body,  when  I  shall  have  done  with  sin,  when  I  shall  have 
done  with  sorrow,  when  I  shall  have  done  with  everything  that  could 
interrupt  my  communion  with  Christ,  and  when  beyond  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills,  I  shall  lay  my  crown  at  His  feet,  singing 
the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb,  '  Unto  him  that  loved  me,  and  washed 
me  from  my  sins  in  his  own  blood,  unto  him  be  glory  both  now  and  for 
ever.    Amen.' " 


664  LAST   DAYS. 

Another  letter  to  his  daughter-in-law^  in  London,  was  written 

on  the  16th  of  January^  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract : — 

**  I  received  your  very  kind  letter.  Through  the  Lord's  kintin^yt,  we 
are  all  well,  with  the  exception  of  Helen,  who  has  been  confined  to  bed 
with  a  slow  fever  for  ten  days.  I  trust  there  is  no  danger,  yet  it  is  an 
anxious  time ;  but  we  are  taught  to  be  anxious  for  nothing,  but  in  every- 
thing, by  prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiving,  to  make  our  requesti 
known  to  him,  who,  while  wielding  all  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  u 
not  ashamed  to  call  his  people  brethren." 

After  some  other  remarks,  fiill  of  maturity  of  Christian  experi- 
ence, he  says : — 

"  I  hope  we  shall  also  see  you  during  the  summer.  Perhaps  yon  vrill 
think  I  forget  that  I  am  in  my  eighty-third  year,  but  I  wiah  aU  future 
plans  to  be  with  this  proviso,  if  the  Lord  will,  we  shall  live,  and  do  this 
or  that.  My  wife  and  all  here  unite  in  kindest  love  to  you  and  all  at  the 
Manor.    Ever  yours,  most  affectionately, 

"  J.  A.  Haldane." 

In  a  letter  to  his  eldest  son,  written  but  a  few  days  before  his 
illness,  he  again  observes,  that,  although  remarkably  well,  he 
did  not  forget  that  he  was  upon  that  part  of  Addison's  Bridge 
of  Mirza,  where  there  are  many  pitfalls.  Dr.  Macaulay,  of 
Edinburgh,  has  addressed  to  Miss  Haldane  a  gn^hic  sketch  (^ 
"  Captain  James  Haldane,"  in  the  year  1798,  when,  in  the  bloom 
of  manhood,  he  stood  on  the  Calton  Hill  of  Edinburgh,  in  coloured 
clothes,  ''with  his  hair  powdered  and  tied  behind,''  preach- 
ing with  affectionate  earnestness,  and  pressing  home  the  truths 
of  the  Gospel  on  Ustening  thousands.  He  concludes  his  interest- 
ing reminiscences,  by  relating,  how  fifty-three  years  afterwards, 
*'  on  the  16th  of  January,  1851, 1  saw  him  for  the  last  time  at  the 
Committee  of  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society."  ''I  happened," 
he  adds,  "  to  be  in  the  chair,  and  he  sat  beside  me.  He  closed 
the  meeting  with  a  prayer,  distinguished  by  that  fervour  and 
propriety  which  always  characterized  his  addresses  to  the  throne 
of  grace.  When  the  meeting  was  over,  I  saw  him  returning  to 
his  home,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  your  brother  Robert,  and  this 
was  my  last  sight  of  the  long-remembered  and  honoured  Mr. 
Haldane." 

Another  attack  of  his  old  enemy  the  gout,  which  was  the  only 


LAST    ILLNESS.  665 

complaint  to  which  he  was  ever  subject,  became  slightly  perceptible 
on  the  30th  of  January,  when  two  of  the  grand-daughters  of  his 
late  brother  dined  at  his  house,  with  some  other  friends.  It  rather 
increased,  so  that,  on  the  Lord^s-day  of  the  2d  of  February,  he 
was,  for  the  first  time,  after  a  long  interval,  unable  to  leave  the 
house.  On  Tuesday,  the  4th,  he  became  worse,  but  although 
suffering  much  pain,  he  was  wheeled  into  the  drawing-room, 
and  in  the  evening  prayed  as  usual  with  hia  family.  The 
twenty-first  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse  was  read  in  course  by 
his  youngest  son,  and  his  whole  prayer  had  reference  to  the 
bright  and  glorious  city,  with  its  streets  of  gold,  its  walls  of 
jasper,  and  its  gates  of  pearl.  He  seemed  about  to  close,  when, 
as  if  unable  to  let  go  his  hold,  he  once  more  began  and  prayed 
most  fervently  that  all  his  family,  hia  children  and  his  children's 
children,  might  meet  together  in  the  new  Jerusalem,  and  unite 
in  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb.  It  was  not  then  imagined 
that  he  had  himself  really  entered  the  dark  flowing  river,  and  was 
about  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.  But  his  prayers  were 
''  ended.''  It  was  the  last  of  those  supplications,  rich  in  spiritual 
grace  and  unction,  which  always  so  eminently  marked  the  close- 
ness of  his  communion  with  God.  From  the  footstool  of  the 
throne  of  grace  he  was  removed  to  his  bed,  from  which  he  was 
not  again  to  rise.  He  survived  till  the  8th,  but  after  this  spoke 
but  little.  He  had  gout  all  over,  and  partly  owing  to  the 
sedatives  administered,  seemed  usually  to  slumber.  But  even 
the  feverish  visions  of  his  sleep  were  associated  with  ideas  of 
the  necessity  of  rising  to  visit  the  sick,  and  with  the  impres- 
sion of  the  priestly  character  which  he  sustained  in  his  house- 
hold. In  his  wanderings  he  supposed  that  family  worship 
was  going  on,  and  often  inquired  whether  those  around  him 
waited  for  a  blessing.  Occasionally  he  hstened  to  a  few  verses 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  intimated  a  brief  assent  to  the  comfort 
they  breathed.  On  Friday,  a  passage  of  Scripture  being 
repeated  to  him,  at  a  time  when  it  was  uncertain  whether  he 
was  able  to  listen,  he  raised  himself  a  little,  and  distinctly 
repeated,  "When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then 
we  shall  appear  with  him  in  glory."     He  was  then  asked  if 


666  DEATH. 

he  thought  he  waa  sood  going  home.  He  answered,  "  Perhapi 
not  quite  yet."  Mrs.  Haldane  affectionately  said,  "  Then  yon 
will  not  leave  us  so  soon."  He  rcpUed,  with  a  smile,  "  To  depail 
and  be  with  Christ  is  iar  better."  On  being  asked  if  he  fell 
much  peace  and  happiness,  he  twice  repeated,  "  Exceeding  great 
and  precious  promiaes."  He  then  said,  "But  I  must  rise." 
Mrs.  Haldane  said,  "  You  are  not  able  to  get  up,"  He  smiled 
and  answered,  "  I  ahall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  his  like- 
ness." She  said,  "  Is  that  what  you  meant  by  rising  ?"  He 
answered,  "  Yes."  On  Saturday  morning,  the  8th,  Dr.  Alison 
remarked  how  foreibly  his  pulse  beat,  although  his  strength  wu 
fast  sinking,  and  Professor  Millar  added,  "hut  he  is  quickly 
passing  away,  like  a  shock  of  com,  fully  ripe,  and  you  have 
cause  to  be  thankfid  that  he  suffers  so  little."  I>uriD<r  hit 
waking  intervals,  he  was  in  possession  of  every  faculty,  eyen 
to  the  last  day.  About  an  hour  before  his  departure  his  devoted 
wife  said,  "  You  are  going  to  Jesus.  How  happy  you  will  b« 
soon."  A  vivid  smile  lighted  up  his  countenance  with 
the  expression  of  ineffable  joy,  aa  he  emphatically  said,  "  Oh  I 
yes."  After  this.  Dr.  Innes  called,  and  prayed  by  his  bedside. 
But  it  was  doubtful  if  he  heard.  For  about  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  his  breathing  was  rather  difiicult.  He  then  became  quite 
calm.  His  pulse  heat  almost  to  the  last  minute,  and  his  face 
was  suffused  with  colour.  Then,  id  the  presence  of  his  family, 
he  drew  the  last  soft  breath,  and,  in  an  instant,  the  shadow  of 
death  passed  over  his  countenance,  and  his  nmsomed  spirit 
entered  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord. 

The  close  of  such  a  life  required  no  death-bed  testimony,  to 
the  sustainiog  power  of  that  Gospel  which  had  been  the  delight  of 
his  heart.  No  man  had  more  fully  preached  the  fteeness  of  the 
Gospel  message.  No  man  had  more  strongly  proclaimed,  that 
the  oldest  and  most  favoured  Christian  never  entered  heaven, 
but  upon  the  same  self-abasing  terms  as  the  thief  on  the  cross. 
But  none  had,  at  the  same  time,  more  plaudy  declared  his  belief, 
founded  on  much  personal  experience,  that  for  the  most  part 
men  die  as  they  have  lived.  His  own  life  bad  been  for  fifty- 
seven  years  a  bright  example  of  a  life  of  faith ;  and  it  was  truly 


DEATH.  667 

said  of  him,  by  his  venerable  friend  and  fellow-labonrer,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Innes,  in  his  funeral  sermon,  "To  him  to  live  was 
Christ,  but  to  die  was  gain.'^ 

He  was  to  have  preached  on  the  following  day  in  Dr.  Chal- 
mers's Free  Church,  in  the  Westport,  for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tasker. 
That  devoted  minister,  on  being  unexpectedly  informed  of  the 
transition  which  had  taken  place,  thus  expressed  his  feeUngs  in 
writing  to  Mr.  Haldane's  son  Robert : — 

February  8,  1851. 

"  I  cannot  give  expression  to  the  conflicting  flood  of  emotion  stirred  in 
my  breast  by  the  most  unexpected  tidings  of  your  father's  departure  to 
his  home,  especially  in  the  circumstances  in  which  he  and  I  were  brought 
together,  with  the  purpose  he  so  cordially  entertained  of  preaching  to  us 
to-morrow.  But  his  work  is  done.  He  is  gone.  He  is  gone  to  the 
mountains  of  mptle  and  of  myrrh  and  the  hill  of  frankincense,  and  the 
voice  says  most  distinctly  here, '  Write,  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in 
the  Lord  from  henceforth.  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest 
from  their  labours,  and  their  works  do  follow  them.'  I  am  prompted 
to  follow  him  and  Dr.  Chalmers,  whither  they  are  met ;  by  different,  yet 
concurring,  converging  paths ;  both  led  by  what  each  believed  the  Master's 
will,  they  warred  a  good  warfare.  While  here  even  they  saw  but  in  part 
and  prophesied  but  in  part,  but  now  to  them  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come,  and  they  are,  in  all  respects,  one.  How  striking  to  us !  The  Lord 
sanctify  it  to  our  Westport  congregation  and  \jo  me!  How  fitted  is  the 
thought  to  solemnize,  that  I  shall  stand,  if  spared,  to-morrow,  in  the  place 
that  he  had  willingly  engaged  to  occupy.  Surely  the  Lord  has  said,  '  It 
was  well  that  it  was  in  thy  heart,  but  come  thou  up  hither,  thy  son  shall 
build  me  an  house.'  And  what  a  memoir  will  your  father's  be !  He  has 
died  in  harness,  speaking  and  writing  and  preaching  to  the  last.  Called 
away  to-day,  and  only  in  the  beginning  of  this  week  entertaining  the 
prospect  of  preaching  in  the  Westport  on  to-morrow.  But  his  reward  is 
on  high  I     Sustained  in  the  field  till  the  age  of  eighty-three  I " 

Robert  Haldane,  Esq. 

It  was  remarked  in  the  Edinburgh  newspapers,  that  his 
funeral,  which  took  place  on  the  14th  of  February,  '*  although 
intended  to  be  strictly  private,  drew  together  a  large  concourse 
of  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh,  anxious  to  do  homage  to  his 
public  character  and  private  worth.  No  man  was  less  disposed 
to  court  the  applause  of  men,  or  indulge  the  semblance  of 
ostentation;    but  the  respect   shown  to  his  memory  by   the 


668  PUNERAL. 

tniniatera  and  membera  of  different  religious  commuDities  ii 
this  city,  is  a  noble  demon etration  of  Christian  sympathy  wicl 
all  that  is  exemplary  in  a  long  and  consistent  career  of  Christiai 
devotedness."  It  is  stated  in  another  journal,  that^  besides  tb 
mourning  coacheSj  containing  the  members  of  his  family  am 
private  friends,  there  were  no  less  than  600  nuDtsters,  elden 
and  private  members  of  the  different  religious  cotmnunities  Ti 
Edinburgh.  The  Presbj'tery  of  the  Free  Church,  in  a  body 
headed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Candlish,  with  their  students,  joinef 
the  procession  in  George-street.  The  windows  of  the  housa 
through  which  the  procession  passed  were  crowded  witl 
spectators.  From  the  gate  of  the  West  Churchyard  to  thi 
Church  rows  of  clergymen  lined  each  side  of  the  principal 
avenue,  and  uncovered  as  the  coffin  passed.  There  were 
ministers  both  of  the  Established,  Free,  and  Secession  Pres- 
byterian Churches,  as  well  as  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  and 
Independents,  who  thus  united  to  pay  a  voluntary  tribute  of 
respect  to  the  public  services  of  a  man,  who,  with  his  brother, 
was  honoured  to  do  so  much  for  the  revival  of  religion  in 
Scotland.  The  "  Scotsman,"  an  exclusively  political  journal, 
remarks,  that  such  a  spontaneous  tribute  of  respect  "  has  rarely 
been  paid  to  any  private  individual ; "  and  another,  that, 
excepting  the  funerals  of  Dr.  Chalmer§  and  Dr.  Thomson, 
"there  baa  not  been  such  an  unsolicited  demonstration  of  public 
feeling  on  any  like  occasion." 

There  were  many  little  incidents  which  indicated  the  reverence 
and  love  in  which  he  was  held.  One  aged  member  of  his  own 
Church  had  placed  himself,  with  the  rest  of  the  members,  in 
advance  of  the  hearse,  but  on  account  of  his  age  was  urged  to  take 
a  seat  in  one  of  the  mourning  coaches.  He  declined,  alleging 
that  "  his  proper  place  was  at  the  feet  of  his  pastor."  It  was  Mr. 
Haldanc  who  had  been  the  means  of  leading  htm  to  Christ  when, 
more  than  fifty  years  before,  he  had  wandered  into  the  Circus. 
There  were  others  who  gathered  round  the  grave,  not  connected 
with  Mr.  Haldane'a  congregation,  who  bore  the  same  testimony 
to  the  blessed  effects  of  his  faithful  preaching.  On  the  Lord's- 
day  succeeding  his  departure,  honourable  reference  was  made  to 


i 


FUNERAL.  Q69 

his  removal  in  many  of  the  pulpits  of  Edinburgh  by  clergymen 
of  almost  every  religious,  denomination^  Presbyterian,  Episco- 
palian, Baptist,  and  Independent.  The  character  of  Caleb,  who 
"  followed  the  Lord  fully,'^  was  the  subject  chosen  by  the  Rev. 
Christopher  Anderson,  whose  early  recollections  of  his  departed 
friend  enabled  him  to  supply  many  interesting  anecdotes  of  his 
power  as  a  preacher.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Paterson,  long  so  much 
distinguished  as  the  agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  in  Russia,  who  had  originally  studied  with  Dr.  Henderson 
at  Mr.  Haldane^s  seminary,  and  been  sent  out  as  a  missionary  by 
the  Tabernacle  Church,  thus  wrote : — 

.  .  .  "  I  lament  that  I  should  have  necessarily,  from  these  circum- 
stances, been  absent,  as  my  absence  must  have  been  noticed  by  all  present 
who  knew  the  connexion  which  had  formerly  subsisted  between  your  dear 
father  and  myself.  It  is  true,  our  intercourse  has  rather  been  interrupted 
for  some  time  past,  by  our  taking  different  sides  about  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society ;  but  my  high  regard  and  esteem  for  your  dear 
father  was  never  interrupted.  I  can  never  forget  his  eminent  services  in 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  his  kindness  to  myself.  I  shall  cherish  a  kind 
recollection  of  his  memory  till  death,  and  then  I  hope,  through  grace,  to 
join  him  in  glory,  where  uninterrupted  harmony  and  love  will  ever  reign 
among  all  the  inhabitants  of  that  blessed  place.  My  prayer  is,  that  a 
double  portion  of  his  spirit  may  rest  on  all  his  dear  family,  and  that  they 
all  may  be  followers  of  him  as  he  was  of  Christ,  and  join  him  never  to  be 
more  separated." 

Nor  were  such  testimonies  confined  to  Edinburgh,  or  to  those 
only  who  knew  him  in  Scotland.  An  eloquent  tribute  from  the 
pen  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Campbell  was  published  in  the  '' British 
Banner.^'  The  following,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Burder,  the 
son  of  the  founder  *  of  the  Tract  Society,  and  the  author  of  the 
'^  Village  Sermons,'^  appeared  in  the  "  Evangelical  Magazine :'' — 

"  But  few  men,  and  but  few  ministers,  whom  I  have  known,  have 
attained  such  a  grade  of  Christian  character,  or  commanded  from  all 


*  At  p.  272  of  these  Memoirs,  the  Rev.  George  Burder  is  named  as  the 
first  Secretary  of  the  Religious  Tract  Society.  He  was  the  chief  founder 
of  that  Institution,  but  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hughes  was  the  Secretary,  and  as 
the  Tract  Society  was  the  parent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
Mr.  Hughes  passed  over  from  Paternoster-row  to  Earl-street 


670  TB8TIM0NI18. 

cImmi  such  «  tribute  of  the  homage  of  the  heut.  Hit  matured  profieieDcj 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scripture*,  hii  enlightened  coDBcientiousnew,  bit 
Christian  dignity  and  decision,  bis  unsullied  consistency  of  character,  and 
his  persevering  energy  in  doing  good,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten,  and 
ought  to  hare  the  force  of  an  attractiTe  example.  The  mellowed  ezcel- 
lenciea  of  the  Christian  cbaraoteT  appeared  to  great  advantage  in  tbe 
autumn  of  his  peaceful  and  useful  hfe.  He  seemed  exempted  beyond  tbe 
ordinary  lot  of  the  aged  from  the  infirmities  and  sufferings  of  protncted 
life )  and  as  to  him  '  to  live  was  Christ,'  we  are  well  assured  diat  '  to  die 
has  proved  ineflable  gain.' " 

Another  tribute  of  afiection  from  his  attached  fiiend.  Colonel 
Anderson,  is  the  more  interesting  as  contrasting  with  the  recol- 
lections of  the  scene  at  North  Berwick,  related  in  a  former  part 
of  these  Memoirs : — 

"  11)0  first  impulse  on  hearing  of  the  translation  of  your  honouied 
bther  was  to  start  for  the  north,  and  have  the  privil^e  of  following  the 
earthly  remains  of  the  man  of  Ood  to  tbe  tomb.  ...  I  cannot  well 
define  the  reverence  with  which  I  regarded  your  beloYed  father.  Few 
men  have  been  as  useful  in  their  geucration,  and  his  name  will  be  held  in 
grateful  remembrance  by  very  many.  It  was  a  great  privilege  to  be  even 
known  to  such  a  man,  and  how  great  was  the  honour  to  be  the  son  of 
such  a  man !  The  grace  of  Ood  was  surely  seen  in  the  departed  saint. 
A  long  and  eminently  consistent  lifb  put  to  ailence  the  fooHshnesi  of  tbe 
adversary,  and  I  believe  many  ransomed  spirits  are  now  around  the  throne, 
who  have  welcomed  him  to  the  heavenly  mansion  as  the  blessed  instrument 
of  turning  them  from  darkness  to  light,  and  leading  them  to  a  knowledge  of 
aaving  truth  as  exhibited  in  the  Ooapel.  I  have  long  been  persuaded  that 
your  father  and  uncle  were  specially  raised  up  to  be  the  means  <^ 
reviving  tbe  Church  in  their  native  land." 

Mr.  Haldane's  relative,  the  Rev.  James  (VHara,  of  Coleraine, 
says  of  hitn :  "  His  views  on  the  believer's  union  with  Christ 
have  shown  me  more  of  the  Holiness  necessarily  connected 
with  Faith  than  any  Commentary  that  has  ever  come  in  my 
way."  Another  eminent  ctergymaD  of  the  Established  Church, 
in  the  north  of  Ireland,  thus  wrote,  after  reading  a  sketch  of  his 
life  copied  into  the  "  Record  "  newspaper  :— 

"J»nMiFy38,185l. 
"  Mt  dear  Fbiend, — The  '  Keeord'  brought  me  the  account  of  joax 
venerated  &thei's  removal  from  earth  to  heaven.    I  have  read  wilib  deep 


TESTIMONIES.  671 

interest  the  sketch  of  his  early  labours,  and  the  great  blessing  which 
attended  them. 

"  It  brought  yividly  to  my  mind  the  long  and  pleasant  walk  I  had  with 
him  and  dear  Dawson  and  yourself  one  sunmier's  night,  returning  from 
dining  at  Mr.  Hamilton's  at  Streatham,  when  he  gave  me  an  account  of 
his  visiting  Donaghadee  many  years,  it  seemed  almost  ages,  ago,  and 
his  efforts  at  that  time  to  make  known  the  Gospel  in  that  dead  part  of 
Ireland.  I  cannot  but  consider  it  amongst  the  many  advantages  which  I 
derived  from  Dawson's  friendship,  that  it  was  the  means  of  bringing  me 
acquainted  with  so  eminent  a  servant  of  God, — one  of  the  worthies  of 
that  *  time  of  refreshing  from  the  Lord'  with  which  this  part  of  the  world 
was  visited,  and  which  the  new  generation  now  growing  up  will  look  at 
with  wonder  and  great  interest  And  now  when  trials  of  a  different 
kind,  arising  from  Puseyism  and  Neology,  are  gathering  round  us,  the 
example  of  that  boldness  for  the  truth  and  persevering  energy  in  its 
behalf,  and  cleaving  to  first  principles,  and  caring  nought  for  the  revilings 
and  contempt  of  men,  which  were  so  conspicuous  in  his  character,  are  a 
valuable  help  to  those  who  come  afrer  him  in  the  war  which  is  not  to 
cease  *  until  He  come  whose  right  it  is  to  reign  over  the  world,'  " 

The  next  letter,  whilst  it  refers  to  the  remarkable  faith  in  the 
resurrection  which  was  exhibited  by  the  dying  saint  amidst  all 
the  weakness  and  wandering  incident  to  approaching  dissolu- 
tion, also  alludes  to  the  sad  bereavement  which  immediately 
followed  his  departure,  in  the  sudden  removal  of  the  beloved 
wife  of  his  second  son,  Robert,  after  the  birth  of  an  infant,  who 
was  laid  in  the  same  grave : — 

"  Bellevue,  Feb.  21th,  1851. 
"My  deae  Miss  Margaeet, — Your  letter  shocked,  but  did  not 
altogether  surprise  me.  I  scarcely  dared  to  hope,  and  yet  I  did  hope, 
that  the  Lord  would  spare  the  mother  for  the  children's  sakes,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  bereaved  husband.  I  do,  however,  think  of  him,  and  what 
is  more,  I  believe  that  Qod  thinks  of  him  also,  and,  perhaps,  will  do  him 
more  good  by  the  day  of  his  wife's  death  than  by  the  day  of  her  espousals. 
It  is,  indeed,  to  her  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb,  and  the  Bride  hath 
made  herself  ready,  being  adorned  in  the  wedding  garment  of  Christ's 
righteousness  and  washed  in  his  blood.  May  we  all  be  found  in  that 
same  clothing,  when  we  come  to  be  unclothed  of  the  earthly  tabernacle, 
that  we  may  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house  from  heaven !  How  insig- 
nificant do  all  earthly  objects  appear  when  we  see  a  spirit  departing  into 
the  land  of  forgetfulness,  and  yet  not  to  be  forgotten,  for  he  hath  said, 
*  With  everlasting  mercies  will  I  gather  thee;*  yea,  though  our  bones  lie 
scattered  at  the  grave's  mouth,  and  our  dust  be  mingled  with  the  earth. 


672  CONCLUSION. 

*<  Mr.  Haldane's  last  words  were  remarkable,  and  showed  strong  ftiti 
in  the  resurrection, — a  subject  exceedingly  difficult  to  realise,  doubtles 
in  the  article  of  death.  It  is  easy  to  believe  anything,  while  it  is  not ; 
question,  but  to  believe  that  we  shall  rise  again  assuredly,  when  we  ar 
just  going  down  into  the  grave,  requires  a  faith  like  Abraham*s,  who 
against  hope,  believed  in  hope, — a  faith  of  His  working,  who  is  indeei 
almighty  to  save, — in  a  word,  a  faith  of  onmipotence.  It  is  promised 
however,  that  in  the  hour  of  need  we  shall  know  the  exceeding  greatness 
of  His  power  toward  us  who  heliete^  according  to  the  working  of  thai 
mighty  power  which  he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he  raised  him  from  the 
dead.  The  faith  of  Christ^s  resurrection  is  the  life  of  our  spirit,  and  the 
death  of  unbelief.  It  strikes  a  blow  at  our  incredulity  which  no  othei 
weapon  can  inflict. 

*<  Affectionately  yours  and  the  whole  afflicted  fanuly's, 

"R.  B.  Sanoebsok." 

In  the  letter  last  inserted^  the  writer  expresses  his  admiration 
of  the  faith  which  enabled  the  dying  saint,  even  in  the  hour  of 
dissolution^  to  look  with  assured  confidence  to  a  glorious  resur- 
rection. It  was  an  assurance  granted  to  both  of  these  brothers, 
and  one  which  gilded  the  sunset  of  their  career  with  a  hope  full  of 
immortality.  Was  this,  then,  a  mere  passing  feeling,  dependent 
upon  impulse  or  excitement  ?  Is  it  to  be  numbered  amongst  those 
transient  "  fantasies'^  at  which  modem  imbelievers  have  sneered  ? 
Was  it  a  faith  such  as  that  which,  according  to  Gibbon,  enables 
•  •  "  enthusiasts ''  to  dream  of  "  hallelujahs  beyond  the  clouds  f '' 

Both  were  men  of  strong  intellect,  of  manly  independence,  of 
calm  judgment,  and,  as  Dr.  Pye  Smith  said  of  the  elder, 
addicted  beyond  most  to  ''cool  reasoning.^'  Their  zeal  was 
steady  rather  than  impulsive,  and  their  faith  was  established, 
not  on  the  shifting  sands  of  a  dubious  sentimentalism,  but  on 
the  enduring  basis  of  the  Rock  of  Ages.  In  the  bloom  of  man- 
hood, a  great  moral  change  passed  over  both  nearly  at  the  same 
time,  but  without  much  communication  with  each  other.  It 
j  had  in  it  nothing  that  was  sudden,  nothing  that  was  imaginative, 

i  nothing  even  that  was  extraordinary.     It  was  a  change  produced 

by  the  calm  and  candid  investigation  of  the  lofty  claims  of  that 
holy  book,  which  previously  they  had  called  the  Word  of  God, 
''from  prejudice  of  education  rather  than  from  any  rational 
conviction.^' 


CONCLUSION.  673 

But  when  the  great  truth  found  entrance  to  their  hearts; 
when  by  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  promised  to  all  who 
ask,  they  received  the  Bible  as  being,  what  it  assumes  to  be, 
the  Word  and  work  of  God;  when  they  came  to  discern  the 
grandeur  of  that  Gospel  which  shines  in  all  its  pages,  and 
beheld  Him  to  whom  the  Law,  the  prophets,  the  evangelists, 
and  the  apostles,  all  bear  witness ;  then  faith  in  Christ  became 
a  living  and  energizing  principle.  In  Him  they  were  a  new 
creation ;  old  things  had  passed  away ;  Christianity  was  now  a 
reality,  exalting  and  hallowing  all  their  faculties  and  all  their 
affections;  the  world  no  longer  maintained  its  empire  in  their 
hearts;  and  they  devoted  their  lives  to  the  service  of  God 
with  a  zeal  which  can  be  stigmatised  as  enthusiasm  only  by 
those  who  have  neither  felt  the  constraining  power  of  Divine 
forgiveness,  nor,  like  them,  examined  and  ascertained  the  deep 
foundations  of  the  Christian  faith.  Upon  their  principles  and 
with  their  convictions,  it  was  ^'a  reasonable  service,"  to  surrender 
themselves  to  Him  who  had  "washed  them  in  his  blood;"  and 
as  these  principles  became  more  firmly  settled,  and  these  con- 
victions strengthened  by  communion  with  God  and  the  study 
of  his  Word,  the  first  impulses  of  youthful  earnestness  were 
approved  of  and  sanctioned  by  the  sober  gravity  of  maturer  age. 
They  held  fast  the  beginning  of  their  confidence  stedfast  to 
the  end,  and  discerned  with  joy  the  glorious  light,  of  Him  who 
is  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  streaming  across  the  dark  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death.  This  was  the  secret  of  their  triumph 
over  the  king  of  teiTors,  and  of  the  calm  satisfaction  with  which 
they  regarded  the  termination  of  their  course.  When  Gibbon 
was  contemplating  the  approach  of  death,  he  candidly  admitted 
that  "  the  prospect  of  futurity  was  dark  and  doubtful,"  and  that 
''the  abbreviation  of  time,  and  the  failure' of  hope,  must  always 
tinge  with  a  browner  shade  the  evening  of  life."  He  therefore 
tried  to  draw  some  comfort  from  the  thought  of  his  position  in  the 
world,  which  he  regarded  as  "  the  lucky  chance  of  an  unit  against 
thousands."  He  might  indeed,  as  he  says,  have  been  con- 
demned to  povei'ty,  or  bom  a  savage,  or  a  slave.  But  of  this 
he  was  ''willingly  ignorant,"  that  the  privileges  of  which  he 

X    X 


674  CONCLUSION. 

boasts  were  not  the  result  of  accident^  but  of  God's  sovereignh', 
which^  if  properly  improved^  should  have  led  him  to  repent  and 
believe  in  that  gracious  revelation^  against  which  he  levelled  his 
melancholy  sarcasms.    It  is  no  marvel  that^  to  him,  the  objects  of 
the  dying  Christian's  hope  appeared  only  as  the  dreams  of  enthu- 
siasm.    For  him^  alas !  the  palm^  the  harp^  and  the  crown,  or 
the  harmonies  of  heaven's  hallelujahs,  possessed  no  charms.     It 
was  otherwise  with  those  who  regarded  as  their  Saviour,  the  Judge 
who  is  to  sit  upon  the  great  white  throne,  and  around  whom 
the  rolling  anthems  of  everlasting  praise  will  be  for  ever  new. 

Considering  the  end,  as  well  as  the  beginning,  of  their  faith, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  both  of  the  Haldanes  clung  to  the  Bible 
with  a  fidelity  that  was  never  shaken.  To  assert  its  Divine 
origin,  to  uphold  its  fiill  inspiration,  to  protect  it  against  those 
who  would  either  add  to  the  words  of  God  or  profanely  take 
them  away,  was  one  great  object  for  which  they  lived  and 
laboured.  To  defend  its  doctrines  against  every  blast  of  heresy 
and  every  taint  of  error  was  another  grand  aim  which  they 
steadily  pursued  with  consistency  and  courage,  from  the  outset 
to  the  termination  of  their  career.  Against  the  witheiing  spirit 
of  Romanistic  formalism  and  the  infidel  tendencies  of  German 
Neology  they  uplifted  the  banner  of  Divine  truth.  But, 
earnestly  as  they  contended  for  the  faith  once  deUvered  to 
the  saints,  their  exertions  for  the  difiiision  of  the  Gospel  at 
home  and  abroad  were  still  more  remarkable.  They  taught,  as 
well  as  vindicated,  the  great  truths  of  Christianity,  and  the 
results  of  their  efforts  stretch  into  eternity. 

The  attention  which  at  one  time  they  directed  to  the  revival 
of  a  primitive  form  of  Church  polity  in  Scotland,  is  the  only  part 
of  the  career  of  the  Haldanes  in  regard  to  which  success  was  not 
proportioned  to  their  efforts.  Perhaps  it  was  necessary  that 
there  should  be  something  practically  and  visibly  to  remind 
those  who  chiefly  revered  their  character  and  marked  their  self- 
devotion,  that  they  were  but  feeble  and  fallible  men,  able  to  do 
nothing  of  themselves,  and  owing  all  their  might  to  God.  But 
even  in  these  matters  they  were  enabled  by  grace  to  exhibit 
their  desire  with  singleness  of  heart,  to  cleave  to  the  Lord,  and 


CONCLUSION.  075 

to  renounce  their  own  wisdom.  Too  many  Christians  look  to 
the  opinions  of  men  to  guide  their  course.  They  looked  only 
to  God.  It  was  His  praise  they  desired  to  gain ;  and  the  praise 
of  men,  whether  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world,  as  a  motive  of 
action,  they  resolutely  cast  behind  their  backs. 

But  it  is  not  intended  to  write  a  panegyric.  Their  character 
will  be  found  stamped  on  their  acts ;  and  whether  we  regard  the 
labours  of  the  elder  brother  for  the  revival  of  Christianity  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe,  or  the  labours  of  both  in  their  native  land, 
it  has  been  said  with  truth  that  they  have  left  the  impress  of 
their  name  on  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  Their  example  and 
success,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  is  an  encouragement  to  all 
who  are  willing  and  able,  with  equal  boldness,  zeal,  and  perse- 
verance, in  reliance  upon  the  Divine  blessing,  to  maintain  the 
great  truths  of  salvation,  and  make  known  the  free  Gk)spel  of 
the  grace  of  God.  Both  were  content  for  a  time  to  be  sneered 
at  by  the  world,  and  accounted  madmen  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
Each  dedicated  intellectual  talents  of  no  common  order  to  the 
same  cause — the  one  by  his  preaching,  but  still  more  by  his 
writings;  the  other,  by  his  writings,  but  far  more  by  his 
preaching,  taught  and  vindicated  the  same  great  truths.  It 
may  be  said  of  both  that  in  all  their  undertakings  for  the  pro- 
motion of  religion  they  proceeded  hand  in  hand.  Although 
each  was  distinguished  for  a  determined  will,  and  strong  adher- 
ence to  his  own  views  of  duty,  there  subsisted  between  them  a 
remarkable  harmony  of  design  and  oneness  of  spirit ;  and  never, 
during  their  long  and  honourable  course  of  mutual  co-operation, 
was  there  one  jarring  feeling  to  disturb  their  efforts  for  the 
common  object  they  so  consistently  pursued.  That  object  was  the 
glory  of  Christ  and  the  salvation  of  their  fellow-men ;  and  now 
that  the  career  of  both  is  closed,  and  death  has  affixed  his  seal  on 
the  record  of  their  earthly  labours,  the  simplicity  of  their  holy 
aim,  the  depth  of  their  hallowed  benevolence,  and  the  stedfast- 
ness  of  their  lofty  principle,  stand  more  plainly  revealed.  From 
the  moment  they  undertook  to  devote  their  lives  to  labour  in 
the  Gospel,  there  was  no  looking  back  to  scenes  of  past  enjoy- 
ment.    Wealth,  honour,  worldly  renown,  and  reputation,  were 


676  CONCLUSION. 

all  counted  but  loss;  nor  did  the  seducing  hope  of  earning  a 
name  and  a  place  in  the  Christian  world  ever  tempt  their 
ambition.     Their  single  desire  was  wholly  to  follow  the  Lord. 


NOTE. 

Robert  Haldane  had  no  male  heir,  bat  his  only  child,  Margaret 
Haldane  Gordon,  who  survived  her  husband  nearly  six  years,  hsd 
three  sons  and  six  daughters.  Her  two  eldest  sons,  Miyor  John 
Gordon  and  Kobert  Haldane  Gordon,  both  died  unmarried  in  her  life- 
time. Her  youngest  son,  the  Rev.  James  Gordon,  alone  survived,  and  is 
married  to  Thomazine,  only  surviving  daughter  of  the  late  William 
Crawford,  of  Lakelands,  Esq.,  in  the  county  of  Cork.  Three  of  Mrs. 
Haldane  Gordon's  daughters  died  in  infancy,  and  three  sarvive.  lliese 
are  the  only  descendants  of  Robert  Haldane. 

James  A.  Haldane,  who  became,  on  his  brother's  death,  heir-male  of 
their  father,  had  three  sons  and  six  daughters  by  his  first  marriage,  of 
whom  James,  the  eldest  son,  died  in  1831,  unmarried.   The  eldest  survii-ing 
son,  Alexander,  married  Emma,  youngest  child  of  the  late  Joseph  Hard- 
castle,  Esq.,  of  Hatcham  House,  in  the  county  of  Surrey,  and  has  one  son, 
James  Robert  Alexander,  bom  14th  August,  1842,  and  &re  daughters. 
Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  second  surviving  son,  Robert,  married  Jane,  daughter 
of  the  late  John  Makgill,  Esq.,  of  Kemback,  in  the  county  of  Fife,  who  died 
in  the  same  month  as  her  father-in-law,  leaving  two  sons,  the  elder  named 
James  Alexander,  the  second  Rol}ert  Camperdown,  and  three  daughters. 
Two  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Haldane's  daughters  by  his  first  marriage  died  unmar- 
ried, and  of  the  four  siurvivors,  Mary  was  married  to  Colonel  James 
Eckford,  C.B.,  and  Catherine  to  George  Eckford,  Esq.    By  the  second 
marriage  there  were  three  sons,  of  whom  one  died  in  infancy  and  two 
survive,  namely,  Daniel  Rutherford  and  James.     There  are  also  three 
daughters,  the  eldest  of  whom  is  married  to  Richard  Burdon  Sanderson, 
£aq.,  younger  of  West  Jesmond,  in  Northumberland. 


MACINTOSH,  PaiNTER, 
GREAT   NLW-STSEET,  LONDON. 


LIST  OF  PUBLICATIONS  BY  THE  LATE 

ROBERT  HALDANE. 

Date. 

Address  to  the  Public,  conceming  Politics  and  Plans  lately 

adopted  to  promote  Religion  in  Scotland.     Two  Editions     1800 

Letters  to  Mr.  Ewing,  respecting  the  Tabernacle  at  Glasgow     1809 

Remarks  on  late  publication  by  Mr.  Greville  Ewing  .     1809 

An  Answer  to  Mr.  Ewing's  Pamphlet        .  .  .1810 

This  volume  contains  full  details  of  all  Mr.  Haldane's 
plans  and  proceedings  for  the  Indian  Mission, 
and  the  Promotion  of  the  Grospel  in  Scotland, 
from  ....    1797  to  1809 

Evidences  and  Authority  of  Divine  Revelation.      Two 

vols.,  8vo.     Second  Edition,  1834  .  .  .1816 

Third  Edition,  1843.     Three  vols.,  12mo. 

The  same  in  French,  translated  by  Mons.  Rieu.    Two  vols. 

12mo.  ......     1818 

CommentairesurTEpitreauRomains.  Paris.  Two  vols.  8  vo.  1819 

Letter  to  the  Editor  of  "  The  Christian  Instructor  "  .  1820 

Letter  to  Professor  Gheneviere,  of  Geneva  .  .  1824 

On  the  Inspiration  of  Scripture.     Seven  Editions  .  .  1828 

Various  Pamphlets  on  the  Apocrypha  and  Bible  Society 
Controversy,  beginning  with  hi§  first  Review  in  1825, 
down  to  1833,  when  his  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
in  Answer  to  Rev.  S.  Wilks,  was  the  last  of  a  series  of 
Twelve  .  .  .  .  .     1825  to  1833 

Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.     In  Three  vols. 

Several  Editions  ....     1835  to  1842 

The  same  in  French,  and  also  in  German. 

Two  Pamphlets  "  For  the  Consideration  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,**  on  the  Character  of  Professor  Tholock's 
Neologian  (pinions  ....        1837-1838 

Letters  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Brown,  on  the  Duty  of  paying 

Tribute.     Several  Editions  .  .  .  .1838 

Letters  to  the  Rt  Hon.  T.  B.  Macaulay,  on  his  sentiments 

with  regard  to  the  Ballot  .  •  .  1839-40 

Letter  to  "  The  Edinburgh  Chrbtian  Instructor,"  on  matters 

of  Doctrine         ......     1840 

On  the  Observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and  Railway  Desecration     1842 


LIST  OF  PUBLICATIONS  BY  THE  LATE 

J.  A.  HALDANE. 


Date. 
Pastoral  Letters  to  the  Church  of  Christ  assembling  in  Leith 

Walk  ....         1802,  1808,  1810,  1840 

View  of  Social  Worship.  One  vol.  12mo.  Two  Editions  1805-6 
Doctrine  and  Duty  of  Self-Examination.  Two  Editions  1806-23. 
Observations  on  Rev.  J.  Brown's  Vindication  of  Presbyterian 

Government  .....     1806 

Foundation  of  the  Observance  of  the  Lord's-day  and  the 

Lord's  Supper  Vindicated  ....      1807 

Reasons  for  a  Change  of  Sentiment  on  the   Subject  of 

Baptism.     Two  Editions  .  .  .  1808-9 

On  the  Truth  of  the  Gospel  addressed  to  the  Jews  .     1810 

Two  Pamphlets,  intended  to  Establish  the  Duty  of  Mutual 

Forbearance  amongst  Christians  .  .  1811-1812 

On  the  Dignity  of  the  Person  of  Christ  .  .     1813 

Two  Letters  to  Dr.  Chalmers  on  the  Proposed  Licrease  of 

the  Churches  in  Glasgow.     Two  Editions  .  1819-20 

Strictures  on  Mr.  AValker  (of  Dublin's)  Views  of  Faith  and 

Primitive  Christianity.     Two  Editions   .  .  ,     1820 

On  the  Prayer  of  Moses.     Two  Editions  .  1819-23 

The  Revelation  of  God's  Righteousness.  Three  Editions  1823-1851 
On  Musical  Festivab  and  Oratorios.     Two  Editions  1825 

Three    Discourses.       The     Jews    God's     Witnesses ;     The 

Pharisee  and  the  Publican ;  and  the  Green  Tree  and  the 

Dry         .......     1827 

Refutation  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Irving's  Heretical  Doctrine 

on  the  Person  and  Atonement  of  Christ  ,  ,     1829 

Two  Pamphlets,    in   Reply  to   Mr.    Henry  Drummond's 

Defence   of  Mr.  Irving's  Heretical  Doctrines,   and  hia 

Supplement         ......     1830 

The  Change  and  Perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath  .  .     1831 

On  the  Signs  of  the  Times  ....     1833 

Review  of  Mr.  Erskine's  Work  on  the  Doctrine  of  Election 

and  Universal  Pardon  ....     1838 

Man's   Responsibility.      The   Nature  and  Extent  of  the 

Atonement,  in  Reply  to  Mr.  Howard  Hinton       .  .     1842 

On  Christian  Union  .....     1846 

Doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  Two  Editions.    Onevol.  12mo.  1845-7 
Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  .  .     1848 

Various  widely-circulated  religious  tracts  are  not  included  in  the 
above  list,  such  as,  "  The  Great  Salvation,"  "  Salvation  to  the 
Guilty,"  "  On  the  Atonement,"  "  Address  from  a  Stranger."  Mr. 
J.  A.  Haldane  also  conducted  the  "  Scripture  Magazine"  from 
1809-13,  and  the  "  Christian  Quarterly  Magazine"  from  1832-7, 
in  both  of  which  are  many  valuable  contributions  from  his  pen» 
and  particularly,  many  important  Notes  on  difficult  passages.